Tottenham Player Ratings from Victory over Fulham

Tottenham Hotspur pulled out victory at the death, avoided their first draw, and maintained their hold on third place in the Premier League. So how did everyone play for Spurs in the win?

Given the rash of injuries and the international duty for Heung-Min Son; Spurs knew a make-shift line-up was going to have to do. What wasn’t known was that Tottenham Hotspur would come within 10 seconds of suffering their first tie of the season in League. Instead, little-used second-half substitute Georges-Kevin N’Koudou played a curling cross from the left that Harry Winks buried with his head, sending Spurs to victory over Fulham FC.

While the N’Koudou to Winks play saved the day and stole the three points for Spurs, how did everyone perform and what kind of ratings did the players earn in the victory over Fulham?

Tottenham Defensive Player Ratings

Pochettino elected to go with a three-man defensive back-line, allowing Spurs to push their wings further up the pitch. The set-up put the most pressure on Davison Sanchez as he battled one-on-one with Alexander Mitrovic most of the game. However, the line-up worked and beyond the Llorente own goal, the defense held the line. So how did they perform?

Hugo Lloris – 8.5

Hugo Lloris had a big game in goal for Spurs. Yes, he gave up the first half own-goal, but that was it. Lloris made 4 saves overall. Two of the saves were excellent. Early in the first half Babel was in behind Sanchez after a ball snuck by both of them. Lloris used a strong left hand to stop what should have been a Fulham goal. Later he denied Andrew Schurrle from just outside the six. Hugo did have one bad punt that gave the ball directly back to Fulham. Outside of that one poor kick, Lloris did his job well and kept Spurs in the game in the first half.

Jan Vertonghen – 8

Outside of Harry Winks, no Spur had the ball more at their feet against Fulham than did Jan Vertonghen, attempting 101 passes and completing 93 of them. Many of these passes were outlets to Danny Rose, as Jan played the ball to Rose an incredible 32 times during the match. Beyond the array of passing from Vertonghen, he played solid defense cutting out multiple crosses. Unlike his center-half compatriots Vertonghen was the one defender who was free most of the game, and the space payed off as Jan was a big part of the advancing ball for Spurs.

Davison Sanchez – 8.5

Sanchez was a mainstay in the middle of the Tottenham defense yesterday and had his hands full for most of the match with Aleksandar Mitrovic. The six-foot-two Serbian was a handful, but Sanchez was up to the task. The pair had a heck of a battle from beginning to end. Sanchez stayed tight to Mitrovic for much of the game, regardless of where the Serb went on the field.

In the first half Sanchez dominated in the air, but did allow a ball to get past him letting Babel in. The second half was more of the one-on-one battle with Mitrovic. Sanchez clearly frustrated Mitrovic, who at one point used a wrestling move on Sanchez, slamming his face into the turf with a DDT.

Unfortunately for Sanchez, Craig Pawson was in ‘control’ of the match, and he received a yellow card for suffering a wrestling move and then getting up an turning his back to Mitrovic. Mitrovic probably should have received a Red for the move and Sanchez shouldn’t have been booked. Alas, it was what it was and they both saw yellow and the battle continued.

Toby Alderweireld – 7.5

While Vertonghen was the distributor and Sanchez carried on the battle with Mitrovic, Alderweireld held the right side of the pitch down and spent much of the afternoon advancing the ball to Kieran Trippier up the flank. We did not see as many of Toby’s cross field switches as frankly Fulham didn’t give Alderweireld the time on the ball necessary for the big switch. A quiet day overall but given the only Fulham goal was an own-goal, clearly the entire defense did its job.