Tottenham: 3 takeaways from final preseason game vs. Watford
By Aaron Coe
Who featured for Spurs?
While Spurs were short overall, there were still plenty of first-team names in the starting line-up. In fact, the front four were only missing one member, Harry Kane, which makes this is a vastly different side.
For all Heung-Min Son can do as an attacker, he is not really the kind of player who checks into the ball to play hold-up football leading the line. Son can be played in behind, run the channels, and definitely score goals, but he is not your classic target striker and that was clear on this day as Tottenham relied heavily on longer balls and working the channels and flanks.
As has been the case since Fernando Llorente left, Kane is the only true striker in the club and if nothing else was apparent from this match, that should be, again. Without Kane, Lucas Moura, Dele Alli, Erik Lamela, and Son played some nifty passes, had some spots of dribble, but seemed to lack that outlet they could all play around, aka Kane.
Outside of the attack, we saw Tanguy Ndombele and Davinson Sanchez both for the first time this year and while both had a few moments, they clearly showed some rust. Sanchez was on the left side of the center-half pair with Cameron Carter-Vickers and continued to show he is not a left-sided center-half.
Sanchez can do a job on the right, but he just is not as comfortable on the left, which is why we will continue to see a healthy does of Eric Dier or even Ben Davies until a left-sided center-half is brought in.
Ndombele had a few nice passes which really catch the eye, however, whether it is his physical shape or his actual work rate, he struggled getting up and down the pitch.
The rest of the starting XI was a mix of experience and youth as Serge Aurier and Joe Hart started along with Dennis Cirkin and Harvey White. Arguably the two academy products had better matches, although Cirkin did give up a penalty, which maybe VAR would have marked outside the box, but still a mark on an otherwise solid performance.
White on the other hand, may have been Spurs’ best performer on the day putting in an impressive 70-plus minutes.
So, the team was Hart, Aurier, Carter-Vickers, Sanchez, Cirkin, White, Ndombele, Moura, Alli, Lamela, and Son (C).