Lucas Moura Quietly Great for Tottenham versus Wolfsberger

Gareth Bale drew a lot of the praise midweek with his performance against Wolfsberger in Europa League. With an assist on the opener and having scored what was the winner in the 1-4 victory, Bale deserved his plaudits. However, having watched the Wolfsberger match back again, there was one Tottenham field player who stood out for Spurs, Lucas Moura.

Moura is Mr. Mourinho

Maybe it is the shared language of Portuguese or maybe it is that Brazilian swerve. Most likely, what keeps getting Lucas Moura back in José Mourinho’s squad and on the pitch is his relentless motor and continuous effort on and off the ball.

That effort garners Moura a lot of opportunities within the team. In fact Moura has been named to the Tottenham squad on 38 of Spurs’ 39 matches this season. This is not just a case of Moura in the squad either, because the Brazlian has played on 34 of those 38 opportunities for nearly 1600 minutes according to transfermrkt.com.

When you calculate that out, Moura only averages a little over a half – 47 minutes – per appearance. This low total is because Lucas has been used as a substitute 16 times this season, including a dozen times in the Premier League. Moura has been trusted ever since José has arrived with the Brazilian attacker playing in 68 of José Mourinho’s 74 matches in charge of Spurs according to transfermrkt.com statistics.

This usage, particularly as a substitute, is mostly because José Mourinho knows exactly what he is going to get from Lucas, a lot of running.  Sometimes Lucas Moura’s work rate comes off as the Brazilian just running around. Sometimes, that running turns into incredible magic, no Tottenham fan alive will ever forget Amsterdam. One night like Thursday, what all that running did was produce a man-of-the-match performance.

Lucas Moura delivered on the offensive end

Lucas Moura was excellent for his entire 64-65 minutes, coming off with Gareth Bale, in the double change for Erik Lamela and Steven Bergwijn. Up to that point the most obvious offensive contribution was Moura’s three shots and mazy dribbling solo run for Spurs’ third goal.

It was a tremendous individual effort where Moura left several players behind dribbling from near midfield into the box before his no look finish. What some might also forget was the hockey assist on Spurs first goal. It was Lucas Moura who controlled the rebound off Heung-Min Son’s blocked effort.

Moura then dribbled across the top of the penalty box before getting the ball across to Matt Doherty. Doherty then got the ball to Bale, who used his right foot to cross to Son for the goal. The move was possible because Moura was running behind the play and ready to pounce on the loose ball. Add in a game high six dribbles to the hockey assist and the goal and Moura had himself a night on the offensive end.

Moura was the unsung hero for Tottenham defensively

Lucas Moura did one other thing on Thursday evening that really helped Tottenham defensively. More than any other player Moura was able to get on the ball, particularly in 50/50 situations, and pick up the foul to earn Spurs possession.

No player on either team was fouled more than three times – Son for Spurs and Christopher Wernitznig for Wolves – except for Lucas Moura who was fouled six times. Six times Moura was able to win or maintain possession for Tottenham as he was fouled.

Yes some of the fouls were Moura on the attack, but several of the fouls occurred in the defensive half of the pitch, where Moura’s ability to get between the opposition and the ball served Tottenham well. While picking up six fouls does not get you much in Fantasy Premier League it does in the book of José Mourinho.

The bottom line is that while Lucas Moura will continue to frustrate some fans and maybe never again give us the moment of magic we all collectively shared, but we do know what he will do ever time he walks on the pitch, play his butt off. For it is that consistency of effort that causes him to keep getting the call. On Thursday evening, Spurs fans should be glad he did.