There is no doubt amongst the Spurs fanbase that Dominic Solanke has had a good start to life in N17. Whilst his scoring record hasn’t been prolific, it hasn’t been terrible either, and he brings so much more to the team than goals.
His link-up play, pressing, hold up play, and movement have all been top notch. His pass to set Timo Werner in behind against Manchester City shows how much he has in his locker.
However, there has been a concerning recent trend when it comes to the striker – and it is not really through any fault of his own.
In his last six games, Solanke has not had a single shot on target. His chance at the end of the game against Manchester United, that was well saved by Andre Onana – was his last attempt on target. Whilst a couple of those subsequent appearances have been off the bench, he has still totalled 386 minutes in those games, which is over four games worth of minutes.
During this period, he has not missed an opta defined big chance. Solanke’s movement is too good for this to be an issue with the runs he makes, and suggests it has been a problem with chance creation.
However, one caveat to that, is that the striker did look absolutely shattered towards the end of the game against City, so fatigue could be beginning to play a bit of a part. Still, in the most part, it does feel like a creativity issue.
In seven Premier League games this season, Solanke has accumulated 3.61 expected goals. Yet, in his last three league outings, he has only accumulated 0.13 expected goals, whilst it is one game fewer – this is an absolutely huge drop off. It proves that he hasn’t had even half chances that he has just failed to get on target – which sustainability wise would be more promising.
The striker played the full 90 minutes in the defeat at Brighton, yet did not register a single shot. He played 81 minutes against West Ham, and only had one effort. Against Crystal Palace, he also played 90 minutes – and had just one shot.
Whilst the general play that Solanke offers to the team is seriously impressive, and in the defeat at Brighton, his assist for Brennan Johnson was superb – this is still a concern nonetheless. His game may be more than just goals, but it shouldn’t be more than having shots on target.
The game against Aston Villa will be a very open one – there really shouldn’t be any excuse for him to not have the chances presented to him to have a shot on target.