Tottenham Hotspur striker Dominic Solanke drew the start over Egyptian international Omar Marmoush on Saturday against Manchester United, and while he started the game very poorly with a couple of clear missed chances, including a pretty much open net, he stayed on the pitch and was the one to reward Roberto De Zerbi's faith with an equalizing header in the 92nd minute to help Spurs rescue a point 1-1 vs. Man United at Old Trafford.
Solanke wore the captain's armband in another big show of support from De Zerbi, who is backing Solanke one thousand percent as his man up top, perhaps subtly as another way of trying to prove himself right for snubbing Richarlison out of the squad entirely.
Despite scoring the key goal, Solanke, in truth, was poor, and there is a strong case to be made that for the third time this season out of all three starts, the 29 year old was the worst overall player on the pitch for Tottenham Hotspur.
Dominic Solanke has to get better from here
After the game, Dominic Solanke appropriately struck a positive tone for what he can take forward with him after scoring an important goal to rescue a point for Spurs, but he was also blunt and honest about his failings during the game, paticularly the missed chances in the first half.
Big Dom told the Sky Sports reporters after the game, via Chris Cowlin, "In the first half we dominated. We weren't clinical enough – a story of the season. We could have been a few goals ahead. We’ll take a point. The character shown was magnificent. A few times we haven’t reacted in the right way when going a goal down but today we showed fight and grit. I should have had a hat-trick. I wasn’t clinical enough. I know that. But I kept going. I was getting in the right positions to put one away. It’s my first time being captain for a great club. To score as well. It’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my career. It's something to build on. We haven't been good enough this. Hopefully this is the start of something good."
In orer to get better, a player needs to admit what they need to improve on and where they went wrong, and it was refreshing to hear this from Solanke after the result against Manchester United, because there are a lot of prima donna attacking players in the Premier League who would not be this honest about not being clinical enough.
The key thing is that Solanke isn't getting down on himself, he is still doing the right things to get in position, and he got his goal. And Solanke will need to continue to be in those positions in order for the goals to come, because, to be honest, he really hadn't been doing a good job of of that before the Manchester United game either.
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