Losers of three straight, Tottenham Hotspur followed up their historically poor showing in the North London Derby last weekend with another listless performance against their local rivals, falling 2-1 to Fulham. Thomas Frank's early tenure as Tottenham boss is already at a crisis point, as fans are turning on the horrid product they are force to consume every time the Lilywhites stain the field.
There are, however, a few players distinguishing as bright spots who deserve to don the prestigious white kit and who are showing much more fight amidst adversity than the rest of their colleagues. One of those players is Randal Kolo Muani, who isn't even a permanent member of the Tottenham roster.
On loan from PSG after a fine few months at Juventus, Tottenham and Fabio Paratici swooped in at the last second on transfer deadline day to bag the French veteran striker. And boy are they glad they did, because Kolo Muani makes Richarlison look like a cardboard caricature of a striker by comparison whlie Spurs are still missing Europa League hero Dominic Solanke.
Randal Kolo Muani is the answer
Not only did Kolo Muani cement himself as the answer at striker with all three goal contributions in a 5-3 loss to PSG at mid week in the Champions League, but he also played well against Fulham on Saturday night in the return to the Premier League when just about everyone else on the team hopelessly stunk.
Kolo Muani had his usual nifty touches and smart passes on the ball, and he was the only player looking to actually get shots off and do some incisive damage to the defense. More importantly, he was the one guy showing real fight out there and using his brains and brawn to try to turn the tide of the game.
It's so important for Tottenham to find and value players who are willing to put in the work and show some grit for the badge. They have a lot of players like Pedro Porro and Guglielmo Vicario who are passing the buck and blaming teammates while showing no real effort, and then they have players like Rodrigo Bentancur who look like straight up cowards out there.
Kolo Muani has the confidence, competence, and heart of someone Tottenham should be thinking about keeping around. Cost will likely preclude that, but for at least one season, Spurs can benefit from Kolo Muani being a true player they can count on to give 100 percent. That matters.