Tottenham Hotspur picked up another pre-season victory on Wednesday afternoon, beating Team K League 4-3 in South Korea.
Ange Postecoglou will be pretty happy with Tottenham Hotspur’s pre-season so far.
Heart of Midlothian, Queens Park Rangers and Vissel Kobe have all been beaten in recent weeks and another win can be added to the record.
Tottenham faced Team K League on Wednesday; a selection of some of the best players in South Korea’s top flight.
In fact, new Tottenham signing Yang Min-hyuk was even involved having impressed with Gangwon FC.
Tottenham ran out 4-3 winners with Dejan Kulusevski opening the scoring before South Korean icon Son Heung-min added a brace.
Will Lankshear ended up scoring what proved to be the winner as Tottenham leaked three goals in Seoul.
Ange Postecoglou hails Tottenham Hotspur midfielder
It’s only pre-season, so conceding three goals in this game is unlikely to leave Postecoglou too concerned.
Tottenham will need to be a little more secure when the Premier League season starts though, something the young Spurs players must take on board.
Spurs went with a very youthful midfield against Team K League as Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Pape Matar Sarr all featured.
Bergvall is just starting his Tottenham career after the teenager snubbed Barcelona whilst Gray only recently signed from Leeds United.
Sarr was the relative old head of that engine room aged 21, compared to 18-year-old duo Bergvall and Gray.
The Senegalese ace at least has Premier League football under his belt, something Bergvall and Gray can’t yet say.
Sarr started last season brilliantly and will now be looking to really kick on and make himself almost undroppable for Postecoglou.
The Australian was certainly impressed with Sarr against Team K League.
Speaking to Football London, Postecoglou admitted that Sarr’s running in midfielder was simply ‘unbelievable’.
Postecoglou added that Sarr is the ‘benchmark’ for Tottenham in the engine room, showing his midfield teammates how it’s done in terms of covering ground.
“I thought Pape’s running is just unbelievable. He’s a benchmark for us in that midfield area,” said Postecoglou.
Sarr ready to take the next step
It’s easy forget that Tottenham actually signed Sarr three years ago.
Spurs paid £14.5million, according to Sky Sports, to sign Sarr from Metz but loaned him straight back to the Ligue 1 side.
By the time Sarr actually started his Tottenham career, Antonio Conte was in charge – and he didn’t give Sarr too many chances despite branding him a ‘top player’.
That’s why last season felt like Sarr’s first real campaign as a Tottenham player as he featured prominently under Postecoglou.
27 Premier League starts, three goals, three assists – Sarr showed encouraging signs as a box-to-box midfield player.
The time has now come for Sarr to take the next step in his development and really lock down a starting role whilst continuing to impress Postecoglou.
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