Tottenham Hotspur endured a frustrating start to the season as Ange Postecoglou’s side drew 1-1 away at Leicester City on Monday night.
Ange Postecoglou was hoping to make a roaring start to the new season as Tottenham Hotspur headed to the King Power Stadium.
Tottenham were exceptional in the first half and created chance after chance but only found the one goal with Pedro Porro heading home.
Spurs just couldn’t find the second goal and were made to pay as Jamie Vardy headed Leicester level.
Tottenham completely lost control of the game in the second half and could have even lost it as Guglielmo Vicario made a big save from Vardy.
Postecoglou’s men should never have been in a position to lose control of this game and the Australian should be hugely disappointed.
Gary Neville on Dominic Solanke debut
Tottenham had so many chances to either take the lead earlier or extend their lead further.
New signing Dominic Solanke had a couple of efforts but just couldn’t find the net in his first appearance for the club.
Tottenham have paid big money to sign Solanke from Bournemouth, believing that he can make the telling impact in the final third.
Solanke trouble Mads Hermansen on a number of occasions but it just wouldn’t go in for him.
Solanke’s pressing and energy in the final third was a major boost for Tottenham and he will hope to find the net soon enough.
Pundit Gary Neville has now told Sky Sports (19/08, 10:30pm) that he thinks Solanke’s performance was ‘really good’ – apart from not being able to score.
Neville noted that this move is a test for Solanke as the expectation levels rise and he knows people will be talking about Solanke failing to find the net after Monday’s draw.
The former Manchester United star urged Solanke not to beat himself up after his debut display and predicted that he will get plenty of goals for Tottenham if he keeps up this level of performance.
“I think he will feel like everything went as well as it possibly could have, apart from the most important thing,” said Neville. “I hope that the goal, I hope he doesn’t take it to heart. My view on Solanke is that this is a test for him, because there will be people, there will be rumours, there will be rumours… ‘he should have took his chance, he should have took his moments’. He had big chances in the game but I think his overall performance was good, but he will be judged upon moments like this when he’s had two or three decent chances.”
“He needs to make sure he doesn’t beat himself up too much in the next few days. I suspect that there will be people who say ‘he’s not scored, he could have had three, probably should have had one or two’. I would like to think that he looks on the positives and the fact that he had a really good game apart from the most important thing. He will get goals if carries on doing that, because I thought his overall performance was pretty good,” he added.
Tottenham’s striking nightmares
Tottenham struck gold with Harry Kane, meaning they didn’t really need to find a star striker for some time.
Yet even the strikers Spurs brought in to support Kane struggled to really get going.
Vincent Janssen was a real flop after his move from AZ Alkmaar and Fernando Llorente was not the long-term answer.
Carlos Vinicius managed just one goal in nine Premier League games or Tottenham and Richarlison has yet to really live up to his price tag.
There are now major expectations on Solanke to hit the ground running, especially after playing so well for Bournemouth last season.
Solanke has the backing of Kane too and will hope to get that first goal quickly.
The talent is there but Tottenham fans need to be patient with him – and appreciate the other aspects to Solanke’s game in the process.
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