John Wenham feeling more ‘confident’ about the Tottenham defence thanks to new arrivals
Tottenham News is delighted to welcome John Wenham of Lilywhite Rose as our exclusive columnist. Each week, he’ll be giving his expert insight on the biggest talking points at Spurs…
Tottenham were in desperate need of defensive changes, especially given the “rapid” decline of a club legend, according to John Wenham.
Following a season where they conceded 63 goals in the Premier League, the sixth most in the division, it would have been hard for any supporter to finish the campaign feeling positive about the club’s defensive options.
However, the arrivals of Destiny Udogie from his season-long loan in Italy, after he was signed last summer, and Micky van de Ven, who swapped life in Germany for England, have offered some fresh options to the backline.
And Wenham has praised those new additions for helping him to feel good once again about Spurs’ options at the back.
Speaking exclusively to Tottenham News, Wenham said: “I certainly feel more confident in our defence than last season. There was a viral clip showing the 63 league goals we conceded last time out and so many of them were poor individual errors.
“One of the main culprits was Hugo Lloris, one of my favourite players of all time, someone who has been a phenomenal signing for Tottenham, a great player over the years, but the decline has been so quick and so rapid.
“Last year he basically cost us 10 or 12 goals, in particular, the goal against Arsenal where Bukayo Saka crossed it in and if Lloris hadn’t been there, it wouldn’t have gone in because it just hit him in the middle of the chest and deflected into the net, which just killed us.
“Therefore, I do feel way more confident already with the backline that we’ve got, the partnership of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven, which will only get better the more they play together.
“It was impressive against Brentford, Van de Ven was thrown straight in, having only had two or three training sessions, and I am looking to him to be a standout player for Tottenham this season.
“With Destiny Udogie, I have already seen enough to think that he will be a PFA Young Player of the Year nominee. You never know that with the transition, it could have been that he needed time to adapt to the culture of England and all that sort of stuff.
“It was a risk, as is any signing, but in his first two Premier League starts, he has been there battling hard and has been fantastic throughout.”
In other Tottenham news, the Under-21s maintained their brilliant start to the Premier League Two season on Friday night.