Chadder View: Pape Matar Sarr proves he is one of the most important players at Tottenham
Matthew Chadder is a lifelong Tottenham fan who grew up just down the road from his beloved club in North London. He’s now putting his passion for Spurs into words with a daily fan view for Tottenham News…
As I headed home from the Tottenham win over Newcastle, writing up some notes on my laptop, a fellow fan asked me to write about Pape Matar Sarr as he got off the bus.
This got me thinking, I don’t often see many media outlets writing about Sarr, or just how important he is to this Tottenham team and Ange Postecolgou.
James Maddison, Son Heung-min, Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Pedro Porro – these are all examples of Spurs players who have received far more media coverage than Sarr this season, but I don’t think I am wrong to suggest that he is just as important to us as everyone else that I have mentioned above.
While that might seem like quite a bold statement, his performance in the win over Newcastle suggests that it is not quite as outlandish as some might assume when they first read what I am saying. However, not only was his performance in the Newcastle match impressive, but what it represented was as well.
Everyone knows about the injury crisis we currently find ourselves in, with Maddison and van de Ven of course being the obvious blows, but when I read that Sarr was injured a couple of weeks ago, I was just as concerned.
Since the loss against Chelsea, Sarr has been unavailable to start in the defeats against Aston Villa and West Ham as well as the draw against Manchester City – as soon as he did return to the fold, against Newcastle, we won.
Of course, that is not all down to him, but it is certainly an interesting coincidence. The midfielder is not a player who will grab headlines with mouth-watering stats, but what he does for the balance of the team and his infectious nature both on and off the ball makes him an incredibly important cog in Postecoglou’s well-oiled machine.
It is clear that Spurs were missing something against Villa and West Ham, I am just not quite sure fans realise that what we were missing was Sarr.
Ever since the 21-year-old’s performance in the San Siro against AC Milan in the UEFA Champions League last season, Sarr has been one of my favourite Spurs players and someone who I believe is destined for big things in the game.
If I didn’t know how old he was, I would think he was 26 or 27 just by watching him play. He is physically dominant in midfield, constantly overpowers his opponents, and rarely makes the wrong decision on the ball, showing a level of composure well beyond his years and very rarely leaving me with a heart-in-my-mouth moment.
In my opinion, his importance to the team cannot be overstated, and the reason I am writing so passionately about it is because no one else will.
Perhaps in some ways that is a good thing, the less attention he receives the less pressure is on his shoulders and he can continue to go about his business quietly yet effectively.
However, he does deserve to have his praises sung, even if it is only briefly.
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