Ex-Spurs Scout reveals how Tottenham can beat Luton, highlights defensive weakness and names Spurs man to watch
Tottenham News is delighted to welcome aboard our brilliant new columnist Bryan King, the former goalkeeper who spent six years as a senior scout at Spurs and 28 years in total in first-team scouting roles. Bryan also spent eight years on Everton’s recruitment team and 11 years scouting at Aston Villa across two different spells.
Tottenham will travel to newly promoted Luton Town in the Premier League on Saturday 7 October where they will have the opportunity to move to the top of the table.
A win at Kenilworth Road will see Spurs move above Manchester City into first, with Pep Guardiola’s side in action on Sunday when they head to the Emirates to take on title rivals Arsenal.
Ex-Spurs scout Bryan King has been speaking to Tottenham News ahead of the game and detailed what Ange Postecoglou’s men will need to do after watching the Hatters’ recent league loss to Burnley.
“Luton played three at the back against Burnley, however, I can’t see them playing three at the back again because Tottenham have players who can get in wide positions and hurt them. I think they will find it difficult to compete with Tottenham, but Kenilworth Road is a tight little ground and some of the Spurs boys won’t have been to a place like this, so a professional attitude will certainly be needed.
“What Spurs will need to do is get at Luton early, and what they can’t do is concede. If they’re not on their game Luton could put them under pressure. Carlton Morris in particular had a couple of chances against Burnley.
“After about five seconds the Burnley goalkeeper was looking to be a bit clever outside his box and Morris closed him down and blocked his kick, so you can’t take chances with these teams because if they do score it is very difficult to chase the game at a place like Luton.
“However, I do believe that Tottenham will win this game. One area where they can hurt Luton is from corners. Burnley created quite a few chances from corners, so Spurs have got to be looking to attack the ball in those situations. Luton’s keeper Thomas Kaminski could certainly be put under pressure from corners because he didn’t look as if he wanted to come for stuff.
“James Maddison could be an important figure here again, he could look to pick the ball up and run from deep. Burnley players were running at the central defender Tom Lockyer and that is where the first goal came from.
“He got caught square and got outrun by Lyle Foster who finished well with his right foot.
“I just think the Luton Town defence looks vulnerable. They didn’t seem too comfortable with the Burnley players running at them so a player of Maddison’s quality will certainly cause them a lot of problems.
“To combat this I would expect them to play with perhaps five across the back or five in midfield because Spurs are going to be a very different proposition from what they’ve been used to. I am quite confident that Spurs, in their present frame of mind, will win this comfortably.”
Ex-Spurs scout prediction: 0-3
In other Tottenham news, one Spurs star has earned a Premier League Player of the Month nomination for September.