‘Senseless’ – Ex-Spurs Scout: Five things I learned from Tottenham win against Newcastle United
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 rediscovered their attacking swagger and returned to winning ways with an impressive 4-1 victory over top-four rivals Newcastle United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 10 December.
Staring down the barrel of a fourth consecutive home defeat and a fifth loss in six, Ange Postecoglou’s side had a lot of questions to answer on Sunday afternoon.
And they answered those questions expertly, winning for the first time since a 2-1 victory against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Friday 27 October.
After a flat display on Thursday 7 December against West Ham, this was the complete opposite, with the scintillating football on display arguably some of the finest of Postecoglou’s reign in north London so far.
Goals from Destiny Udogie, Richarlison and Son Heung-min got Spurs back on track after a tricky few weeks, and ex-Spurs scout Bryan King, who was watching on for Tottenham News, has detailed five things he learned from the win.
A convincing team performance
It was an amazing performance and what a turnaround as well. To see a team with that amount of conviction over 90 minutes after a five or six-week period where they would only play well for 45 minutes, was fantastic. I thought Tottenham were brilliant, especially going forward.
If I was giving out points I wouldn’t have anyone lower than a seven, and there would certainly be a few nines out there. I thought the formation and the setup of the team was good and all three players in midfield were creating which hasn’t been the case over the past couple of games.
I lost count of the amount of shots Spurs had, it was arguably the best performance of the season so far. There have been a lot of good first-halves, but this was a complete display. I enjoyed the game and I enjoyed watching Tottenham play good football. Newcastle are a good side and Spurs made them look ordinary.
Cristian Romero remains a liability
Romero worries me. He is a good footballer and a good defender, but there were a couple of incidents where I thought he was lucky to stay on the pitch. The challenge on Callum Wilson was senseless, he didn’t need to lunge in like that, it was unnecessary to come in as late as he did and the more you look at it, the more it looks like a red card. Tottenham were very fortunate to get away with that.
He also had a late challenge in the first half. Someone needs to have a good chat with him and calm him down because it is never easy playing with ten men as we have found out in the past.
Richarlison can build on this performance
His first chance was on a plate for him, but he stuck it in the back of the net and at the end of the day that is what centre-forwards have got to do. His second goal was a brilliant finish, he caught the goalkeeper trying to adjust which produced the goal.
He is a striker who has scored two goals and he can’t do much more than that, so well done to him, this should give him some confidence going forward and hopefully act as a building block in the run-up to Christmas.
Son Heung-min shone on the wing
Using Son in his usual wide position certainly paid off. I thought it was a smart way to accommodate Richalirson in the team while bringing Son into a position where he has featured throughout most of his career, and I am always a fan of him coming in off the left.
His runs were fantastic and poor old Kieran Trippier just couldn’t live with him. Superb runs and he looked full of life. His assist for Destiny Udogie was fantastic, and the ball for Richarlison was just as good.
He also tucked the penalty away well, and he deserved that goal because he was immense.
Pedro Porro improving with every game
I seem to like Porro more and more every time I see him. He was everywhere, I like his attitude, and his passing, he gets forward and his assist for Richarlison was superb. He is a strong tackler who gets back, and his deliveries of the ball are fantastic.
His overall display was excellent.
In other Tottenham news, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp has labelled one Spurs star who almost cost his team against Newcastle as “spiteful.”