Ange Postecoglou Richarlison admission could open the door for Alejo Veliz at Tottenham
Alejo Veliz could finally be set for his first real run in the Tottenham team since his arrival in north London.
Spurs paid £13million to bring Veliz to the club from Rosario Central in the summer (BBC Sport, 8 August), which represents a hefty fee for a player who was just 19 at the time of his arrival.
However, despite the money paid for him, the now-20-year-old has hardly been offered a kick of the ball by Ange Postecoglou, making just seven Premier League appearances from the bench, which represent a combined total of 34 minutes, and scoring one goal (Transfermarkt).
For a player so young, and with no previous experience of European football, it is understandable why the Australian has held back with the striker. However, the 58-year-old’s recent admission suggests that Veliz could potentially be in line for some more game time in January.
Tottenham captain Son Heung-min will be jetting off to represent South Korea at the Asia Cup next month, which leaves a spot open in Postecoglou’s front three.
Richarlison has been leading the line in recent weeks after finally finding his feet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, scoring four goals in his last three league appearances.
However, when asked about the Brazil international’s best position, Postecoglou admitted to Football London (27 December) that the 26-year-old could soon be in line for a positional change.
“We played him out wide, on the left because he was struggling with certain things at the start of the year in terms of his body and it just made sense for us to play him in those wide areas and we had Sonny who could play in the middle and he was going well at the time.
“Now it suits us to have Richy through the middle and Sonny out on the left, but with Sonny going, there is always the opportunity to play Richy out there as well. I mean, that’s where he played the majority of his Everton Premier League career and scored a lot of goals out there. So there’s always that possibility as well.”
If Richarlison were to take Son’s position on the left in January, it would leave the number nine spot wide open, with Veliz the most senior striker available in the squad to take it.
His record in the 2023 Primera Division proves that he certainly knows where the back of the net is. As per fbref, Veliz was in the 94th percentile of his positional peers in the competition last year in terms of goals scored (0.56 per 90), and the top three per cent for the number of shots he had on target (1.36 per 90).
Although he has only just celebrated his 20th birthday, and has played the majority of his Spurs career with the Under-21s so far, starting and scoring in the 3-1 EFL Trophy defeat at Peterborough United on 31 October, Veliz could soon be thrown in at the deep end.
An FA Cup home tie with Premier League strugglers Burnley on 5 January might just be the perfect place for the striker to make his first senior start for the club.
In other Tottenham news, one doctor has claimed that Spurs’ medical team will take extra steps to help one youth player acclimatise to first-team football.