A preseason friendly doubleheader? In this economy? Tottenham Hotspur played the first of two preseason matches today, the first a closed door friendly and a late addition to the schedule against League One side Wycombe Wanderers. Pape Sarr had a brace in this one to cancel out two goals from Wycombe winger Junior Quitina in a match that ended up a 2-2 draw. Tottenham’s starting XI, listed below, got between 60-75 minutes of action before Frank shuttled on the U21s.
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Friendlies are about fitness not about results, but there are a few things we can glean from a training ground friendly with no fans in attendance. Here are a few reactions from the early match.
Match reactions
- I think we got a pretty good sense of how Frank’s going to set up his team from this match. in this one Spurs attacked in a 4-3-3 shape, with Pedro Porro pushing into attack and Ben Davies tucking in alongside Luka Vuskovic and Cuti Romero. Spurs didn’t do a ton of defending in the first half but when they did it was in a back four, with Porro and Davies playing as more traditional wide fullbacks.
- Tottenham pressed Wycombe again under Frank, but not as aggressively as we came to see under Postecoglou. As a consequence, the defense didn’t look nearly as exposed as it did at times last season. There’s also opposition effects — this is a League One opponent and a friendly — but it was notable.
- The biggest issues I noticed aren’t exactly unfamiliar. With this lineup Spurs are still lacking a creative passing midfielder; Spurs’ two best passers of the ball were in defense (Romero) and attack (Odobert/Son). Gotta hope that’s something still on the mind of Johan Lange in the transfer window.
- Related, I don’t know if George Abbott is any good or not but he looked decently tidy out there as a late replacement in the lineup for Rodrigo Bentancur, who was out ill. Abbott had 33 matches and 4 goals on loan at League 2 Notts County last season; he’s probably earned another loan and a step up in competition.
- Odobert looked really really bright in the first half on the right, not his preferred side. Had several good crosses, some cuts central into space, and a couple of good looks on goal including what turned out to be Sarr’s first goal.
- Brandon Austin is living a charmed life. I’m convinced he’s not a very good keeper but he is indispensable due to him being the only club-trained player at Spurs right now, so he’ll be on lots of Champions League benches. Anyway, Quitirna’s first goal was a real howler by Austin; it bobbled a bit at his feet but he 100% should’ve saved that.
- Richarlison looked fairly decent in his first action of preseason. He held the ball up well, had some good passing moments. I wanted to see more on the offensive end from him — he scuffed one shot and missed a half-chance in the air. Nice that there was an ambulance pitch-side for this one in the event his hamstring exploded again.
- Luka Vuskovic continues to be Very Large™. He was not as impactful in this match, but Wycombe barely mustered any attack despite scoring two goals. Vuskovich “Pavlyuchenko’d” a shot late in the first half that might have ended up on the M25.
- Cuti Romero did a Cuti thing in the second half and threw an elbow on a Wycombe attacker who was grappling with him for the ball. Would’ve been an easy yellow card in a competitive match, and Romero needs to be careful in those kinds of situations.
- Pedro Porro caught a stray limb to the head that flattened him and made him bleed his own blood. Dude looked extremely pissed off from that moment until his eventual substitution at 75’. Anyway, he was good today overall.
- As promised, Frank made a raft of changes in the second half. Tynan Thompson and Oliver Iroh came on at about 60’ and then a raft of changes at 75’, too many to mention but Spurs were basically a U21 side after that. 17-year-old Thompson was actually a pretty bright spark in his sub appearance — went close on a shot late and looked to be tidy on the ball as a sub for Odobert.
- Not much time to make an impact, but I didn’t see anything especially noteworthy otherwise from the kids.
- The team is now on a bus and heading to Luton for the second friendly of today’s double-header. See y’all back on SpursPLAY for Game 2!
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