Friends, sometimes real life and Actual Day Jobs™ get in the way of watching football and that’s what happened to the Carty Free staff today. I know Tottenham Hotspur played today, I know they scored five goals, I know Savio scored on his Spurs debut and a second in the net that was called a Charlton own goal. But I was summoned to a meeting at work 15 minutes after kick-off (it’s higher ed, students come back this weekend, not something I could refuse), and while I half-watched it (meaning — glanced
at the screen every five minutes or so) I’ll need to see a replay before I can give you any detailed analysis of what happened.
Spurs cruised into the third round of the League Cup and allayed, at least for now, Spurs fans’ worries about whether this new team can put the ball in the ol’ onion bag. Spurs put five past the Addicks — goals from Mikey Moore, Dominic Solanke, Kevin Danso, and debutante Savio, and had another Savio strike that was eventually credited as a Charlton own goal. Charlton pulled a late consolation goal via a nifty header from Lloyd Jones, but this was all Spurs.
Here are some extremely vague and hand-wavey reactions to the bits I saw.
Dustin’s Vague Match Reactions
- From the little I saw, it looked like it took Spurs a while to get settled into the flow of the match. That’s not particularly surprising, considering how many first team players are still out and the raw number of moving parts, but it was noticeable in the first half.
- The first half midfield looked like it was still an issue. Mateus Fernandes had some nifty passes and seemed to pair better with Rodrigo Bentancur, but it still looks like a midfield that hasn’t figured out what the individual roles are. I assume that comes with time.
- Lucas Bergvall again was something of a mess in the little I watched. I’d love to hear others’ opinions, but at the moment I’m starting to wonder if we would’ve been better off taking the £50m from Nottingham Forest.
- Mikey Moore looks like he could be a real player, but while he’s bulked up and obviously learned a lot by getting kicked a bunch in Scotland last season, I think he’d do well on loan. He needs repetitions and match minutes, and his game is something I think would really appeal to a mid-table German club like Köln. I expect he goes on loan before the end of the window. Nice goal, though. I can see him turning into a cromulent back-post crasher.
- I did not see Savio’s goal or his “goal.” I’m told that he looked good and had a plan on what to do when he had the ball, but he also tired easily. Probably he’s just glad to get out of Pep’s dungeon and into the fresh air and daylight. Get him on the treadmill, stat.
- Charlton apparently made 10 changes to the team that beat West Ham last weekend, and many of them were intended to be put in the shop window. They were pretty bad from what I saw, so there are some Bad Team Effects in play here but that was a much more encouraging display from Spurs than vs. Brentford. But this Addicks team was nowhere near Brentford in terms of talent or ability. Spurs will face a much stiffer test against Newcastle this weekend.
- I hope Sandro Tonali was just rested.
Put your comments and reflections on the match in the comments! Since I really didn’t see a lot of it, I’ll likely agree with everything you say!
