Tottenham Training Unveils Shocking Absences and Stellar Returns: Five Jaw-Dropping Revelations, Including the Highly Anticipated Manor Solomon’s Comeback Date! [Full story link in comment]
Tottenham Hotspur are looking to get back on track with a fortnight of work ahead of their next Premier League match against Crystal Palace.
Although Spurs have only lost two of their past 10 Premier League matches, the home defeat to Wolves was a disappointing one with the team losing its cutting edge in front of goal. With the match at Chelsea postponed due to Mauricio Pochettino’s side’s involvement in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool on Sunday, Ange Postecoglou has a two-week period to work with his players ahead of the visit of Palace and their new manager Oliver Glasner.
Here are five things we noticed from the training sessions at Hotspur Way this week.
Missing players
The obvious absentees from the training images and videos from sessions in recent days have been those out with injuries. Fraser Forster is out for a while with a fractured foot while Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro both missed the match against Wolves.
Postecoglou appeared to be hopeful that Udogie would be back in time for the game against Palace next Saturday if he could get some training time under his belt.
There is also a long-term absentee in Manor Solomon, who had to have a further minor procedure after some discomfort following his knee surgery last year. football.london understands that the Israel international is set to return to training in the coming days and if he makes it through the coming week without any further setbacks, the winger, who James Maddison called the most skilful at the club this week, could be available as an option for the bench against Palace if Postecoglou feels he’s ready.
Sarr the target
If there’s one player who constantly seems to be the one who get teased by the Spurs squad it’s Pape Matar Sarr. The young Senegal international is often getting grabbed, pulled or teased by his Tottenham team-mates, who call him ‘Star Boy’.
This week has been no different and in the video put out by the club from training, Micky van de Ven could be seen affectionately slapping Sarr on the back of the head and neck constantly, in the area where the players put their boots on before emerging on to the training pitches.
The midfielder, who was having a conversation with someone else, eventually turned and grabbed the big Dutchman’s hand with a big smile on his face.
Academy stars
Jamie Donley is now a firm fixture in first team training sessions having played three times in the Premier League this season and in the FA Cup.
The 19-year-old was joined in training this week by fellow academy products George Abbott and Max McKnight, as well as young goalkeeper Luca Gunter.
They were fittingly shown sat next to Oliver Skipp in the boot-up area, the midfielder the shining example of how to make the big step up from the north London club’s academy to become a Premier League player.
Flying Brennan
Many of Postecoglou’s attacking drills involve players getting down the flanks before a low cross into the centre for a team-mate to smash home first time.
There was a slight departure from that with one moment in training as Rodrigo Bentancur hit a pass out wide where Donley tapped it into the path of captain Son Heung-min. The South Korean star looked up to see Brennan Johnson racing in and delivered a perfect cross for the Wales international to leap towards.
The 22-year-old connected with a fine volley sending it into the net via the inside of the right-hand post with goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario left in no-man’s land.
Soon after, youngster McKnight sent a sliding effort past Alfie Whiteman and into the roof of the net from a low Timo Werner cross.
Bentancur top bins
It’s not all about close range goals though as Bentancur showed his quality from further out during one of the sessions.
The Uruguayan showed his trademark composure to shift the ball on to his left foot and curled a beautiful shot from just inside the area into the top left corner of the net with Whiteman beaten despite throwing himself at full stretch towards it.
“I feel really good in myself,” Bentancur said in an interview in the club’s matchday programme for the Wolves match. “For the game at Manchester United, I went into it feeling in great shape, physically. But then we had a fortnight without any game, so really from a match-fitness point of view, I found it a little bit tough to then come back.
“I do believe that I’m gradually getting back to my pre-injury form. I realise I’m still just a little bit off that right now, but I was out of action for over nine, almost 10 months, between the two injuries, and that really is a long time. I have to just be calm, keep working hard and training like l have been and then it won’t be long before I’m back at my usual level once again.”
