Let off for Spurs, after Gray gives the ball away in their half, they counter and an unmarked Cadi heads straight at Vicario.
5 in 5 for the Welshman as he curls a left-footed shot off the post and in to hopefully wrap up the points.
With a makeshift lineup, Spurs grind out a rare European away win in a hostile atmosphere against a physical opponent, but in the end they lacked the quality to punish us.
Good result considering they're going very well in their league, first or second and on a good run. Let's get something similar on Sunday.
My feed went out just after their goal. Not good! Hey it's an away win in Europe, I'll take it. Good showings from Moore and Lankshear!
The kids are alright. Moore was running right through the defense. Gray was most impressive, especially in the second half when he moved from CB to LB. Looks worth the money. Lankshear also looks like a good prospect. Bergvall didn't really stand out for me either way. More difficult opponent than Qarabag, great atmosphere, terrible weather. Only 3 of our best 11 started. I think the squad is much stronger than last year. Three academy players on the bench? Maybe because Son, Udogie, Dragusin and Richarlison were unavailable. Great experience for them, anyway.
That's my point, when we get injuries and suspensions, we need better quality in our squad to come in. 'Great experience for them' is not going to win us anything.
Kids did really well. If they keep up their progress we'll have some stars for the future. I hope they continue to get chances to play and improve.
Or maybe previous managers shouldn't have mismanaged the squad, forcing us to leave out senior players like Spence and including only 23 players instead of 25 (4 of them goalkeepers). This is showing the importance of the academy turning out good club trained players, as well as signing young players who will become club trained in two years. If we had signed Eze, who you love, there still would have been three academy players on the bench because some other senior player would have been left out of the Europa league squad. Credit the manager for making the best of the bad situation he inherited.
It's not just about signing a player like Eze. We were short at CB and LB and did not address those issues in the summer. So we played a has-been and an 18-year-old kid in those positions in a European away game against a tricky opponent. Why is a club with our resources not addressing these issues in the squad?
First, I think we can all agree that Spurs need another CB and another LB. But Ange has made it clear that he won't sign somebody just to fill out the squad, they have to be the type of player that he wants. So the scouts do their analytics (I wonder what they are looking at?) then go watch players in person. They present Ange with a list of potential targets. So for any given player: Is he the type of player Ange wants? This includes personality as well as technical ability. Is his current club willing to sell (and at a reasonable price)? Does the player want to join Spurs? That's a tough one. Because Spurs were 5th place in the world's best league, so anyone good enough to come in and make an immediate impact is going to have other offers, including big name clubs that pay a lot and win a lot of trophies. It takes some salesmanship to get players to commit to Spurs. That's generalities. As for the specifics of getting a center back, you have another problem - playing time. Because, while we are thin there, we have three really good ones. Who is going to come in and say, sure I'm happy to be 4th choice CB? Alternatively, who is going to look at Romero, Van de Ven and Dragusin and say, yeah, I'm better than all of them? That type of player is going to be expensive and have plenty of other options. Meanwhile, we have Vuskovic coming next year, who sounds like a real stud. We also have Ashley Phillips out on loan in the Championship, and Alfie Dorrington supposedly is a good prospect in the academy. So my guess is we are trying to get by with Davies this year until reinforcements arrive, unless the right player becomes available. Risky, but is it really better to give a 4 year contract to whatever warm body they can find? As far as left back is concerned, I think we just couldn't find anyone. That should be a priority in January. Spence has been okay, but I think we would be in trouble if Udogie was out for any length of time. Speaking of which, I think we would also be in trouble if Vicario went down, so GK is another area that needs to be addressed ASAP. So it's still a work in progress. But I am optimistic because, while there may be a couple duds, Ange has brought in some real gems: Vicario, Van de Ven, Dragusin, Maddison, Gray, Johnson, Solanke. He does seem to know what he's doing.