Tottenham Hotspur have completed their pre-season programme and it won’t be long now until they’re back in competitive action.
Spurs hit the ground running in pre-season, winning their first five games of the summer as Ange Postecoglou looked to fine-tune his squad.
It wasn’t the easiest of pre-seasons for Tottenham, who were without the likes of Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven for most of it due to the Copa America and Euro 2024.
Nevertheless, this was the case for most of the Premier League’s top teams, and Spurs nonetheless emerged from pre-season having learned a lot.
Here are four conclusions that can be drawn from Tottenham’s pre-season.
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Tottenham have some brilliant youngsters coming through
With so many senior players unavailable in the early stages of pre-season, Postecoglou was able to take a closer look at some of the academy stars.
Now, with pre-season complete, Tottenham fans have high hopes for a number of youngsters who have made a real name for themselves over the past month.
Mikey Moore, Will Lankshear and Jamie Donley have all impressed over the course of pre-season and will be optimistic of making the next step in 2024/25.
This could mean a role in the first-team or potentially a loan move to an EFL side, but it’s unlikely that they’ll still be playing for the Under-21s this term.
Likewise, Tottenham have struck gold when it comes to signing young players over the years. Just look at the likes of Pape Matar Sarr and Destiny Udogie.
This season, Spurs have signed Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall, both of whom look first-team ready and could go on to impress.
Speaking of Bergvall…
Lucas Bergvall could be the solution at No. 10
After Tottenham sold Christian Eriksen, they were without a creative solution at No. 10 for quite a while.
James Maddison joined last season to much fanfare and did well early on in the campaign, but he ended the season out of form.
Sadly, Maddison hasn’t done particularly well in pre-season either, but Lucas Bergvall has been superb, not looking out of place against Bayern Munich.
Although Postecoglou is unlikely to throw him in at the deep end just yet, it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out in the coming weeks.
If Maddison continues to struggle, then there’s a good chance Bergvall could leapfrog him in the pecking order and perhaps become the new solution at No. 10.
Djed Spence may have saved his Tottenham career
Spence only joined Spurs two years ago, but he has already taken in three loan spells while on the Lilywhites’ books.
In addition, he has only made six competitive appearances for Tottenham, and for a while, it looked as though that could be his final tally at N17.
However, Spence has turned a corner in pre-season, both on the pitch and in training, and is said to have impressed coaches with his attitude.
“I suppose you could call it a somewhat surprising pre-season where he’s really impressed,” journalist Mike McGrath recently said of Spence on the Last Word On Spurs.
“I think some people were reporting that he had moved to, or was certainly on the brink of a move to a foreign club.
“He’s been playing, from what I’ve been told, his attitude has been spot on, and he’s actually now an option for Spurs.”
Tottenham need to improve at the back
Despite numerous positives, the truth is Tottenham still have a soft underbelly, which was exposed far too many times in pre-season.
Spurs conceded twice to Vissel Kobe and three times to the K-League XI, before losing both games against Bayern.
Indeed, in the latter match at N17, two of Bayern’s goals came from set-pieces, Spurs often leaving the man at the back post totally unmarked.
Back in May, on the subject of set-pieces, Postecoglou said he “didn’t see them as an issue” and how there were “far more important things” that needed to be concentrated on.
Hopefully Postecoglou has changed his tune now, because things haven’t got better on that front.
It doesn’t matter how good Tottenham are going forward; if they are constantly conceding from free kicks and corners, points will be lost.
Spurs are back in action on Monday 19 August when they head to newly-promoted Leicester City at the King Power Stadium in an 8pm kick-off.
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