It was pleasing to see Tottenham hammering SPL Champions Celtic by six goals to one in Helsinki on Saturday but in the wake of that game, the Scottish side have been widely criticised for fielding a weakened XI.
“We are very disappointed about the team Celtic brought over,” one of the promoters told the Daily Mail.
“It was disrespectful to the opponent, to Finnish football fans and to the organisers to field such a squad.
“You could tell when you saw the Celtic team that the match would end like this. So we are extremely disappointed.”
Despite that, there were surely some encouraging signs from a Tottenham perspective and the two stand out players from pre-season seem to be Lewis Holtby and Erik Lamela. Both men found the net again while Christian Eriksen delivered a trade mark free kick and it was good to see Emmanuel Adebayor back on the pitch after his recent bout of Malaria.
Pre-season is pre-season but there are good things about this campaign and in particular, this period may just have saved the Tottenham careers of Holtby and Lamela.
Ryan Mason has been the standout player particularly in the first half against Chicago. His passing was superb.
Cebellos also had a great game in the first match.
Erikson was poor in USA but against the Celtic youth team he showed some nice touches and scored a great free kick.
Lamela made some good runs and scored decent goals, but was in and out of the games, so needs to put in more consistent performances.
Holtby ran around a lot chasing players, but I would prefer to see his creativity a lot more.
Ettiene Capoue. Think he is going to be a key player this season
Yep.
I second that. Capone can drop back between the centre backs, win the ball and has a great range of passes to turn defence quickly into attack. Let’s hope he gets an injury free run in the team to show what he can do.
Lamela, Holtby, Capoue have all been outstanding. Of the young fringe players Mason definitely caught the eye. Lennon looked reborn in this system, popping up all over the place, being a nuisance to the opposition and for the first time I can remember he actually looks willing to be available in the box to finish.
I also think Soldado deserves a big mention…3 assists 2 goals all in 4 halves of football, and yes one of them was a penalty but it was cleverly won. He’s also been putting a lot of effort in allowing the 3 behind him to find space and become more of an attacking threat which going by the system in preseason is going to be crucial to its effectiveness.
Have not seen all the games but Lamela looks like the player who excited for Roma. I agree about Capoue who after that injury could prove very useful.Really hope in new system Soldado goes on a run. If we get Mateo from villareal,scneirderlin at the lastminute and Bony from swansea we could be top 4 which is going tobe verydifficult.Dont see much future for Dawson Kaboul Naughton Sandro and maybe even Paulinho who is a poor brazilian in a poor national side. Honestly dont think Lennon Chadli and even Townsend are top quality when weplaying the better sides.In the long run hammering Celtic only builds confidence with Lamela etc but we need to start with a win over West Ham.We will definitely be harder to beat but we need those signings to beat the better top 6.
I agree with the above but would add kane who as quietly got on with it and looks like he could at last make the grade. bentaleb also looked good. HHXX
The Celtic game was so easy you can’t form any conclusions from it, but we have a very talented squad and Lamela and Holtby both look sharp and fit. The key is the back four and the holding midfielders. Capoue and Bentaleb for me. Back four of Dier, Kaboul, Vertonghen and Davies, although it looks like we are signing this Argie from Villareal who is highly rated as well.
We would if beat spurs with our full team out we have 4 top players injured just now
just like you beat legia warsaw last week mick.what planet are you living on right now?