Tottenham didn’t need to do much to ease past strugglers Hull at White Hart Lane, but there were some impressive performances nonetheless. Here’s how the hosts rated individually.
Hugo Lloris, 7
Made two important saves to prevent Jake Livermore marking his return to the Lane with a goal. Add to that a couple routine first half stops and you’ve got your standard Lloris outing.
Kyle Walker, 8
Given even more freedom to get forward as a wing-back and it paid off; Walker displayed pace, power and final product to set Eriksen up for the second goal and looked confident all night.
Eric Dier, 7
Deployed as the furthest right of three centre-backs. There have been calls for Dier to return to midfield, and he demonstrated those skills as a defender tasked with bringing the ball out from the back. Filled in for Walker effectively on the right when the wing-back bombed forward.
Toby Alderweireld, 7
A key part of a back three that rode a short-lived Hull storm and ended up having a comfortable night. I’ll let the stats do the talking for Toby.
Toby Alderweireld vs. Hull City:
100% tackles won
100% successful clearances
100% final-third pass accuracy
93% pass accuracyFlawless.
— Spurs Stat Man (@SpursStatMan) December 14, 2016
Jan Vertonghen, 7
Nearly scored a rare goal after weaving through several Hull defenders before fluffing his lines at the last. Like his defensive colleagues, Vertonghen grew into the game and was barely troubled from the second goal onwards.
Danny Rose, 8
Worked as hard as ever, exemplified by his unnecessary drive to keep in a wayward pass that was creeping out for a throw-in at 3-0. Set up the first goal with a customary piece of wing-play.
Victor Wanyama, 7
Appeared to be struggling early on as he has been in recent weeks, misplacing one or two passes and drawing a few groans from the crowd. Settled with the rest of the team eventually and was on hand to score his second goal for the club.
Christian Eriksen, 8
Popped up with two crucial goals — both well taken, if arguably unmissable. It’s great to have a confident Eriksen back; the Dane has now scored five goals in his last four league appearances.
Moussa Sissoko, 7
Built on his impressive cameo at Old Trafford with another imposing display, driving forward with the ball confidently, particularly in the first half. Was given a mostly standing ovation when substituted. Promising signs.
Dele Alli, 5
Seems to have lost a little bit of confidence lately, as displayed by his reluctance to shoot at Old Trafford and another off-day in front of goal against Hull. Was the first to be subbed — perhaps he needs a rest?
Harry Kane, 6
Looked eager to run at Hull’s uncertain defence at every opportunity and came close to scoring a couple of times. Like at Old Trafford, however, his passing lacked accuracy and he looked a little tired. Should be back in the goals soon.
Substitutes
Harry Winks, 7
Saw a fizzing shot creep past the wrong side of the post late on. A shame, because his half-hour outing deserved to be profitable. Winks is improving all the time and should start against Burnley this weekend.
Heung-Min Son, N/A
The result was wrapped up by the time Son came on with 15 minutes to go. He did little more than aid the retaining of possession in the closing stages.
Josh Onomah, N/A
Played just five minutes plus stoppage time.
Kane and dele miss lamelas speed agility n creativity to link up with….lamela is the key
I agree Spudrick, I think the whole team does!
COYS!!
I disagree once again. With this kind of performance against an extremely poor and weak Hull, we are going nowhere and more bad news is on the way. Our long range passing was pathetic and once again so many times its repeating the poor past i.e. the team reaches the front only to see them pass backwards until the ball reaches back to Lloris who for some reason has no idea how and where to distribute bar short passes causing panic? When going forward, there is lack of urgency with extremely slow movement and rarely able to swich play from right to left or vice versa. However, there were good moments of individual performances especially from the wing backs but sadly they cannot cope against teams who have faster players. Delle is totally disappointing = has to go back to drawing board and just feal sorry for Kane. He has not got the same urge to win the tackles. Dier is following his close mate Delle into the same oblivion. The team has to undergo shooting practice as they are either very week or don’t know what size a goal mouth is ! Winks will make a good player and hopefully he is not forced to play that same negative backwards style. To be honest, him and Nabil (back from loan hopefully) would be fantastice attacking young midfielders. I just want you guys to realise that we are not a top 4 team and not a CL team and I cannot see us winning anything again this season. Hope MP is able to prove me and many others wrong!
Tend to agree with you, MP, but one thing does constantly leave me in awe.
And that is Dier’s ability to switch from standing still to a walk in a matter of seconds.
Nothing wrong with 3 points but I guess that Swansea & Hull are the bookies favorites to go down at this point.
Nice to see Sissoko given some freedom to work the central MF at last…
Winks gets better every game…he really should be starting and if that means Alli takes a backseat so be it
Any team that gives us the space to work in will get punished…All our players our comfortable on the ball.
But (& it’s a big But) we have not been able (as yet) to move to the next level (against those teams who are not prepared to grant us that space).
We continue to play what is basically a defensive formation (4-2-3-1) against stronger teams which relies heavily on our two full/wing backs to provide width in attack. That said, I have to admit that both our backs are getting better and better at what they do and last night they were allowed to start higher up the pitch.
I believe that we still lack speed in transition hence the call for Winks to start who again demonstrated last night his ability to turn defence into attack.
Thought Winks was superb when he came on, nothing fancy and brimming with confidence. Looked very much at home in a Spurs shirt and unlucky not to score. Ali on the other hand was very poor and, as most others agree, needs to warm the bench for a couple of games. Back three and wing-backs were rarely troubled but then, it was Hull. Need to keep it going against Burnley, Southampton and Watford before the next big test against Chelski. Still don’t think Lamela is the answer. Works hard yes but his tackling can be a liability, he never shoots or takes the defender on and rarely makes a killer pass. Seem to remember he was always attracting the lowest ratings before his injury so not sure what he’ll bring to the party when fit. Hope he proves me wrong.