Spurs really need to see more from 6/10 star

Tottenham needed a win, they needed a massive win to really get Ange Postecoglou back in the good books of supporters.

Make no mistake about it, this has been a rough period for Spurs who weren’t threatening to gift their fans many Christmas presents until they arrived on the south coast to face Southampton at St Mary’s.

Despite the Saints’ rocky form, this was not a match to take lightly considering the Lilywhites have already tasted defeat to Crystal Palace and Ipswich this season.

Thankfully for Postecoglou’s men, they had no trouble whatsoever dismantling Southampton who subsequently sacked manager Russell Martin just hours after the full-time whistle.

Had Spurs lost then it’s likely the Australian coach will have been facing questions about the security of his own managerial position.

Therefore, he has Heung-min Son, Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Pape Sarr to thank for a remarkable 5-0 victory.

Tottenham’s attacking numbers against Southampton

Seeing Spurs take an opposition to the cleaners isn’t very surprising.

Under Postecoglou, the north Londoners have been a side to play high-risk entertaining football. They flood bodies forward with great regularity but their high line often leaves them exposed to a counter attack.

Well, even with a defensive duo of Radu Dragusin and teenager Archie Gray, they went through the 90 minutes relatively untested.

That was largely thanks to the players in front of them for such a splendid performance. Maddison was one of the stars of the show, scoring twice and creating two key passes before being withdrawn in the 77th minute.

Son – who was taken off at the break – also starred for the visitors, needing just 45 minutes to score a goal and supply two assists.

It was a ruthless display from Postecoglou’s men who found themselves a goal to the good inside the opening minute. It got better with each passing minute and before you knew it (25 minutes in to be precise), Sarr rolled home to make it 4-0.

That being said, for all the good things we’re seeing about Tottenham’s attack, they do need to start seeing more from mega-money summer signing, Dominic Solanke

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Solanke’s performance in numbers against Southampton

With Harry Kane gone, Spurs were left to rue not signing a striker in the summer of 2023.

Richarlison struggled to stay fit and as a result, it meant that Son played a lot of football as the focal point of the attack.

Subsequently, the addition of a centre forward in the summer of 2024 was an absolute necessity. They went out and signed Solanke from Bournemouth with the English talent setting Daniel Levy and Co back around £65m.

Since then it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the former Cherries striker who isn’t just finding goals hard to come by, but is finding actually getting general goalscoring chances troublesome.

The big-money addition initially started off well by registering three goal involvements in his first five league outings. Since then, he has scored just three times in Tottenham’s last nine matches, and once in his last seven.

While Solanke’s role in this Spurs team is about a lot more than just scoring goals – bringing others into play and helping the wide players thrive in behind – Postecoglou does need to see him involved in the penalty box more often.

What rather summed up his season so far was the game with Southampton where despite his team scoring a handful, the Englishman never really got in the game and was isolated out of proceedings.

Handed a 6/10 player rating by the Standard, it was hardly a surprise considering he had just 13 touches of the ball and completed five passes all night.

Postecoglou’s men were rampant in attack but Solanke was so ineffective that he was hauled off on 82 minutes having yet to win a single duel.

Fortunately for the 27-year-old the rest of his colleagues were on fire, helping Spurs to their biggest win of the campaign to date.