Vissel Kobe 2 Tottenham Hotspur 3: Moore takes his chance and is Bergvall ready?

Submitted by daniel on Sat, 27/07/2024 - 19:00

Tottenham’s pre-season preparations are quietly ratcheting up on their Asian tour.

A 3-2 victory over Japanese side Vissel Kobe in Tokyo made it three wins out of three for Ange Postecoglou’s squad after previous outings against Hearts and Queens Park Rangers.

But what did we learn from today’s game? We analyse the major talking points.

Match-winner Moore dazzles again

Mikey Moore, the 16-year-old winger, scored Tottenham’s winner in the Tokyo National Stadium, tapping in from close range after a low cross from Jamie Donley.

It was a fitting reward for a fine second-half performance as a substitute, playing with an exuberance that excited the crowd and showed again what a substantial talent he is.

Afterwards, Postecoglou praised Moore’s performance, saying he continues to enjoy first-team opportunities on merit since first joining the senior squad at the end of last season.

“Mikey has been fantastic since we brought him in,” he said. “He’s earned his spot on the roster at the moment — he did at the end of last year. He got a run with the first team because we could see in training that he was handling himself really well and that’s followed through into pre-season training.

“He probably should have had three tonight, to be fair, but he did take his goal well by being in the right areas. All we can do is keep allowing him to develop. We have to remember that last year he had some injuries and he is only 16, but — yeah — super exciting.”

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Can Bergvall handle himself in the Premier League?

Old news first: Lucas Bergvall looks as advertised — a highly gifted technical player who glides with the ball and changes speed and direction with real grace. He came on as a second-half substitute in Tokyo and the crowd was quickly cooing its appreciation.

But he is physical, too. Both in the sense of his stature and his mentality. Sometimes, young players of his profile are quite meek — apologetic for their ability, even. He is not one of them and he thundered into a few tackles after coming on, skittling a few opponents in the process.

When his move to Spurs was announced, it triggered a response among players he faced in domestic Swedish football, who dialled up the rough treatment in matches. By his own telling — and based on how he carried himself here — that might have been a good thing as it forced him to toughen up, preparing him well for the attritional nature of the Premier League in the months before he arrived.

Yes, it’s his skill that will make him popular and, most likely, turn him into one of those Spurs players who draws people to White Hart Lane during the opening nights of the Europa League. But he will not be bullied. He now seems as likely to leave an imprint on his opponents as they are on him.

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Where is Gray’s best position?

Archie Gray has made quite an impression in pre-season since his move from Leeds. Asked about playing centre-back in the two games before this evening, he did what humble young players do and cheerfully said he would gladly play anywhere for his new team.

So far, so smart — and it’s not an act because Gray really is a delight in person.

Currently, he believes midfield to be his best position and this was his first chance to play that role. After another half spent in central defence, he briefly moved to the base of Spurs’ midfield after the break (before being substituted).

It was not really the game in which to evaluate his full range of abilities — his one-on-one defending, for instance, or positioning — but it is Gray’s ease on the ball and faith in his first touch that currently makes him so compelling.

In defence, that showed in the way he moved possession forward. In midfield, it was how he received the ball with his back to goal and under pressure, playing with the kind of one-touch confidence that makes it easy to imagine him becoming a real asset within a team that relies on the quality of its ball movement.

There will doubtless be a hurry to know where his future lies and that is understandable given how much Tottenham have spent to sign him, but for now, it’s just fun to gaze upon his talent.

How does Kulusevski fit into the front line?

What Tottenham’s forward line looks like at the beginning of the season will depend on the business they can do between now and the end of the transfer window.

Dejan Kulusevski played a withdrawn No 9 role in Tokyo, as he occasionally did towards the end of last season, and that was a prompt to consider his role in the future.

Kulusevski prefers the middle of the pitch and relishes the involvement that comes with it. The signature moment of his performance this evening was the languid backheel that played Pedro Porro in for the equaliser. He has had a few similarly decadent, but effective, touches this pre-season and his ability to read and react to that sort of run — vertical, penetrative — is a known strength within his game.

Kulusevski enjoys pre-season. He admits to enjoying the heat (temperatures were still nudging 30C despite the evening kick-off in Tokyo) and the physical challenge of preparing in this kind of climate. No wonder, then, that he was a menace on the counter-attack — even against opponents who are midway through their domestic season.

But there was subtlety and instinct to his work. Kulusevski is not a natural forward and that showed occasionally here in the looseness of some of his back-to-goal play, but he does move across defenders smartly in the penalty box and that suits Spurs’ cutback-heavy style of attacking.

Tottenham probably need to invest in that area, but with James Maddison available again and Kulusevski sometimes marginalised by playing wide, this was a reminder of some of the utility — and range — he’s able to bring when there are gaps to fill in attack.

What next for Tottenham?

Wednesday, July 31: K-League XI (Seoul, South Korea), noon BST, 7am ET