In Focus: Fernando Llorente, those misses, and an own goal to boot

Tottenham Hotspur entered the first of many games without lead man Harry Kane today as they took on Fulham at Craven Cottage.

What made the fixture particularly tough was that the likes of Lucas Moura, Heung Min Son, and Moussa Sissoko were also unavailable for the tie through injury and international duty.

This mean that Pochettino was forced to hand just a second Premier League start to Fernando Llorente, naming academy prospect Kazaiah Sterling on the bench.

Tottenham attempted to adapt their play to the big Spaniard, looking for chipped balls down the middle and crosses into the box, but Llorente made things difficult.

He started the game by somehow stabbing the ball into his own net from a corner, at which point his head seemed to drop, and it never came back up.

Beside the eventual goals, Spurs were able to carve two or three clear cut chances in the second half, all of which fell to Fernando, and were all missed by him too.

The big man seemed to be in all the right places, but lacked conviction with his headers, seemingly planting his head in the way of the ball, rather than attacking it and powering it into the net.

With a potential injury to Dele Alli, it looks as if Pochettino will have to stick with Llorente now, or bring in a new player in the transfer window.

The only saving grace for the former World Cup winner is that Dele Alli and Harry Winks saved his blushes today.

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