Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 2-2 draw with Man United

Tottenham Hotspur played out a 2-2 draw with Manchester United this evening in the Premier League, thanks to goals from Richarlison and Rodrigo Bentancur.

Let’s take a look at the five things we learned from the match:

The Better Team

Even without Heung-min Son. Even without Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr. Even with Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison, or Giovani Lo Celso. Tottenham still went to Old Trafford and completely bossed the match. The only downside was that they couldn’t find that third goal, but with half the team missing, you can hardly blame them. The depth of this Spurs squad is looking stronger and stronger with each transfer window under Ange Postecoglou. Exciting times ahead.

Missing a Creative Trio

Although Tottenham won the midfield battle by adding Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie to the mix today, they really did miss a consistent creative spark in there. It was so unlucky for Postecoglou to be without Maddison, Lo Celso and Kulusevski all in the same week, the latter due to illness. Hojbjerg and Skipp did a good job, but they don’t have that side-splitting pass in their locker. The crazy thing is that Spurs might actually have all three of their creative players back by the next Premier League game, so that bench is going to get a lot stronger.

Werner and Dragusin debuts

Partly due to the dwindling numbers in the squad, Timo Werner made his full debut for Tottenham this evening and claimed an assist for Bentancur’s equaliser. His general play was very positive and full of pace, although you could tell he has only been in training for a few days. He doesn’t quite know the patterns of play yet, but that will come. Radu Dragusin then came on for the final 20 minutes to add some solidity at the back and seemed calm and composed on the ball.

Back five for Ange?

For the final portion of the game, Spurs seemed to play with a kind of back five, with Dragusin slotting in alongside Romero and Van de Ven. Porro arguably pushed more into midfield than before, but still held some width at times too. Even when Van de Ven went off with cramp, Emerson Royal replaced him and Spurs retained that central back three. If Dragusin has been guaranteed regular minutes this season, perhaps this is a formation we could see in the latter stages of some matches.

One Missing on the Bench

Tottenham only named eight substitutes this evening out of a possible nine due to a lack of players. Of course, Postecoglou could have handed a spot to one of the U21 lads, but perhaps he also wanted to send a little message to Daniel Levy and co about signing an extra player or two this month. The silver lining is that Spurs now have Romero and Van de Ven back, while James Maddison, Manor Solomon, Giovani Lo Celso, and Dejan Kulusevski could be back for the next Premier League game, and Heung-min Son, Pape Matar Sarr, and Yves Bissouma are only on international duty. That bench will soon fill itself up.

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