Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s pre-season win at Colchester

Tottenham Hotspur secured their first win of pre-season this evening against Colchester United and there were arguably far more takeaways this week than from the game against Leyton Orient.

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

Nuno’s formation – Judging by the last two games, it appears that Nuno is keen on going for three in midfield. Today, we saw him start with a 4-3-3 that often became a 4-2-3-1 in attack. Whatever the case, early signs seem to indicate that he is moving away from a back five in North London.

New role for Dele – Alli made his name at Tottenham as a number ten, playing just behind Kane and racking up goals and assists. However, in both games under Nuno so far, Dele has started as a deep-lying playmaker. Today, he was in a three with Skipp and Winks but given the license to join the attack at will. It worked well, albeit against lesser opponents.

Son is back – Back in training for just a couple of days, starts his first pre-season game and records a goal and two assists within the first 45 minutes. It’s quite literally like he has never been away. It was also interesting to see Nuno play Sonny as a striker today rather than a winger.

Missing players – Strangely, we have still not see Tanguy Ndombele, Sergio Reguilon, Matt Doherty or Ryan Sessegnon in either pre-season friendly matchday squad. I am really not sure why but perhaps they are not quite as far along with their fitness as others. I’m hoping that injuries are not the answer, although some transfers could be when it comes to others such as Serge Aurier and Erik Lamela.

Youngsters on show – Skipp came back into the side and looked class. Pasktosi and Omole were asked to do jobs at the back. Alfie Whiteman got minutes between the sticks. Tanganga and John came on at half-time alongside Dane Scarlett. With 20 minutes to go, Fagan-Walcott, Lyons-Foster, Cesay, White, Devine, Clarke, and Parrott all came on. Lots of minutes for lots of younger Spurs stars, great to see!

Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Related Topics

Have something to tell us about this article? Let us know