Tottenham Hotspur fans were given their first glimpse of Sergio Reguilon last night after the left-back made his debut against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.
The former Real Madrid man lined up at left-wing-back, with Dier, Alderweireld, and Tanganga making up a three-man central defence behind him.
However, Reguilon appeared to be a little too eager to impress in the early moments as he flew around the pitch and dived into challenges.
In fact, it was the Spaniard losing possession on the left-wing and then selling himself in defence that allowed Azpilicueta to pick out Werner on the edge of the box for Chelsea’s goal.
Reguilon was able to put that mistake behind him and really grew into the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, serving as a constant attacking threat and source of defensive energy on the left.
It seemed only fair that his assist would lead to Lamela’s equaliser with just minutes left on the clock in normal time.
Jose Mourinho had this to say on the performance (Football London): “His debut was really, really good.
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“There was something that for me is great because it showed me the character and personality of the player which is he makes a mistake for their goal and his performance after that moment was just going up, and up and up.
“When many, even experienced players, when something is going wrong for them, or they are involved in some negative moment of the game, their confidence goes low. The kid was exactly the opposite.
“He could have done better for the Chelsea goal but since that moment it was when Sergio really exploded for the game and had incredible, incredible performance.
“The system of three is something that we can do, it’s something the players are learning to do. That tactical culture is of course bigger. In this moment we can face a team that has different systems and it doesn’t matter how they come, the players know what to do, they know the differences and what they have to adapt.
“So the team is getting in conditions to play. Yesterday was not really strategic, it was more trying to build a team with the players that we had, let’s say available for the game, trying not to commit crimes and I only committed one and that was to play Dier.
“Trying not to commit more crimes was more about trying to get a balanced team, a team that could control the game and opponent and open to late changes like we did. We managed to do that and in the end, it was great for the boys.”
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