Spurs have done what they set out to do in a pair of kindly opening Europa League games, and taken out what little sting there is about this new format at the earliest possible opportunity.
Neither the 3-0 win over Qarabag nor this 2-1 win at Ferencvaros were particularly convincing, but it matters not. Spurs have set themselves up beautifully now to be able to cruise through the remaining matchdays in this group stage knowing they need very little more to get over the line.
Even more so than with the Champions League, such is the utter lack of peril in these games now that wider narratives dominate. For Spurs a fifth win in a row and the prospect of being able to freewheel through some later games in this tournament is important, sure, but more important were a few things we learned from this much-changed side.
The most compelling of those was Mikey Moore. He came into the first-team squad as a 16-year-old and now, still only 17, really does look ready to play a greater role.
At the very least, he must surely now be above poor old Timo Werner in the pecking order. Moore started on the right here, with Werner on the left, and the preponderance of Spurs’ attacks that came down the youngster’s side of the pitch was really something. Sure, he had a considerable advantage behind him with the right side of Spurs’ defence containing first-choice pair Cristian Romero and Pedro Porro while the left side had a more makeshift look with Ben Davies and Archie Gray looking alarmingly like father and son in attempting – not always successfully, it must be said – to keep the Hungarian side quiet down that flank.
But any doubt about the pair’s relative contribution was thoroughly dismantled in the second half. In perhaps the most significant moment of an inevitably low-key game, another fine run by Moore down the right ended with a perfect ball into the path of Werner, clean through on goal again as he was at Old Trafford. The weight of the pass was so precise that Werner had every option in the world.
Maybe that wasn’t a good thing. He doesn’t have the look of a player who wants time to think about options in those moments. But still, the choice appeared easy. With the keeper neither at his feet nor at home and the weight of pass so good, it seemed for all the world that all Werner need do was slot the ball first time into an invitingly large target to the keeper’s left.
Instead, he a) chose the wrong option and then b) made a mess of it, attempting needlessly to go round the keeper and then slicing into the side netting from a tight angle.
There are few more painful sights in the game currently than Werner one on one. We can’t recall ever seeing a player we have less confidence will take advantage of the situation he finds himself in. That, really, is Werner’s eternal curse: doomed forever to possess the cunning and movement to find himself in these situations, but never able to convert.
It was his last contribution of the night, departing in a triple change that saw Ange Postecoglou deploy three of his big guns in Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison. It was impossible to escape the thought that any one of those three would have taken that chance with minimal fuss.
More importantly, perhaps, Moore then switched to the left. Having notably outplayed Werner from the right, he now set about doing so again from the flank Werner had occupied for the first 70 minutes.
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He must surely now have leapfrogged the poor sod in Ange’s attacking pecking order. Moore is a striking sight. A 17-year-old blessed with the technical skill, confidence and pace you might expect, but also the size and strength to come out on top in more than his fair share of physical battles.
Spurs have been very excited about him for some time now, and it’s easy to see why. He was their best attacking player in the second-string team that started the game, and didn’t look remotely out of place when part of the more familiar attacking line-up that finished the game when Dominic Solanke joined Kulusevski, Maddison and Johnson.
Johnson can provide some hope for Werner. It’s not that long since the Welshman’s lack of final product was such a problem that he was attracting absurd levels of hate on social media.
It came to a head after defeat to Arsenal, with Johnson removing himself from the situation. It’s proved an inspired choice. It’s five wins on the bounce for Spurs since then, and Johnson has scored in all five.
He showed his confidence with a fizzing first-time shot from the corner of the area that flicked the crossbar, and minutes later he was scoring a second goal that Spurs would turn out to need after conceding a late goal that had, frankly, been coming.
Moore was involved again early in the move with a neat pass to Solanke. When the ball found its way to Johnson he cut in on his left after a clever ‘uses him by not using him’ run from Kulusevski had opened the space. The shot struck the woodwork again but this time got a kinder bounce and Spurs had their second win in this competition and fifth in succession across three competitions.
A win and no injury setbacks was always the benchmark for a satisfactory night for Spurs. Moore may have ensured it ends up being something, well, more.
