Another glory, glory night in [checks notes] Budapest saw Tottenham Hotspur take a 2-1 away win over Hungarian champions Ferencvaros on Thursday evening. The match was notable in that a) Tottenham didn’t fart the game away, as they historically have done over the nearly 20 years I’ve been a fan, and b) they started the match with four teenagers in the starting XI.
So with that context, this was a solid win against a team that is, if not good, at least cromulent at home and is at least decent at the Europa League level. The win puts Spurs second in the table with two wins in two games and makes them odds-on favorites to finish in the top eight, which is right where you want to be in this new era of Swiss Format Europa League tournaments.
There’s a lot of stuff I just don’t have time to touch on — things like Timo Werner is good, actually and Pape Sarr has quietly been excellent the past few matches, and feel free to discuss those things in the comments. But here are a three things we learned from a rainy, gross match in Budapest.
Hungary for Moore
With credit to The Extra Inch who apparently thought of this pun first, goshdangit
Thursday night was the first senior start for 17-year old academy graduate Mikey Moore, who played on the right side of midfield. Most of the time when you play a teenager in any senior match, much less an away European competition match against an experienced Eastern European side, you expect them to play like… well, teenagers.
Mikey Moore didn’t do that at all. In fact, he played with a composure, almost a swagger, that belies his years. He was confident with the ball at his feet, constantly showed for the ball, and wasn’t afraid to try things, even if they didn’t always come off. His pass to Timo Werner to set up a breakaway chance (that Timo promptly Timo’d wide) showed exceptional vision, and he never stopped running, putting in a 90 minute shift and deserving every single second of that appearance.
It was more than encouraging — it felt like the beginning of something. It reminded me just a little of how I felt when Dele started breaking through into the first team. And Ange Postecoglou agreed, singing Mikey’s praises in the post-match press conference.
“I thought he was outstanding. It’s brilliant for a 17-year-old to play 90 plus minutes in a European away tie. He just handled it superbly, I kind of knew he would and I think it’ll help his growth as a footballer once you get through a sort of experience like that. I think he’ll grow and evolve and I didn’t feel like I needed to take him off. He still looked strong at the end and was still contributing.
“It’s just his ability to deal with pressure and keeping the ball in really tight areas and making really good clean decisions for a young guy. It’s not easy today, out there you can see the conditions, it always suit defenders because they can fly in with tackles and he got one in the first 30 seconds I think it was.
“He kept his feet well and he takes the responsibility of driving inside or taking his man on. He makes good decisions with the ball. He’s got so much growth still, but the good thing is he wants to learn, he wants to develop and I couldn’t be happier for him but also pretty pleased that he’s part of our football club.”
I will repeat my cautions from earlier this season when I suggested that Spurs still need to take great care with Mikey’s development. Yes, there are examples of 17-year olds breaking into Premier League squads and excelling, but they’re rare. Maybe Mikey is one of those generational talents, but it still behooves Spurs to take their time with him and allow him not only time to further develop, but also to make mistakes and learn along the way. But if Thursday night vs. Ferencvaros is any indication, Mikey is going to be a star, and quite possibly even better than that.
The (other) kids are (still) alright
Moore was the standout performer, but that also minimizes the fact that Spurs started this match with three other teens in the starting lineup — Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, and Will Lankshear. That’s a bold move from Ange Postecoglou, and it mostly paid off. BIG WILLY LANKS in particular was impressive — though he didn’t score, he came awfully, awfully close on a number of occasions, and did not look at all out of place. Lankshear is a big fella for his age, and he used his physicality to his advantage last season to become the PL2’s leading goal scorer with 23g. It’s a big step up from PL2 to senior football, but you could see his strength helping him against bigger, older men — he was not easily shrugged off the ball and while he had to work harder than maybe he expected, he put together a really impressive shift before being subbed off late. Based on that match, I can see situations where he could be a real asset as a late match sub in the Premier League, at least until Richarlison gets healthy.
Archie Gray also put in a composed, if a little stressful, performance WAY out of position at central defender and left back against Ferencvaros. Particularly impressive was his defensive ability — he had a few blips here and there where he got out of position defensively, but put in some solid blocks and tackles to keep Ferencvaros from capitalizing on their (relatively few) counterattacks behind Spurs’ defensive line. I have my doubts that his future is in defense, but most of the standout things he did in this match played to the skills that he’ll put more fully to use as a defensive midfielder. In the meantime, he’s getting meaningful first team minutes, if out of position, and those will serve him well going forward.
The only member of Spurs’ Teen Boy Squad who performed under expectations was Lucas Bergvall, who didn’t seem to capitalize on the amount of time he had on the ball. He looked a little flustered at times with the ball at his feet and didn’t always look on the same page as his teammates. It’s okay — he’s a young player and young players are expected to have disappointing matches from time to time. It’s not like he was poor, but we’ve seen better and more assertive performances from him in past matches. Notably, it appears he was given a stern talking to by Vicario (again) about SOMETHING in the tunnel before the second half. The dynamic between those two is maybe one we should be watching?
Rotation is key… and king
Tottenham are playing a lot more matches than they were last season, thanks to domestic cups and Europa League, which means they aren’t able to just ride their starters. That means implementing an effective rotation is key, as Ange Postecoglou doesn’t appear to be phoning in any of the above competitions.
Postecoglou also doesn’t appear to be implementing a Team A/Team B system, but is putting together a true rotation that is intended to make sure all of his players stay fresh throughout a congested calendar. Now, Big Ange certainly went bold with this particular lineup — bringing in four teenagers into the starting XI away at a seasoned European club team is a statement — but that inexperienced was bolstered by a solid back line that included Cuti Romero and Pedro Porro, and Yves Bissouma anchoring the midfield. Regular first team starters like James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, and Dom Solanke also got sub minutes to make sure the match didn’t get out of hand late — a good thing when Ferencvaros scored a banger of a goal to cut the Spurs lead to 2-1 late.
I like the fact that Ange isn’t setting his teams up to fail with a hierarchical A/B squad, and I also like (terrifyingly) that he’s giving the younger players a chance to get meaningful minutes in impactful matches. Ferencvaros away isn’t a gimme, and it speaks well to Postecoglou that he trusts the youngsters on the fringes of the squad with getting an important European result. It will likely mean, eventually, that some first team players like Romero and Porro are rested for Premier League matches, but if you trust your squad — and why not? — then it’s a net benefit in the long term.
