Tottenham striker Dominic Solanke has been praised by Teddy Sheringham
Tottenham Hotspur rocked at the Etihad Stadium and smashed Manchester City 4-0 in the Premier League on Saturday, thus, reigniting their season. With the festive period set to come, it was a performance and victory that would have massively boosted the team’s confidence and morale.
For Ange Postecoglou, it was crucial that his team bounced back from the upsetting 2-1 loss to Ipswich Town before the international break. He saw a much-improved team performance, with several stars stepping up to the plate.
The likes of Dejan Kulusevski, James Maddison and Son Heung-min grabbed the headlines against Man City, but one Tottenham player’s performance went under the radar.
Dominic Solanke was excellent too. He dropped deep to stitch the play, dragged defenders out of their positions, ran the channels well and grabbed the assist for Pedro Porro’s goal. The only missing thing in his overall impressive performance was a goal.
The England international has shown glimpses of his brilliance since swapping Bournemouth for Spurs in the summer. The 27-year-old has been brought in to fill the void left by Harry Kane, who was a talismanic figure at the Hotspur Way for several seasons before leaving for Bayern Munich in the summer of 2023.
While Dominic Solanke has netted only four goals in 10 Premier League appearances, he hasn’t looked fazed with the record fee paid by Spurs to sign him from the Cherries.
Ex-Tottenham striker Teddy Sheringham has been impressed with Solanke’s overall play in Ange Postecoglou’s system. He has suggested the centre-forward should be eyeing 20 Premier League goals in his debut season in North London.
“Solanke leads the line. It’s not easy to play that centre-forward role, bringing other players into play, holding the ball up and running in behind to score goals. You need to be able to do all of those things and he can do that. I think he’s done really well,” Sheringham said on Best Offshore Sportsbooks (h/t Football London).
“He obviously had a great season last season and he’s been operating in the Premier League now at a very, very good level for a while. He got 19 goals at Bournemouth last season. He’s got four so far [in the league] this season for Spurs. He’s been a centre-forward. He knows how to score goals. You can tell that with the goals that he scored.
“Twenty goals will be his target again and if you get off to a good start and on a good run early, then the targets change. If you have a couple of injuries, you’re out of the team, then your targets change the other way.”
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Solanke has had a disrupted early start to his Tottenham career with an ankle injury ruling him out for two league games. He arrived off the back of an impressive spell at Bournemouth, where he netted 19 goals in the Premier League last season. The Englishman will be hoping to set a personal target of scoring 20 league goals in his debut season at N17.
If the ex-Chelsea and Liverpool man can do that, it will be a great achievement. While his pressing, intensity, work rate and link-up play remain fantastic, the Lilywhites paid a premium for Solanke to score goals and he will be judged by how many scores at the end of the day by the fans and critics alike.