Pape Matar Sarr was solid in Tottenham’s 5-0 rout of Southampton
Ange Postecoglou was under a lot of pressure at Tottenham Hotspur heading into Sunday’s clash against Southampton. The 1-1 draw with Rangers at the Ibrox in the Europa League had stretched Spurs’ winless run to five games across all competitions.
And the post-match pleasantries Ange Postecoglou delivered after the Rangers game worked well as the Lilywhites smashed Southampton 5-0 at the St Mary’s Stadium. Goals from James Maddison, Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski and Pape Matar Sarr did the damage in the first half itself. Tottenham took the peddle off the gas in the second half as Postecoglou got the chance to rest some of his key players ahead of key games against Manchester United and Liverpool.
Amid Maddison’s Man of the Match performance and Son’s headline-grabbing act with a brace of assists to become the club’s highest assist-getter in the Premier League, the performance of Pape Matar Sarr has not been talked about much.
Starting in a double pivot alongside Lucas Bergvall—who was making his first Premier League start for Spurs—Sarr showed control, composure, tenacity and aggression in the middle of the park even though Southampton put up very little fight.
The Senegalese arrived on the edge of the box to wriggle his way past the Southampton players and make it 4-0 for Spurs after only time 25 minutes on the clock, finishing ruthlessly with his left foot from Son Heung-min’s square pass. The youngster has slowly but steadily become an important player for Big Ange’s side, thanks to his work rate, running power and total commitment.
While he has improved a lot in the last 18 months, Sarr is yet to become a regular first-choice midfielder under Big Ange. Football London journalist Lee Wilmot was effusive in his praise for the African talent’s performance against Southampton. He hopes the display he produced at the St Mary’s Stadium helps in kickstarting his campaign.
“Bit of a quiet season for Pape Sarr this year as well, really, isn’t it? And perhaps that’ll kind of kickstart him a little bit. I think initially he was out of the team, but I think since October he’s come into the side and he’s made himself an undroppable,” Lee Wilmot said in the latest episode of Gold & Guest Talk Tottenham.
Sarr has featured in 24 games across all competitions this season thus far, scoring four goals and bagging two assists. However, he has only started nine games in the Premier League and eight of those have come following Maddison’s hot-and-cold form and Rodrigo Bentancur’s domestic ban.
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If the Senegal international wants to nail down his spot in Big Ange’s starting XI, he has to bring more consistency to his game and avoid making clumsy decisions off the ball. At 22, he is still young and has the time in his favour to develop a lot.
