Opinion: Five things we learned from Tottenham’s 3-2 win over Vissel Kobe

Tottenham Hotspur made it three wins from three in pre-season today with a 3-2 victory over Vissel Kobe in Japan. Let’s take a look at the five things we learned from the game.

Mikey Moore is a star in the making

You always want to stay grounded when it comes to young players coming through the academy into the first-team, but this lad looks so special. The biggest compliment you can give him is that he doesn’t look at all out of place in these first-team fixtures. In fact, he’s putting in Man of the Match level cameos.

Not only is he skilful with the ball at his feet, creating space and chances for others, but he also has that natural habit of getting into goalscoring positions for fun. Even before he tapped home the winner today, he was denied a goal by a handball on the line and then header over when he really should have scored.

Mikey Moore is going to have a big season at Tottenham in 2024/25,

Kulusevski in a central role

That’s three matches in a row now where Kulusevski has had the ball fizzed into him, before flicking it around the corner to send his teammate through on goal. It appears Ange prefers the Swede in a more central role at the moment, playing the last three games at either number 10 or false 9, and it’s hard to argue with the results. I assume Spurs will sign a new number 9 this summer, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kulusevski used more as a 10 this season, either alongside Maddison or as a rotation.

Johnson to Sonny and repeat

Tottenham’s second goal involved Pedro Porro setting Brennan Johnson away in behind, with the Welshman flashing a cross along the face of the goal for Heung-min Son to tap home. That is a combination we are going to see a whole lot of this season if Sonny is back in his preferred wide-left position (and I think he will be). Postecoglou’s whole system is designed to get either Son or Johnson in behind, then the box filled with white shirts to tap home a fizzed cross. Get used to it!

Academy starlets are winning pre-season

It might be controversial to say because the likes of Son, Porro, and Johnson have been great so far this summer, but I think the academy starlets have been more impressive than the first team. There, I said it! Spurs have performed better in the second halves of their pre-season fixtures (especially against Hearts) and some of the one-touch build-up play around the box has been out of this world.

A lot of these lads have played with each other for years and they are taught to play the Ange way in the U21s, which is really coming to fruition on the pitch. If we don’t bring some of them through into the first team this season, something is horribly wrong.

Archie Gray the quarterback

I could rave about the academy starlets all day long, but let’s not forget that Archie Gray is the same age as most of them at just 18. In the first half, he covered at left-centre-back and was perhaps the best player on the pitch for Spurs.

He was like a quarterback, fizzing passes between the lines into the Tottenham forwards, much like Cristian Romero does when he’s in the team. That continued when he moved into midfield in the second half, with the former Leeds star getting stuck into a few tackles too. I really do think he is going to be a Spurs regular by the end of 2024.