Tottenham Hotspur played another exceptional game on Saturday at home, making it three wins on the trot by professionally shutting down a 10 man Crystal Palace to win 2-0. And just about everyone on the pitch had a great game, including the attacking players and some players off the bench like young gun Luca Williams-Barnett.
Well, literally everyone had a good game except the starting striker Dominic Solanke. Taken off at the 65th minute mark for midfielder Conor Gallagher, Solanke was the only player in a midfield or attacking role for Tottenham that did not create anything. And literally the entire back four showed more scoring and creative threat than Solanke, who had one key pass, one shot on target on four attempts, one foul drawn, no dribbles completed, six of eight passes completed, and a handful of unforced errors to lose possession.
It was another classic Solanke display in a Tottenham kit in the most frustrating sense of the word. On a day when Tottenham were dominating nearly 80 percent of the possession and could not stop creating chances, Solanke offered nothing. He was not where he needed to be, he could not finish, and it was as if he was allergic to scoring goals or even being in the right place for a chance from one of the other attacking players.
And when it comes to creating chances for others or showing skill on the ball, the 65 million pound transfer bust from Bournemouth has been nothing short of false advertising as an all around striker. Roberto De Zerbi gave him the start as the No. 9 with Omar Marmoush replacing an injured James Maddison in the lineup as the No. 10, and, yet again, Solanke failed to build on any of the goodwill from the manager presented to him.
Tottenham Hotspur fans have known that this team badly needs a No. 9 and is honestly just a competent 9 away from being a Premier League title contender. And by literally being the one negative player on the pitch for Tottenham and failing to add to the goals that the right back and center back scored with their heads in a 2-0 win against a 10 man team that was one of the worst in the Premier League even with 11 men, Solanke only proved without a shadow of a doubt that it is true, he is the biggest weak link in this entire squad.
This article was originally published on www.hotspurhq.com as Dominic Solanke left no doubt about the harsh truth Tottenham were already chewing on .
