5 things we learned from Tottenham’s thrilling friendly with K-League XI
Tottenham Hotspur continued their pre-season preparations with a 4-3 win against a K-League XI on Wednesday.
A first-half brace from homecoming hero Son Heung-min was sandwiched between strikes from Dejan Kulusevski and Will Lankshear. At one point, Spurs were 3-0 up but conceded twice in three minutes after the break to spark a one-sided affair back into the realms parity.
Ange Postecoglou’s men remain unbeaten in their three opening friendlies ahead of what they hope will be a memorable 2024/25 campaign.
Here are five takeaways from their latest outing in Seoul.
Postecoglou is already one of the Premier League’s most charismatic and principled coaches only a year into his tenure. But for how loveable and comedic he can be, there’s also a cutting edge to him that has helped him get from Australia to England.
Midway through the first half with the score still deadlocked at 0-0, Spurs players regrouped on the sidelines for a drink break. Cameras picked up Postecoglou ripping into his side for the lack of intensity in their pressing and was explicitly heard telling them to start going man-to-man.
It may have been a friendly, but preparation clearly remains key for Postecoglou.
Tottenham did not sign a direct replacement for all-time leading scorer Harry Kane upon his exit to Bayern Munich last summer. Instead, Spurs stuck with the striking options they had in Son and Richarlison and brought in players across and around the centre forward.
One option that emerged late in the 2023/24 season was playing Dejan Kulusevski down the middle, sometimes as a false nine to create space for others, sometimes as a traditional line to hold up play.
Postecoglou has continued with that experiment so far in pre-season, and it paid dividends in Wednesday’s win.
Kulusevski opened the scoring after converting a rebound from a Son shot, while he was, at worst, proficient and industrious with all else he had to feed on, bringing others into play and throwing himself about a fair bit.
It may not be a long-term solution, but having the Swede as a genuine striker option will help Spurs through a long season.
The image of one or two Tottenham defenders retreating on the back foot trying to defend a counter act having careleslly lost the ball is one seared into the minds of Spurs fans.
It happened again a little too often in Seoul, with large gaps between the centre-backs, full-backs and midfielders opening up, and there was seemingly little desire to plug those holes.
Admittedly, this is an intense criticism for a pre-season match, and Postecoglou claimed in his post-match press conference that his players found it hard to maintain their usual energy levels in the sweat-dripping heat.
Still, it’s not a good look and Tottenham didn’t do a lot to shake their reputation as a soft defensive team here.
When Lucas Bergvall’s summer move to Tottenham was confirmed back in the winter, those of a Spurs persuasion must have thought the teenager was still a year or two away from getting a real first-team look-in.
Yet Postecoglou has taken those adolescent shackles off of the midfielder and allowed him to play his natural game through July. The results have been exciting.
Bergvall glides across the pitch so effortlessly, so pristinely that you’d be mistaken for thinking you’re watching a mid-2000s streets-won’t-forget compilation. He isn’t afraid to take calculated risks, to believe in his ability, to maximise his potential right now.
It’s increasingly clear that Bergvall will have a hand to play in Spurs‘ season one way or another.
Tottenham recently confirmed the signing of South Korean winger Yang Min-hyuk from Gangwon, and he will join up with the first team in January.
Yang was selected to the K-League XI and took his chance to make his mark. He was their most electric player in what was a testing first half, and he nearly made his future teammates pay with a quick dart to the touchline and a shot just over Guglielmo Vicario’s bar.
The travelling Tottenham squad made themselves known to Yang at full-time and will be looking forward to seeing more of their new 18-year-old starlet.