Dominic Solanke is a “top pro” who is exactly what Tottenham expected when they paid big money to sign him from Bournemouth, so says Ange Postecoglou.
Spurs splurged a club-record fee – reportedly up to £65million – on Solanke, who scored 19 Premier League goals for the Cherries last season.
Solanke could be in line to make his Tottenham debut on Monday, when Spurs open their Premier League campaign away at newly promoted Leicester City.
And Postecoglou spoke highly of his new addition.
"Thankfully, it's what we expected,” said the Australian.
“He's a top pro and a good guy – he's settled into the dressing room really well.
“Football-wise you can see he has all the attributes we need. We've still got a couple of training sessions to go but he's doing well.”
While Postecoglou confirmed Spurs will have a full squad to choose from, bar the suspended Yves Bissouma, at the King Power Stadium, hosts Leicester are not as fortunate.
Steve Cooper, who is preparing for his first league match in charge of the Foxes, confirmed Patson Daka was set for a spell on the sidelines after suffering an injury against Lens in pre-season, with the striker set for a long spell out.
“Patson [Daka] obviously is not great news,” Cooper said. “He suffered quite a serious ankle injury last week in the game in Lens and he is going to be out for a good few months.
“He’s having an operation. That’s really unfortunate for him because he was looking good in pre-season.”
Jamie Vardy is also absent.
Cooper, whose last Premier League game was a 2-0 home defeat to Tottenham in December last year with Nottingham Forest, added: “Vards, similarly, he’s been injured since the second week of pre-season now, when we were on one of our pre-season camps.
"He’s closer to returning but it will be a little while, although he’s itching to get back. But it’s not great at that end of the pitch.
“He’s right at the latter stages of rehab now and just making sure he can fight past those final stages before he returns. With experience and age a little bit, he really understands his body and he knows what it takes.”
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Leicester City – Stephy Mavididi
Mavididi scored 12 league goals for Leicester in their push for promotion last term, a tally bettered only by Vardy (18). The winger created 72 chances, providing six assists. Only Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who has since joined Chelsea, crafted more goalscoring opportunities (109) for the Foxes.
Tottenham – Son Heung-min
Son has been involved in 13 goals in 14 Premier League appearances against Leicester (nine goals, four assists), only having a hand in more against Southampton (15). Indeed, the South Korean has scored five and assisted once in his last three against the Foxes.
MATCH PREDICTION: TOTTENHAM WIN
Leicester have lost half of their Premier League games played on Mondays (21/42) – only in Friday games do the Foxes have a higher loss rate in the competition (61.5% – 8/13).
Tottenham’s last four Premier League wins of 2023-24 came against each of the sides to finish in the bottom four (Forest, Luton Town, Burnley, Sheffield United). They won all six of their league games against promoted sides last term, accounting for 30% of their overall victories (6/20).
This is the seventh time Tottenham are starting their Premier League campaign against a promoted side; they have won five of the previous six, losing the other 1-0 against Sunderland in 2007-08.
However, Leicester are unbeaten on the last nine occasions they have begun their league campaign with a home game (W6 D3).
Expect goals in this one. Of all Premier League fixtures to have been played at least 30 times, Leicester against Tottenham has the highest goals-per-game average (3.8 – 128 goals in 34 games). There have been 28 goals scored in the last five meetings between the sides alone (5.6 per game).
Spurs have only failed to score in one of their 17 Premier League away games against Leicester, a 3-0 loss at Filbert Street in September 1997.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Leicester City – 26.5%
Tottenham – 49.9%
Draw – 23.6%
Charlie Smith strengthen second round ambition with 4-0 win over Tarrant; STATHS hammer KT 18-1
Former champions Charlie Smith High strengthened their chances of progressing to the second round of the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/Digicel Manning Cup as they blanked Tarrant High 4-0 in their Zone B contest at the former’s Ninth Street base on Tuesday.
The win by Charlie Smith consolidated their hold on second position on 18 points and a healthy goal difference ahead of third-placed Jonathan Grant (15 points), who will be in action against fourth-placed Waterford (10 points) on Wednesday.
Reigning champions Mona High heads the Zone on 22 points, with Tarrant in fifth on six points, while Gaynstead High remain pointless.
Elsewhere, Zone D leaders St Andrew Technical (STATHS) hammered Kingston Technical 18-1 as they continue to hold Calabar at bay in the race for the top spot. Calabar defeated Vauxhall 4-1 at their Red Hills Road base.
Both teams moved to 22 points each, with STATHS holding a four-goal advantage over Calabar, while Haile Selassie (12 points), who lost 0-2 to Camperdown (11 points), remain third. Kingston Technical is still yet to gain a point.
Tuesday’s results
STATHS 18, Kingston Technical 1
Calabar 4, Vauxhall 1
Charlie Smith 4, Tarrant 0
Ascot High 4, Pembroke Hall 2
Haile Selassie 0, Camperdown 4
Dinthill, Port Antonio High open DaCosta Cup second round with 0-0 draw
Dinthill Technical and Port Antonio High opened the second round of the 2024 ISSA/Wata DaCosta Cup with a goalless draw at Carder Park on Tuesday.
For Dinthill, who finished second in Zone J of the first round on goal difference behind McGrath High, this was their second straight disappointing performance after a 1-2 loss to Charlemont High on Friday.
For Port Antonio, who comfortably won Zone M to advance to the second round, this is their second consecutive draw after eight consecutive wins to start the season.
Central High and Yallahs will face off tomorrow at Foga Road in the other Group 6 game.
Other games set for Wednesday include:
(Group 8) Christiana High vs Garvey Maceo High @Brooks Park
(Group 5) Happy Grove High vs Holmwood Tech @Carder Park
(Group 2) Ocho Rios High vs Black River High @Drax Hall
(Group 8) McGrath High vs St. Mary High @Ewarton Sports Complex
(Group 7) Glenmuir High vs Clarendon College @Glenmuir High
(Group 4) Maldon High vs Brown’s Town High @Jarrett Park
(Group 1) Cornwall College vs Kemps Hill High @Jarrett Park
(Group 3) Manning’s School vs Manchester High @Llandilo Community Centre
(Group 5) Belair High vs Denbigh High @Manchester High
(Group 4) Munro College vs Alphansus Davis High @Munro College
(Group 3) STETHS vs William Knibb Memorial @STETHS
(Group 1) Spot Valley High vs Rusea’s High @Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium
(Group 7) Paul Bogle High vs Titchfield High @York Oval
Portugal lacked 'a little bit of magic' in Scotland stalemate, says Martinez
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez was in a defensive mood following his team's goalless draw away to Scotland in the Nations League on Tuesday night.
After scoring in each of the Spaniard's first 12 competitive matches in charge of Portugal, the Selecao have since drawn a blank in four of their last seven matches.
Portugal did have their chances, however, registering 14 shots during the contest, though only three were on target, ending the night with an expected goals (xG) total of 1.52.
Martinez faced criticism for lacking a plan B after his side struggled to break the Scots down.
"Our talent of our players, is plan A, B, C, D, E," he told De Sporto after the match.
"We have players inside, outside, we are talking about a team that did not take risks, that defended very well.
"We are talking about a team [Portugal] that reached 53 times in the last third. We have to give credit to Scotland and to us the fact that we managed to keep a clean sheet."
It was a frustrating night for Martinez and fans alike.
Despite Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Jota among other big hitters starting, they were unable to find a way past 41-year-old goalkeeper Craig Gordon, who made some impressive saves when they did get in on goal.
When asked what was missing from the performance, he alluded to a lack of individual quality.
"A decision, a little bit of magic in the area. We had a lot of desire, we worked very well without the ball," Martinez said.
"It was a dangerous game because we could have possession of the ball, but Scotland have little need to score a goal. We showed freshness, but we lacked freshness in the last third.
"You also have to give credit to Scotland, they had a lot of players in front of goal, their goalkeeper also made a spectacular save."
Following the performance and result at Hampden Park, there have been further questions about Martinez's selection policy for Portugal.
The most high-profile query of all remains whether 39-year-old Ronaldo should continue, having had a difficult night on his 200th start for his country.
"The national team always has an open door, but now we are talking about a very, very large group of players," said Martinez.
"It is a question of continuing to connect and synchronise what we can do. Now the game in Porto is to celebrate qualification in front of our fans."
Scotland manager Steve Clarke, meanwhile, was much happier with the evening's result, which ended a four-game losing run for Scotland.
"It's not about turning a corner, it's just about working hard and not letting the country down. You could see that tonight," he said.
"The point was important for us after the work the group put in to get off the mark."
The result also marked Scotland's first clean sheet since beating Gibraltar 2-0 seven games ago in a pre-Euro 2024 warm-up friendly.
The performance at the back was another thing that pleased Clarke.
"Defensively sound, the shape of the team was good," he said.
"We denied a lot of space in behind. Good concentration in the box, determined defending at times, some really good blocks, which you need against sides like Portugal.
"Everyone contributed to earn the point."
Despite taking an unexpected point, Scotland are still bottom of their Nations League group, while the draw means they are winless in 10 matches - their longest ever run.
But Clarke feels the players will take a lot from Tuesday's match that will help them going forward.
"Everyone keeps talking about confidence, but they know they can play well," he said.
"We maybe didn't play as well as we could on the ball, which could be down to fatigue. But I don't think they lack confidence. Tonight's point will give us more confidence."
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