Ange Postecoglou the Tottenham Hotspur manager looks on during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur at The Coventry Building Society Arena on September 18, 2024 in Coventry, England. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)
Ange Postecoglou has heaped praise on striker Dominic Solanke after he finally scored his first Tottenham Hotspur goal.
Spurs completed the £55m signing of Solanke from Bournemouth in August in a move that they hoped would finally replace Harry Kane, who left for Bayern Munich last summer.
Solanke caught the eye with 21 goals across all competitions last season, including 19 in 38 Premier League appearances.
However, the 26-year-old endured a slow start to life at Tottenham, failing to score or assist in each of his first three appearances for the club.
But Solanke finally got off the mark as he equalised in the eighth minute of Tottenham’s 3-1 win over Brentford on Saturday after the Bees had taken the lead in the first minute.
The former Liverpool and Chelsea man was on hand to fire home the rebound after Brentford stopper Mark Flekken kept out James Maddison’s initial effort.
Ange praises ‘really strong’ Solanke after first Spurs goal
Spurs went on to assert their dominance from there, with Brennan Johnson and Maddison adding the extras to seal all three points, while the Lilywhites ended the match with 23 shots and 3.51 xG compared to just six and 0.58, respectively, from Brentford.
Speaking to reporters after Saturday’s match, Postecoglou praised Solanke not just for his goal, but also his work rate and overall performances since arriving at Tottenham.
“Yeah, I mean, again Dom’s still working his way to match fitness. You saw at the end there, he was out of gas. We wanted to take him off a bit earlier, but we needed that third goal to kill the game off,” Postecoglou said (via Football.London).
He continued: “But he was good again, I think he’s been good in every game he’s played for us, and as you said, strikers love scoring goals and, yeah, a great moment for him to score his first goal for the club, particularly at home.
“But aside from that, again it was a really strong performance by him. I thought he led the line really well, important for us today as a link up there because we knew they’d go pretty aggressive on a man-to-man marking and he was going to have to hold the ball up for us and I thought he did that really well.”
Top photo by David Rogers/Getty Images
