Tottenham Hotspur’s injury crisis has hit them hard, but it has also given a generational talent an opportunity to make his mark on the first team.
It got to the point where Ange Postecoglou had no choice but to call on Tottenham Hotspur’s youth. With no fewer than 15 first team figures unavailable for the crunch Europa League fixture against Elfsborg, Spurs had simply run out of players. The club’s youngsters, however, saved the day, none more so than Mikey Moore.
Moore scored the third goal in a 3-0 win that sent Tottenham through the last 16, tenaciously dribbling to the edge of the box before angling a low shot back across goal and into the far corner of the net. Three days later, the 17-year-old started the 2-0 away win over Brentford. Moore has clearly made an impression on Postecoglou.
Spurs supporters have been aware of Moore’s potential for some time. He was the standout performer for the Tottenham youth side that won the U17 and U18 Premier League Cup. He was playing, and impressing, in the UEFA Youth League at the age of just 15. When Moore turned 17, Spurs wasted no time in tying him to a three-year contract.
Anyone who has watched Moore at youth or senior level will understand why there is so much hype around him. He is a winger with a unique profile who can dribble at pace and create in the final third. While Postecoglou has deployed him on either wing, Moore roams into the middle and even into deeper areas of the pitch to pick up the ball.
His first touch is instant. He’s comfortable in tight spaces. His composure on the ball also allows him to play his part in possession sequences. He’s a different sort of winger to the likes of Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson who are primarily in the team to provide verticality and get in behind opposition defences.
James Maddison has publicly compared Moore to Neymar in the way they both play the game with flair. Postecoglou also once fielded a question in a press conference that draw parallels between Moore and Lamine Yamal, another generational winger who has made his mark on the elite level recently.
Of course, these lofty comparisons might be overblown considering Moore has played just 182 minutes in the Premier League this season, but this highlights the esteem he is held in. Tottenham believe they have a special talent on their hands and his emergence has been the silver lining of their recent troubles.
“There is no point denying it,” said Postecoglou when asked about Moore’s potential and the role he could play for Spurs in the years to come. “I love the way Mikey is taking it all in his stride, he works hard every day. He wants to develop, he understands that this is a journey. It’s very easy for a young guy like him, who has just turned 17, to feel like he has somehow made it, but you never get that sense.
“It’s exciting. You have got such a young player, who wants that responsibility to make an impact, rather than just sometimes with young players they are a bit worried about making mistakes. He is developing well. We have to be really careful about how we use him, and when we use him, that is the key for us, particularly in these early stages.”
Postecoglou looks like being the perfect mentor for Moore in his formative years. The Australian will instil work ethic in the teenager whose attacking instincts will be sharpened by being exposed to the high-risk, high-speed nature of Ange-ball. Moore is being moulded in the image of his manager.
Moore’s game time could be limited for the rest of the season. Son is still ahead of him in the pecking order while Johnson is expected to be fit again in the coming weeks. What’s more, Mathys Tel has arrived on loan from Bayern Munich and will be yet more competition for Moore in the wide areas.
The 45 minutes Moore played against Brentford on Sunday also exposed the refinements he must make to become a true difference-maker at the top level. Indeed, the 17-year-old was naive with some of his positioning and decision-making with Postecoglou making the call to hook him at half time in favour of Lucas Bergvall.
Nonetheless, Moore is at the vanguard of Tottenham’s next homegrown generation which includes Damola Ajayi and Dane Scarlett, both of whom also found the back of the net in the aforementioned Europa League win over Elfsborg. If Spurs are building for the future, Moore is surely a big part of that vision.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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