Louis Saha has warned Manchester United they will need to be wary of a rejuvenated Dominic Solanke on Sunday.
The Tottenham striker has endured an injury-hit start to his time in North London following his £55million summer switch from Bournemouth but opened his account for his new club in last weekend’s win against Brentford. Solanke was on the scoresheet again in Thursday night’s win over Qarabag in the Europa League and Saha believes the fit-again 27-year-old is the missing piece of the jigsaw for boss Ange Postecoglou as he bids to shoot down United.
He said: “I think Dom Solanke will prove to be a great signing for Tottenham. He’s a player who is at the top of his game and his link up play has really improved over the last couple of seasons. I think he’s done really well. Technically, he’s really good. He loves to score goals, and he is a player that, although he hadn’t scored until this weekend, he was always in the right area. That gives me the confidence that Solanke will score a lot of goals for Tottenham because he’s got quality players who will keep feeding him.
“The one issue that Spurs have had is someone applying the finishing touches to their games, because they create so many chances. They needed to add a deadly finisher because they will always give the opponent a chance to score, but in most games, they will create a lot more chances. Solanke can score the goals that Tottenham need to turn their domination of the ball and chance creation into three points.”
Spurs scored the fewest goals of their rivals last season following Kane’s exit as they missed out on a Champions League spot. However, Saha believes Solanke is ready to step up to the plate and spearhead Tottenham’s top-four bid this season.
“I think that Dominic Solanke is the closest like-for-like player they could have signed to replace Harry Kane,” he said. “His link-up play is a massive plus to his game and it’s something that has improved so much over the last two seasons. He’s very comfortable on the ball and he doesn’t make bad choices or silly passes.