Roberto De Zerbi missed out on following his own obvious Luca Williams-Barnett advice
Luca Williams-Barnett was the biggest story of the preseason for Tottenham Hotspur, grabbing the attention of fans even beyond N17, as evidenced by the rumored links to Premier League and Bundesliga giants like rivals Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund, with his bravery on the ball and insane dribbling skills. He was getting some fans to think about the grace of Tanguy Ndombele and Moussa Dembele in Tottenham midfielders past with how easily he was progressing the ball in that playmaking midfield role.
Tottenham have lacked ball progression and playmaking in the middle of the park this season, clearly lacking in terms of obvious chance creation for the forwards. Sandro Tonali, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Mateus Fernandes have all been great at keeping and recycling possession, as well as progressive passing, but the actual on the ball dribbling has been restricted to wingers like Savio, Mohammed Kudus, and occasionally Mathys Tel. And only Savio seems remotely capable of putting the ball into teasing areas on a consistent basis.
Spurs have been hampered badly by last season's ACL tears to young stars Xavi Simons and Wilson Odobert, while the veteran No. 10, James Maddison, still has not started a single game since the end of the 2024/25 Premier League season when he tore his ACL. Madders seemed to be on the mend, but after a shoulder dislocation on Matchday 1 against Brentford, he has been slow to get back into the starting mojo and only got in another bench appearance after the international break in Saturday's 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
Luca Williams-Barnett has every reason to play now
Starting at the No. 10 was none other than Conor Gallagher, who worked hard for the team but again had no real end product and flubbed multiple great chances to get a goal or an assist for one of his attacking teammates.
And it is interesting that, before the game, Roberto De Zerbi admitted to reporters that he needs to be playing Luca Williams-Barnett now, having only given the midfield gem a cup of coffee for 12 minutes earlier this season.
De Zerbi said of his top prospect mired in transfer rumors to the elite, via Arabic Spurs, "I'm thinking about it, I'm really thinking about it, because he's another special player. But he's still very young, and dealing with very young players is extremely complicated. Sometimes you want to do what's good for the player, but you're actually not doing what's in his best interest. Nevertheless, I think we've reached the stage where Luca can play, because he's a special player"
Now, De Zerbi didn't follow his own advice about playing LWB against Man United and paid the price with another bad showing from Conor Gallagher. James Maddison should be back to face his childhood club Coventry with extra rest until the Matchday 7 tilt against Coventry, but that actually makes it easier to justify playing LWB as Maddison's sub, rather than maybe starting him and having Madders off the bench for him vs. Man United. Either way, LWB's time is coming, because the Gallagher jig is up.
