Alejo Veliz has come off the bench for Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur in the last two league games and will want to expand his minutes after the international break.
After making four substitutions at Kenilworth Road on Saturday, Ange Postecoglou chose to make Alejo Veliz his fourth change of the day. As he stood on the sidelines, stripped and ready to play, the Argentine was told to sit back down by his head coach because was fit to participate.
Five minutes later, Postecoglou did make the change, giving Veliz the last five minutes of stoppage time to assist Tottenham get over the line. With Luton Town eager to bring the ball forward and cause issues for Spurs in their own area, the Lilywhites needed a fresh pair of legs as well as Veliz’s size and force.
Kulusevski was utilised as the team’s primary striker after Son Heung-min was substituted in the 76th minute, and he more than held his own against the strength and power of Luton’s backline. He was exhausted after putting in a long shift, so it made sense for Veliz to come on and help finish the game.
Pape Matar Sarr played him in after a brilliant run from the Senegalese ace, and the 20-year-old had one chance on goal in his brief appearance. Veliz was eventually whistled for offside after waiting too long to locate his partner, albeit he did take too long to get his shot on goal once in possession of the ball.
The summer addition was only on the pitch for a few minutes, but he made an impression by using his muscular body to hold the ball up nicely. The Godeken-born player, who has already been off the bench in the last two Premier League games, will be hopeful that his recent minutes will increase once domestic football starts following the season’s second international break.
Given Postecoglou’s statements on the eve of the new season, Veliz’s game time may have surprised Spurs fans. The 58-year-old stated before of the game at Brentford on the opening weekend that his new signing was one for the future and that he would see minutes in the first half of the season.
“I believe it will be a while for him. “We just have to let him settle, he’s come halfway around the world,” stated Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. “He’s a young guy on a different level.” We’ll invest in him in the long run, but don’t anticipate him to play much in the first half of the season.”
Postecoglou highlighted the frontman’s performance and how he’s fit into life at his new home after he played 28 minutes off the bench for Tottenham’s Under-21s in their recent 5-0 win away at Colchester United in the EFL Trophy.
To be fair, he’s only been training for one week, including two sessions last week. We gave him U21 game time, and he’s now got a full week of training. It’s nice to have him on board, but there are no expectations for his contribution,” said the manager when asked by football.london.
“Obviously, being in the attacking third, I believe he will get some game time, but we still need to let him settle and get him involved in training more consistently over the next two or three weeks, as well as get him a game or two more for U21s, because he’s missed a lot of football, but we’ve been really encouraged with the way he’s gone about things and adjusted to life here.”
“He’s just a young man from the other side of the globe.” The dressing room environment is fantastic, and after watching him the other night, he is displaying the traits, he has terrific movement, and he assaults the box like a true number nine, and we are looking forward to getting him up to speed.”
Veliz is clearly a talented player, as evidenced by the club’s decision to spend £13 million on his services, and he might make an immediate impact for Tottenham. The key to that will be more game time in the next weeks and months, with Spurs’ lack of domestic and European football in 2023/24 undoubtedly a setback as it would have been ideal to enhance his game time in those competitions.
Minutes will be sparse for him in the Premier League, and all Tottenham fans will be rooting for that in the coming months. Veliz is obviously going about things correctly in training right now, as Postecoglou noted in his pre-Luton press conference.
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