Tracey playing as a centre-forward now


YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Tracey-playing-as-a-centre-forward-now
Tracey has played the last two Spurs U23 games as a centre-forward

I have to admit, when Shilow Tracey arrived at Spurs from non-league Ebbsfleet United, I didn't know whether he was a striker or a midfield player. There seemed to be conflicting reports.

He came to everyone's attention banging in goals in Ebbsfleet's Youth FA Cup run where they went through five rounds to reach the 'proper' knockout stages of the competition. We offered him a trial and took him to Florida for a closer look. He scored in victories over Jacksonville Armada and Baltimore Celtic, helping Spurs reach the final where we lost on penalties to Maccabi Haifa.

Clearly he impressed as we signing him during the January transfer window last year.

The 18-year-old (19 in April) Englishman was described as an attacking midfielder by Sky Sports, although we were playing him as a wide attacker, much like Christian Eriksen, Son Heung-min, Erik Lamela and Mousa Sissoko.

This season he has played 1,085 minutes of football over 14 Premier League 2 and 3 UEFA Youth League games, scoring 4 goals and having 2 assists, one in each competition.

Against CSKA Moscow he played as an attacking midfielder, against Bayer Leverkusen he played the inverted right winger role. In Premier League 2 games he has been tried on the right of midfield, central midfield, as an attacking midfielder and right winger. For the last two games he has played at centre-forward, against Southampton, a game in which he scored and had an assist and Liverpool.

Prior to that in 12 games he has scored to against Sunderland from the right-hand side of midfield and 1 against Manchester City, with an additional assist, from the right wing.

A watching brief will have to be kept to see if the academy coaches are going to persevere with him in a central attacking role.

Further THBN Reading
New signing Parrott wants to emulate Robbie Keane
A look forward to next week
Mourinho can't stop Spurs now
Oduwa heading to Slovenia


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