Mohammed Kudus might need to brush up on the names of the Tottenham coaches after namechecking one with the wrong name after his star performance at Leeds United.
The Spurssummer signing put in a man of the match performance in the 2-1 victory at Elland Road. He caused constant problems with his dribbling and strength on the ball down the right and set up Mathys Telfor his first goal of the season with a perfect pass midway through the first half.
Then Kudusnetted the winner in the second period as he reacted to Pedro Porro's pass down the line hitting the back of a defender and bouncing into his path. The Ghanaian ran inside and buried a low shot into the bottom right corner of the net after the smallest of deflections, which only served to slow the effort down slightly, and it was his first goal for the north London club.
After the game while talking through the goal for Tottenham's social media channels the 25-year-old said: "So Pedro got the ball and I went deep and then he played the ball in behind but sometimes it's not always getting the first ball. It was reacting to the second touch from the opponent and then when I went inside I went with a shot into the corner.
"It's been something I've been practising all week with Austin you know and I'm glad that it went in. I'm happy for my first goal and I hope it opens doors for more goals to come ahead. Happy with the three points."
Although it was a considerate move to namecheck the coaching staff, rather than Austin, we reckon Kudus means Justin, as in Justin Cochrane, one of Thomas Frank's trusted assistant coaches who came with him from Brentford and works with the attacking players. Cochrane is also part of Thomas Tuchel's England coaching set-up and came through as an academy coach at Spurs along with another current assistant coach Matt Wells.
It has been a great start to life at Tottenham for Kudus since his £55million move from West Ham with five assists and now that first goal for the club.
According to Squawka, the Ghana international is the only player to complete 30 take-ons in Europe's top five leagues this season and he has completed at least 11 more take-ons than any other Premier League player. No player in the English top flight has won more duels (57) or provided more assists than Kudus this term.
After the win on Saturday though, the summer signing wanted to make sure the spotlight was firmly on Tel.
"I want to give big praise to Mathys because I think it's been a tough month, not playing, but how he carries himself, trains. He's a top, top professional and I think you can see today when he got his chance, he was there. So it shows how professional he is," he said.
"As a player, definitely, it's going to be very difficult, but how he composes himself, manages himself, training, he's so young and with this mentality, it's really going to help him go far. And I hope that this first goal he has scored is going to open more doors for even better games and more goals coming ahead. I'm really proud of him today."
