Ange reveals what Dominic Solanke must do next after first Spurs goal

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Ange Postecoglou has praised Dominic Solanke after opening his Tottenham Hotspur account, but has admitted the striker is still some way off full 'match fitness'. 

Solanke joined Spurs in a big-money move from Bournemouth over the summer after netting 21 goals for the Cherries across all competitions last season.

However, the 26-year-old endured a tough start to life in a Spurs shirt, failing to score or assist in his first three games.

But Solanke finally got off the mark against Brentford on Saturday, firing home the rebound from a James Maddison effort to equalise in the eighth minute after the visitors had taken a first-minute lead.

Tottenham went on to win 3-1 thanks to further strikes from Brennan Johnson and Maddison.

Speaking after the match, Postecoglou insisted he's been happy with Solanke's performances so far but that it is, of course, nice that the striker is now getting amongst the goals.

"He was good again, I think he's been good in every game he's played for us, and as you said, strikers love scoring goals and, yeah, a great moment for him to score his first goal for the club, particularly at home," Postecoglou told reporters (via Football.London).

"But aside from that, again it was a really strong performance by him. I thought he led the line really well, important for us today as a link up there because we knew they'd go pretty aggressive on a man-to-man marking and he was going to have to hold the ball up for us and I thought he did that really well."

A first of many for Dom pic.twitter.com/e6DS4bn8qY

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 21, 2024

Solanke still short of 'match fitness'

Solanke's progress at Tottenham has been slowed somewhat by a minor ankle injury that saw him sit out the 4-0 win over Everton and 2-1 defeat away at Newcastle.

Postecoglou withdrew the striker in the 88th minute on Saturday, admitting he was 'out of gas'. Next on the list for Solanke now that he has a goal to his name is building up the fitness to go a full 90 minutes.

"Yeah, I mean, again Dom's still working his way to match fitness," Postecoglou added. "You saw at the end there, he was out of gas. We wanted to take him off a bit earlier, but we needed that third goal to kill the game off."

Up next for Spurs is a home tie with Qarabag FK in the Europa League on Thursday.

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