Summary Manor Solomon has impressed journalists with his performances on Tottenham Hotspur's Asia-Pacific tour, showing the ability to fight for a starting spot. The 24-year-old attacker has a purpose to his dribbling and has improved on his assists and setting up others, making him a valuable player. Despite an injury-hit season, Solomon had an impressive goal involvement rate and maintained high passing accuracy, suggesting he could make a case for being a starter if he stays fit.
Tottenham Hotspur's new signing Manor Solomon had "a purpose to his dribbling" and left journalist Alasdair Gold feeling "really impressed" after his performances on the club's Asia-Pacific tour.
Manor Solomon's Tottenham future
The Spurs signing that has attracted the most attention so far this summer, and understandably so, is the £40m acquisition of James Maddison from Leicester City. The England international is the kind of well-known, exciting and attacking signing bound to stir fans, but people shouldn't forget about fellow new boy Solomon.
The Kfar Saba-born attacker had a brilliant – albeit injury-hit – season with London rivals Fulham last year and joined the Lilywhites on a free in early July.
Whilst the expectation has generally been that he's going to be a practical and helpful squad option for Ange Postecoglou, he has already shown to those who have been watching he has the ability to fight for a starting spot.
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He has been making a good case for himself on the club's Asia-Pacific tour already as well, with the Evening Standard's Simon Collings giving him a seven out of ten for his performance against West Ham United in Perth, describing him as 'Tottenham's best player during the first-half''.
However, Collings wasn't the only one impressed by his performances as football.london's Spurs correspondent Alasdair Gold was also left "really impressed" by the Israeli.
He gave his impression of the player on his podcast Gold and Guest Talk Tottenham, saying:
"I was really impressed with the way he played, and also, my issue with him beforehand and something he needed to improve on was his assists and setting up others.
"With Solomon, it doesn't feel like he's just going to be head down and running into people, it feels like there's a purpose to his dribbling and he'll know the right moment to stop it and pass and to look up or shoot or whatever. So yeah, he looks good."
How good was Manor Solomon last season?
Unfortunately for the £23k-per-week man, an injury at the start of his time in west London stopped him from getting a full season of Premier League football under his belt, but when he could play, he looked quality.
In just the 563 minutes of league football he played for the Cottagers, he provided four assists, meaning he averaged a goal involvement every 140 minutes or one every one-and-a-half games.
He also maintained a passing accuracy of 86.4% – the fourth highest among Fulham players that got at least 500 minutes of game time – and averaged a match rating of 6.52, per WhoScored.
Some of his underlying numbers are also seriously impressive and suggest that if he is able to stay fit next season, he could well make a case for himself to be a starter.
According to FBref, which compares players in a similar position across Europe's top five leagues, the 24-year-old "game changer" sits in the top 1% for non-penalty goals and tackles, the top 4% for pass completion, the top 6% for successful take-ons, and the top 18% for interceptions, all per 90.
Former boss Marco Silva will surely miss him at Craven Cottage as he waxed lyrical over his performances earlier in the season, saying:
"His one-v-one situation is really strong and coming from the left he is important."
He should be just as entertaining to watch this year, and it'll be interesting to see if he can force his way into a starting place as the season plays out.