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Photo: Conte calls up ‘tigerish’ midfield talent to Spurs training pre-Fulham, great eye for a forward pass

Giuseppe Labellarte

Fri 2 September 2022 18:15, UK

Tottenham Hotspur will hope to keep their Premier League unbeaten run going when they host Fulham on Saturday.

Spurs have enjoyed a bright start to the new campaign, winning three and drawing two of their games so far.

However, Tottenham certainly have room for improvement.

Last time out, they failed to hold onto their lead against West Ham.

Nonetheless, Spurs have managed to ground out results, and will no doubt go up the gears as the season goes on.

Meanwhile, Fulham have also started the season strongly, picking up eight points from their opening five games.

The Cottagers held Liverpool to a draw and briefly led Arsenal last weekend, only losing 2-1.

Conte has been putting his Tottenham players through their paces at Hotspur Way ahead of the game.

On Thursday, the Spurs media team published photos of their latest training session.

A number of Tottenham youngsters featured in the pictures, including Matthew Craig.

The 19-year-old is a ‘‘ midfielder who .

As per the Tottenham , Craig was a county cup winner and 1,500m district champion at school.

Having previously played for Watford, he is a Scotland youth international.

Craig has previously captained his country at Under-16 level and played for them in the Victory Shield.

He earned promotion to the Under-23s (now U21s) last summer and has made 25 appearances in total for them.

Last year, a training-ground photo emerged showing Craig tussling with – and seemingly getting the better of – Tanguy Ndombele.

Craig has been featuring fairly often in first-team training, suggesting Conte is a big fan.

‘An intelligent and tigerish midfield player’

In 2021, published an in-depth article about Craig – here is an excerpt.

‘As a midfielder Matthew plays usually as a number 4, and he is more deep-lying than his brother Michael, who likes to get forward more,’ they wrote.

‘An intelligent and tigerish midfield player who likes to watch Harry Winks play for Spurs, Matthew is very good at anticipating the play and he works very hard off the ball, covering a lot of ground during matches, thanks to his great stamina.

‘With good passing ability, the midfielder is good at keeping the ball moving in the central areas of the pitch, just like somebody like Harry Winks does, for example.

‘Never overcomplicating things when he is on the ball, Matthew has a calming presence about him on the pitch, but he is also a tenacious player despite not being the biggest of players.

‘Good at making challenges and getting in front of opposing teams players at the vital moment, one thing that Craig does which I really like is that he is so often looking to make that forward pass whenever he receives the ball.

‘However, most importantly he is a very consistent performer and a reliable player, who looks to have a very bright future ahead of him in the game.’