Dominic Solanke's Crucial Return to Tottenham

Dominic Solanke is finally edging towards centre stage at Tottenham – and Roberto De Zerbi is ready to throw down a challenge to the rest of his misfiring attack.

The striker has managed just 114 minutes in all competitions this season, a bit-part role that jars with Spurs’ blunt start in front of goal. Three league games, no goals. A new era under De Zerbi, but the same old question: who scores?

Solanke nearing long-awaited return

Solanke has not started for Spurs since April, when a hamstring injury forced him off just 40 minutes into a crucial 1-0 win at Wolves. That night was supposed to be the launchpad. Instead, it became the start of another long, frustrating spell on the treatment table.

The 28-year-old spent most of last season battling a recurring ankle problem and did not feature in any of Spurs’ final four matches. He watched from the bench as they scrambled over the line to secure Premier League survival on the final day.

A full pre-season was meant to reset everything. Fresh start, clean slate. But caution took over. Spurs’ revamped medical department, reshaped under performance director Dan Lewindon, opted not to rush Solanke back, wary of both his injury record and the impact of jet lag after his summer schedule.

That conservative approach has defined the opening weeks of the campaign. Players with chequered fitness histories, like Solanke, have been handled with particular care. The result: Spurs’ supposed focal point has barely featured, even as the goals have dried up.

De Zerbi: “He’s very close”

That could change against Everton on Saturday.

De Zerbi confirmed Solanke is now in contention to start for the first time since that night at Molineux, having twice been named on the bench against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest.

“I think he is close. He’s a crucial player for us, Dom Solanke. For the characteristics, personality, level of the player. He’s very close after two times on the bench - Newcastle and Nottingham - he could start the game. Or, anyway, Tuesday, he can start the game,” De Zerbi said.

If he does not make the XI against Everton, the Carabao Cup third-round tie against Liverpool on Tuesday is being treated as the next obvious step. Either way, Solanke’s time is coming.

Goals leave, goals needed

Spurs remain winless in the league but have not played like a side rooted to the bottom. The patterns are there, the structure is there. The finish is not.

The 0-0 draw with Nottingham Forest last weekend underlined the problem. Tottenham moved the ball, probed, dominated for spells – and still looked short of ideas in the final third.

That lack of cutting edge has been amplified by the talent they have willingly waved out the door. Brennan Johnson, top scorer in the 2024/25 campaign, was sold to Crystal Palace in January and will now line up for Everton on Saturday, returning to north London in different shades of blue.

Spurs are also working on an exit for last season’s leading scorer, Richarlison, with Vasco da Gama pushing to take the Brazilian back home. Add those departures to the earlier sales of Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane, and the scale of the attacking rebuild is stark.

De Zerbi, though, is not panicking about the volume of goals that have left the club. He keeps circling back to what is still in the building – and to the responsibility that now sits with the players who remain.

“Solanke didn’t play many games. I hope Solanke can be available this season more than last season. Marmoush didn’t play for Tottenham last season,” he said.

“Savio didn’t play last season for Tottenham. And then all players they have to…Mathys Tel has to improve. Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray. Now he is 22 years (old) and he has to push, to show.

“Because the level of football is you show who you are and what you can do, or you lose the level. I think we can score goals with this squad, but we have to see.”

A line in the sand

That is the crux of it. De Zerbi has his system and his principles, but he is now drawing a clear line for his forwards: prove you belong at this level, or fall away from it.

Solanke’s return offers a focal point, a reference, a different personality at the top of the pitch. Around him, the likes of Marmoush, Savio, Tel, Bergvall and Gray are being told, bluntly, that potential is no longer enough.

Everton at home, Liverpool in the cup, the season still young but already demanding answers. If Solanke is as “crucial” as his manager insists, this feels like the moment he has to show it.