Young Tottenham Hotspur centre-half Juan Foyth had a mixed first year at White Hart Lane following his reported £8million arrival from Estudiantes late on in August 2017.
With only eight appearances to his name, he had to wait until 2018/19 before he got his full Premier League bow and it was again somewhat of a mixed season for the 21-year-old has he continued his adjustment.
There were high points, of course, as he opened his club account against Crystal Palace in November but prior to that, the game against Wolverhampton Wanderers saw him concede two penalties in our narrow victory over them.
Reflecting this week on his time at Spurs, the youngster admitted the first year was definitely a massive learning curve but he told the Official Site that he felt things changed for him last term in the EFL Cup victory over West Ham.
“The beginning of the season was hard for me. Of course, it’s always hard with your first full pre-season here and I think maybe in the summer I hadn’t prepared like I should prepare. When I came here I realised that pre-season is different in Europe and I started with an injury through my own fault. Thankfully, I started to recover, to do my best, I then played against West Ham and everything changed. It was very good after this.”
With him taking plenty of flack for Wolves, others were more than willing to forgive the penalties, believing he’d been hung out to dry during the build up, but again he was taking the positives from it.
“It was a bit of a surprise, but I think in the West Ham game I played well so maybe I deserved it. For me, the second one wasn’t a penalty but of course you always learn from mistakes and you try to take the positive part. Every single action helps you to develop and to improve so I tried to learn from those mistakes.”
With Foyth now carrying a suspension over to next year following his Bournemouth sending off, he admitted that was a regret, but again for me shows his maturity with his outlook on performances.
“In that moment I was really, really sad, really frustrated. When the game finished, I tried to change my mindset, to think it was just a single action and that I can keep being the same player, not to judge myself on one action whether I’m bad or I’m good. I think these situations mustn’t define you as a player. If you have a bad game, it doesn’t mean you are a bad player or if you have a good game, it doesn’t mean you are the best. You keep being the same player and always the team of staff, the manager and the team-mates help a lot – when you make a mistake they are always behind you and trying to give you confidence. This really helps.”
With plenty of fans hoping for a big summer, it could be a big year for Foyth having more established himself in manager Mauricio Pochettino’s plans and got himself some international action for Argentina.