Roberto on Luca: “Potentially, he is a special player”
Luca Williams-Barnett stole the show in our penalty shoot-out win against Sydney FC with his ‘Panenka’ penalty to open the shoot-out – much to the delight of Roberto De Zerbi!
The 17-year-old showed nerves of steel to not just take on the Panenka, but execute it with a delicious dink down the middle of the goal as goalkeeper Gus Hoefsloot dived to his right.
That gave us the platform for a 4-2 win on penalties with Sandro Tonali, Andy Robertson – his first appearance in Lilywhite – and Dane Scarlett striking the decisive penalty after Martin Dubravka denied Alexander Popovic. Earlier, Mathys Tel’s wonderful free-kick was levelled by Takahiro Sekine as it ended 1-1 a the Allianz Stadium.
Having impressed as he came off the bench for the second half – he struck the top of the crossbar within a minute of coming on – Luca was a constant threat driving in from the left, continuing his fine form in pre-season.
Asked about Luca’s penalty in his interview with SPURSPLAY, Roberto responded: “I was number 10 as a player, so you can imagine how I can like him as a player. I think now we have a bigger responsibility with him to improve him, to help him to become stronger physically and to give him the right space to bring him to become the player that people imagine.”
Asked about Luca’s performance in his post-match press conference, Roberto said: “We have to manage him like a precious diamond. We have to help him to improve in the last decision. Physically, work harder to become stronger because this time of football, he needs to be strong, and to give him space when there is the right moment. I usually give time to all the young players I work with in my career, and he is a potential special player.”