The 2022/23 season has officially come to a close for Cristian Romero. A truly memorable one for the centre-back after more than playing his part in his country lifting the World Cup back in December, the Tottenham ace signed off for the campaign with a goal in Argentina's 2-0 win over Indonesia.
Having recorded the same scoreline last Thursday against Australia in China, Romero helped Albiceleste to another win as he added to Leandro Paredes' first-half wondergoal. Only notching a solitary strike for his country previously, Romero doubled his tally in style as he outjumped his marker to powerfully head home past the goalkeeper.
The man who assisted the 25-year-old will be very familiar to all Tottenham fans as it was fellow Spurs player Giovani Lo Celso who delivered the outswinging corner for his teammate to meet in style. Romero's face said it all after his goal as he raced over to Lo Celso with a beaming smile as others came to join in the celebrations.
In terms of his Tottenham career, the centre-back only has one goal for the club so far after scoring in the 2-0 win away at Brighton & Hove Albion in March 2022. Dejan Kulusevski may have something to say about the goal, though, after his strike from the edge of the area hit an unsuspecting Romero that wrongfooted the goalkeeper.
Although not on the scoresheet in the 2022/23 season for Tottenham, the World Cup winner did come close on a couple of occasions, including in the win over Crystal Palace in May as he struck the crossbar with a header. Scoring three goals apiece for both Genoa and Atalanta in 60 and 42 games respectively, it is something the highly-rated defender will want to add to his game for Tottenham.
It is no doubt something new head coach Ange Postecoglou will also want from Romero and his fellow defenders currently at the club. With the Australian's midfielders chipping in with impressive goal tallies during his two years at Celtic Park, the team's defenders also did likewise.
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In the 2021/22 season, Cameron Carter-Vickers finished his debut season in the east end of Glashow with four goals to his name. The ex-Tottenham man wasn't as prolific in the opposition box last campaign, however, after only managing one goal in 39 appearances.
His centre-back partner, Carl Starfelt, did see a big improvement in terms of goals last term after contributing three in 37 games. The previous campaign the Swede had failed to find the net at all for Celtic.
After Starfelt had opened his Celtic account last August in a 5-0 win at Kilmarnock, Postecoglou opened up about the importance of ensuring the number have a number of goalscoring options and that they aren't too reliant on the frontmen.
“We want to have multiple threats, it’s not about one person being the focal point of our scoring opportunities and avenues," he said, as reported by the Daily Record. "We are getting centre backs chipping in which is also good. We just want to be a team that can hurt teams in many different ways. I thought the quality of our goals were excellent and the quality of our general play attacking-wise was good.”
Amid the huge pressure on Harry Kane and Son Heung-min's shoulders in recent years to deliver the goals for Tottenham, Postecoglou, as he did do at Celtic, will want others in his team to chip in on a regular basis. That should hopefully be the case in the head coach's attacking 4-3-3 system as two of the three midfielders will be told to push upfield and offer support to their attacking teammates.
Romero's goal on Sunday was the perfect example of how good he is with head when attacking the ball from a set piece and Tottenham really need to make best use of his qualities. Unlucky on a few occasions so far in his Tottenham career with the crossbar and referee's whistle denying him, hopefully he will be able to add to his single Spurs goal under Postecoglou next season.
