Tottenham need Timo Werner upgrade despite goalscoring redemption against Crystal Palace

There was really only one thing to discuss over mini-burgers in the Tottenham press room at half-time on Saturday — Timo Werner’s miss.

Werner’s miss — or rather Sam Johnstone’s save — was the highlight of a flat first 45 minutes of Spurs’s eventual 3-1 win over Crystal Palace and, as the footage played on a seemingly endless loop, everyone had a view on where the forward went wrong.

There was consensus that Werner never looked confident as he bore down on goal. To recap, Werner raced clear in the 18th minute, collecting Heung-min Son’s pass just inside his own half and leaving defenders in his wake as he charged down the centre of the pitch. But his attempt to round the goalkeeper lacked conviction and Johnstone made a comfortable save.

Werner’s miss mattered not a jot in the end and he earned redemption by scoring in the 77th minute, a cool far-post finish to spark a spirited Spurs comeback — with Cristian Romero and Son adding further goals after Eberechi Eze had opened the scoring with a fine free-kick.

Werner’s first goal for Spurs since a January loan move from RB Leipzig was well-deserved for a lively second-half display and he might have won a penalty, too, following a clumsy challenge by Daniel Munoz.

“Apart from the missed chance his general play was really good,” said Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou.

Where Werner is concerned, though, missed chances still tend to linger in the memory. Judging any player on one squandered opportunity is unfair, let alone one still settling into a new team after a disrupted first half of the season, but the ex-Chelsea forward’s reputation as a wasteful finisher still precedes him.

Like any player under Postecoglou, Werner should improve as he assimilates to the Australian’s demands but even Postecoglou is unlikely to instil a ruthless edge in a forward who has said himself he is not at Spurs to be “the main man who scores the goals”.

Really, Saturday’s game was probably a good demonstration of what Werner can and will offer Tottenham.

He is a hard working and tactically-intelligent player, technically sound and quick. He will stretch defences and beat full-backs, and he is a round peg for Postecoglou’s preferred 4-3-3 set-up.

He is not, though, a natural-born finisher in the vein of Son, who showed him how it was done with an unerring strike after racing clean through in the 88th minute, and Werner’s goal was his first from open play since September.

The question for Spurs is whether Werner is worth their agreed summer buy option with Leipzig, believed to be around £15million. That amount does not buy much in today’s market, and Spurs would presumably struggle to upgrade on an experienced Germany international for so little.

By comparison, Brennan Johnson, who was decisive from the bench again, brilliantly assisting Werner’s equaliser, had scored the same number of Premier League goals (10) as Werner when he joined Spurs in the summer but cost £47.5m.

If Spurs are truly to rival Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal, however, they need a new top-level forward, and Werner is not that player.

Werner has 12 more League games to convince Spurs he is worth the money and there are a number of other factors at play, including Johnson’s growing influence.

The hope for Werner is he will kick-on from Saturday’s goal, and make the decision an easy one for the club. “This was a big step for me to get more confidence and hopefully I can take it into our next games,” he said.