Not just Postecoglou: Tottenham ace who only won 1/6 duels has to be axed

This season is going from bad to worse for Tottenham Hotspur.

Ange Postecoglou’s side were knocked out of the League Cup in emphatic fashion on Thursday night, which only placed more importance on their FA Cup Fourth Round game against Aston Villa yesterday evening.

Unfortunately, instead of witnessing a response from their team, the Spurs faithful had to watch a dire first half, and while there were about ten minutes of fightback in the second, it was too little, too late.

The North Londoners still have a chance of winning silverware in the Europa League, but that feels like an incredibly distant possibility, so it may well be time for Daniel Levy and Co to axe the boss and one of his starters, who was particularly poor at Villa Park.

Why it’s time for Spurs to sack Ange

So, when talking about Spurs’ form under Ange, you cannot ignore the fact that he has been incredibly unlucky with injuries.

For practically the entire season, he has been without his first-choice backline, and recently, he’s been without a number of his first-choice attackers to boot.

However, while the injuries have undoubtedly been a massive part of the team’s poor form, there comes a point in which the displays are so dismal and the results so unforgivable that blame once again has to fall squarely on the shoulders of the manager.

For example, out of the 24 Premier League games the Australian has managed this season, the North Londoners have won eight times, drawn three games and lost a staggering 13 times, meaning they’re averaging 1.13 points per match.

Things were going far better in the League Cup, where his side were averaging 2.40 points per game.

However, while there is no shame in going out to Liverpool, there is in the manner in which they went out,, with former Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp describing the team’s display as “abject.”

Yesterday’s performance against the Villans was not much better, as they were 1-0 down within a minute of kick-off, and for all the talk of Postecoglou playing exciting and attacking football, the team were unbelievably passive for much of the game and could easily have lost by four or five.

However, while the manager got a lot wrong, much of the blame has to fall on the players who started the game, including one international star who shouldn’t start the next game.

The Spurs ace who mustn’t start the next game

Unfortunately for Postecoglou, and the fans for that matter, there were a number of players who could justifiably be dropped from the starting lineup following yesterday’s defeat, from Son Heung-min up top to Antonín Kinský between the sticks.

However, in this instance, the starter in question is Rodrigo Bentancur, who was once again poor in the middle of the park and should be nowhere near the starting XI for the game against Manchester United on the weekend.

The Uruguayan international is a brilliantly talented midfielder who, at his best, can influence proceedings all over the pitch.

However, it has been some time since we have seen that player, and like his teammates, the Nueva Helvecia-born ace seemed all over the place at Villa Park.

Instead of controlling the pace of the game from the middle of the park, the former Juventus ace was constantly being bypassed as if he wasn’t even there, and then the few times he was able to get a hold of the ball, he’d make a wrong decision, or play it back.

While this might sound harsh, it’s an opinion shared by football.london’s Alasdair Gold who awarded him a 4/10 match rating and accurately described him as ‘anonymous,’ while The Athletic’s Alex Barker described the midfielder’s tracking for the second goal as “shocking.”

Unsurprisingly, the 27-year-old’s statistics do nothing to help his case, as in 72 minutes of inaction, he took 44 touches but played one key pass, failed to have a single shot on or off target, misplaced 50% of his long balls, lost four of five ground duels and one of one aerial duels, lost the ball four times, committed two fouls and was dribbled past twice.

Ultimately, yesterday’s game was one to forget for the entire Spurs team, but given how diabolically poor the results have been all season, Postecoglou must be on incredibly thin ice, and for his part in the defeat, Bentancur has to miss out on the next game.

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