Spurs ace who was a 2/10 must not start anymore

A poor start to the season almost turned disastrous for Tottenham Hotspur last night.

Ange Postecoglou’s side travelled to Championship team Coventry City in the Third Round of the League Cup, and instead of playing a full-strength team, the manager opted to play a considerable number of second-string players, which nearly cost his team the game.

The hosts took the lead midway through the first half, only for two late goals to secure a win that even the staunchest of Spurs fans would struggle to say was deserved.

However, the important thing is that the North Londoners are still in the competition, and at least two players made a good case for their inclusion going forward. At the same time, one starter who took fewer touches than Fraser Forster certainly didn’t.

Spurs’ saviours

So then, let’s start with the two positives from a win that had very few indeed: the goalscorers.

The equaliser was scored by Spurs’ forgotten man, Djed Spence, who came on at the start of the second half to replace Destiny Udogie, and while his goal is the stand-out moment from his 45 minutes of action, he did more than that.

In fact, football.london’s Alasdair Gold awarded him an 8/10 on the night, writing that alongside the goal, for which he showed ‘real desire to run through and prod the ball home’, he also ‘made a good interception in his own box’ that kept the score 1-0 earlier on in the game.

Unfortunately for the 24-year-old, the North Londoners didn’t register him in their Europa League squad this season, so he’ll have to hope his performance was enough to earn him some minutes in the league.

However, it wasn’t just the former Middlesbrough ace that dug Postecoglou out of a vast hole of his own making, as one of Sunday’s villains, Brennan Johnson, scored the 92nd-minute winner to avoid a penalty shootout.

The Welshman was hounded by pundits and fans after his disappointing display against Arsenal over the weekend, and truth be told, he wasn’t spectacular for much of the game yesterday after coming on to replace Wilson Odobert in the 18th minute.

That doesn’t matter, though, as when his opportunity came in the dying embers of the game, he took it and, in the process, may well have earned another start against Brentford on Saturday.

However, while fans should celebrate the goals and the goalscorers, it was still a turgid performance from the team overall, and one player in particular proved without a doubt that he cannot start anymore.

Timo Werner’s game in numbers

Yes, the player in question is, of course, German attacker Timo Werner, who may well have put in his worst Spurs performance to date last night.

The former Chelsea ace consistently made the wrong choices when in possession, overhit passes and fluffed his lines, and had Spence and Johnson not won the game, he would likely have been public enemy number one among the fans.

Unsurprisingly, Gold was equally unimpressed with the 28-year-old and gave him just a 2/10 in his match ratings, writing that ‘he was dreadful and offered nothing’ in attack, and perhaps most damming of all, ‘had Spurs played on with 10 men his absence probably wouldn’t have been noticed.’

It may sound harsh, but it’s not an unfair assessment, and his statistics from the match back it up. In his 74 minutes of action, he failed to complete any of his three dribbles, took 47 touches – ten fewer than Forster – maintained a passing accuracy of just 84%, misplaced his three crosses, lost four of five duels, lost possession 14 times, was offside once, and made one error that led to a shot.

Ultimately, it was a match that few, if any, fans would have enjoyed watching, and while Spence and Johnson made a claim to start the next game, Werner certainly did not.