Tottenham Hotspur star Rodrigo Bentancur slammed for Wolverhampton Wanderers no-show
Tottenham Hotspur went on to make that dramatic comeback in the final play to earn a 1-1 draw against bottom-of-the-table Wolves yesterday. The whole game, despite when that goal went in, felt more like a defeat already than a point gained.
It was an inspired stoppage-time goal from Joao Palhinha which saved a lot of embarrassment for the Lilywhites faithful when they check into their offices come Monday. But let’s be honest, the performance was far from what we have seen at N17 since the Dane head coach took charge of the proceedings.
Rodrigo Bentancur comes under limelight
And according to a report by Martin O’Neill, Rodrigo Bentancur was one of the chief culprits in that underwhelming performance.
Speaking on Premier League Live, the former Aston Villa and Celtic manager went on to lay into the Uruguayan midfielder. He criticised Bentancur for being “in and out of the game” far too often. And the numbers back it up. If we look at his stats from yesterday’s game against Wolves, the Uruguayan lost possession eight times. But that is not all; he only won 7 of 14 duels (which is far too few in these types of scrappy games). He did complete 37 of 43 passes (86%), but let’s be honest, most of those were sideways or backwards.
He said (as relayed by TBR Football):
“At half-time, we were talking about Bentancur, he’s in and out, he’s in and out of the game.
“You can’t afford a top-quality midfield player to be out of the game for 15 or 20 minutes. At a good spell, in any game, let alone at home.”
The thing is, that is simply not enough. Definitely not for someone who is playing in the middle of Tottenham’s three-man midfield.
TTLB Opinion
His struggles have come at an awkward time (just thinking it out loud). Given that Tottenham are discussing a new long-term contract with the former Juventus man. But then performances like the one he put up yesterday should make the decision-makers at N17 sit back and at least make some sense of pause to rethink.
But there is no time for Thomas Frank to think about this too much. He needs to find a way to get his midfield ticking again as games continue to come thick and fast. Tottenham travel to Norway to face Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League on Tuesday night. And Bentancur needs to bring back that intensity and intelligence in the second phase which made Tottenham supporters shout for him to start. But if he doesn’t, questions will be raised, and they will be raised soon and from everywhere.