Postecoglou must now boldly drop 5/10 Spurs star

Well, as should be expected by this point, Tottenham Hotspur followed up their sensational win away to Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday with a dismal draw against Roma in the Europa League last night.

Ange Postecoglou has done very well in his year and a half at the club, helping to turn them into one of the most exciting teams in Europe, but he hasn’t been able to quash the inconsistent streak that seems ever-present within the club.

However, the North Londoners had enough chances to win the game last night, so it would be unfair to pin the draw on anyone other than the players.

In particular, there was one regular starter who was notably poor on the night and should probably be dropped for Sunday’s clash with Fulham.

Spurs’ poor performers

So, before we get to the offender in question, it’s worth looking at some of the other disappointing displays from last night, starting with club-record signing Dominic Solanke.

Now, it’s true that the former Bournemouth ace didn’t make a mistake that cost his team a goal. However, he missed more than his fair share of chances that could have taken them out of sight of the Giallorossi, somehow failing to score once from an expected goals figure of 1.13, which saw Spurs writer Alasdair Gold award him a 6/10 match rating.

Likewise, while Son Heung-min scored the penalty in the first half, he was painfully ineffective for most of the game, either taking weak and inaccurate shots when he shouldn’t have or failing to pass to his teammates when he should have, resulting in a 6/10 from Gold.

In the midfield, Rodrigo Bentancur looked tired early on in the second half, and while he put in some decent tackles here and there, he failed to assert himself in the middle of the park, once again leading to a 6/10 rating from the football.london journalist.

However, while all three of the above were underwhelming against the Serie A giants, one of their teammates managed to put in a display that was even worse.

The Spurs starter Postecoglou should drop

So, while the likes of Radu Dragusin and even Brennan Johnson struggled at points last night, the starter who put in arguably the worst performance of all and should, therefore, be dropped was Pedro Porro.

Yes, the Lilywhites’ talented full-back, who is usually so effective for the club in attack and, at the very least, reliable in defence, was neither last night.

The Spaniard’s best moment came when he hit the woodwork from a free-kick in the second half but as Gold highlights, he ‘almost gifted Dovbyk a late equaliser’ and was ‘nowhere near Angelino’s cross for the leveller,’ which was unsurprisingly enough to warrant a paltry 5/10 match rating.

While that could be construed as harsh, it is an opinion backed up by the Spaniard’s statistics on the night.

For example, in his 95 minutes of action, the former Sporting CP ace was dribbled past twice, made an error that led to a shot, lost 100% of his aerial duels, lost the ball a staggering 23 times, misplaced 66% of his crosses, failed in 100% of his dribbles and maintained a passing accuracy of just 73%.

Now, while he did manage to take two shots on target and make several tackles during the game, his mistakes were too numerous to ignore.

As such, the manager should seriously consider dropping him for Fulham, especially when he can call upon Djed Spence, who needs game time badly, or even Archie Gray, whom Gold awarded a 7/10 for his display in the unfamiliar position of left-back last night.

Ultimately, nobody will dispute the sensational innate talent that Porro possesses, but last night was a particularly dire display from the full-back, and with players lining up behind him, Postecoglou should drop him to the bench on Sunday.