Bournemouth boss hails four ‘world-class’ Tottenham players aside from Kane & Son

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Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil hailed Lucas Moura, Ivan Perisic, Bryan Gil and Rodrigo Bentancur as ‘world-class’ after Tottenham Hotspur’s comeback 3-2 win on Saturday, as he told his press conference.

Whilst it’s Harry Kane and Son Heung-min who usually get the plaudits and the tag of being world-class in this Tottenham side, Bournemouth’s stand-in coach was sure to big up those who came off the bench to change the game yesterday.

After losing to Manchester United and Newcastle United during this past fortnight and then recording a costly draw against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League in midweek, it was looking like another ‘L’ was going to be stamped on Tottenham’s season.

Kieffer Moore caused the north London club all sorts of problems, including scoring on either side of the half to give his side a 2-0 lead.

Antonio Conte, who had made changes because of his side’s crucial Champions League tie against Marseille on Tuesday, then started to ring the changes, including bringing Moura, Gil, Perisic, Eric Dier and stoppage-time winner Bentancur into the action.

Former West Ham midfielder O’Neil spoke about the gulf in quality between his newly-promoted team and the Champions League outfit, as he made reference to the players who came off from the bench. 

“When you bring on Lucas Moura, Perisic, Bryan Gil and Bentancur, they just keep bringing world-class players off the bench,” said O’Neil.

“I think it can be tricky. But we have lost a game against Tottenham, which is never a disgrace for us. I think the way we went about it wasn’t a disgrace either. I think we were really, really competitive. The boys can take a lot of credit for that.”

ANOTHER STRONG SECOND-HALF SHOWING

When Jose Mourinho was in charge, Spurs had a habit of starting well, taking the lead, then sitting back and not really going after teams to kill off the game.

Under Conte, it seems as though Spurs have to wait until they concede a goal or two before reacting.

It cost them against Newcastle and against Sporting, they got themselves out of a hole at the weekend, but won’t be able to do the same in Marseille if they go down the same road.