Andy Hinchliffe labelled Erik Lamela’s tackle on Dwight McNeil during Tottenham’s 1-0 win at Burnley on Monday night as ‘dangerous’ and ‘completely unnecessary’, as he told Sky Sports (26/10/20 at 9:50 pm).
The former Manchester City defender suggested that Lamela, who came on as a second-half substitute, was ‘fortunate’ not get sent off for his challenge.
The tackle occurred during the final few minutes of the game when Lamela went for a 50-50 ball but ended up catching the Burnley man, who lay on the floor and needed treatment.
After the play was stopped to attend to McNeil, Hinchliffe shared why he wasn’t best pleased with Lamela’s tackle.
“That is slightly high,” Hinchcliffe told Sky Sports. “His studs are up. There is no reason he needs to go into the challenge like that.
“He is slightly fortunate because he is over the top of the ball. If you are trying to win the ball, just scoop it away, you don’t need to raise your studs like that. You can see why McNeil has got hurt.
“It’s just completely unnecessary, it’s not about protecting yourself. You must know that you are going to hurt an opponent. You wouldn’t want to be challenged like that yourself, so why go into a challenge like that? It’s just so dangerous.”
At best, Lamela should have received a yellow for his tackle, but it wasn’t a red card offence even though his studs were on the high side.
Given the problems that have occurred with refereeing decisions or VAR calls recently, there were no such problems yesterday as Heung-Min Son scored the only goal of the game.
It was Son’s telepathic partner – Harry Kane – who, once again, assisted Tottenham’s energy battery to light up Jose Mourinho’s evening in Lancashire because he left with three points and a clean sheet.
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