Frank Leboeuf has intimated that Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg would’ve been frustrated with Tottenham Hotspur teammate Harry Winks on Wednesday night.
The Lilywhites slumped to a horrendous 3-2 defeat at home to Southampton in North London.
Despite being the home team, Spurs conceded 23 shots at goal and honestly, they did well to only concede three times throughout the 90 minutes.
The Denmark international has come in for some criticism for his performance in midfield alongside Winks, with Tottenham manager Antonio Conte removing the former in favour of new signing Rodrigo Bentancur on the hour mark.
The fact that the hosts performed better with Bentancur on the pitch instead of Hojbjerg – who cost £15 million in 2020 – does nothing for how Tottenham supporters perceived the latter’s display.
However, ESPN pundit Leboeuf has defended Hojbjerg, adding that the ‘absolutely invisible’ Winks did his midfield partner no favours against the Saints.
He told ESPN: “You have to give a little bit of credit to Hojbjerg. He was of course very bad today but that guy is maybe fed up, running for others and not being helped out by anybody else. Winks was absolutely invisible today. It’s a real problem for him [Hojbjerg]. He works hard. At least there is one guy who works hard.”
Harsh?
It’s difficult to be overly harsh on Winks, to be fair.
The Tottenham midfielder, like most of his teammates, struggled horrendously against Southampton but remember, he’s been one of Spurs’ most-improved players under Conte.
If all of the Lilywhites stars were brilliant last night except Winks then by all means, he deserves criticism, but so many of the hosts’ were awful on Wednesday and therefore maybe, just maybe, the 26-year-old deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
