Vincent Janssen struggled during Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa.
Former Tottenham striker Gary Lineker and pundit Alan Shearer have commented on Vincent Janssen’s struggles for Spurs against Aston Villa, as seen on the BBC Match of the Day Twitter account.
Spurs were in FA Cup Third Round action on Sunday afternoon as they hosted Championship side Aston Villa at White Hart Lane, with Mauricio Pochettino’s men looking to build on Wednesday’s 2-0 home win over Chelsea.
Tottenham’s Vincent Janssen heads wide
Pochettino decided to rotate most of his side, but endured a frustrating 70 minutes before Ben Davies broke the deadlock, glancing a header into the net from Georges-Kevin Nkoudou’s cross.
Heung-min Son then sealed a 2-0 win by sliding the ball past Villa goalkeeper Sam Johnstone from Moussa Sissoko’s pull back, sending Tottenham into the next round of the competition.
Whilst Pochettino will be delighted with the win against a tricky opponent, the performance of struggling striker Vincent Janssen will be of major concern to the Tottenham boss.
Gary Lineker
Janssen, 22, was viewed as the striker to take some pressure off Harry Kane in the final third having hit 31 goals for AZ Alkmaar last season, but he’s so far struggled to make an impact at White Hart Lane following his summer move to North London.
The Dutch international has hit three goals for Spurs so far, but they all came from the penalty spot, with Janssen still waiting for his first goal from open play – and he struggled against Villa, barely threatening to score before being substituted on 60 minutes in favour of Dele Alli.
After the game, former Spurs striker Gary Lineker – as seen on the Match of the Day Twitter account – compared Janssen to former Spurs strike flop Roberto Soldado, before Alan Shearer revealed that whilst fellow pundits Dion Dublin and Jermaine Jenas felt Janssen should have been left on the pitch, he thought Pochettino made the right call by taking him off.
“Janssen is looking a bit like a poor man’s Soldado at the moment – you kind of feel for him a bit,” said Lineker.
“He’s having a hard time. We were having a discussion, and the lads were saying that they felt sorry for him, but I said the manager has to take him off; the manager’s neck was on the line here. I thought he would take him off, he did, and it was the right decision,” added Shearer.
What did you think of Janssen’s performance against Villa?
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