Gary Neville told Super Sunday during their live coverage of Tottenham’s win at Aston Villa that he noticed Davinson Sanchez didn’t want to ‘work his legs’ after just 20 minutes.
After a week that saw Tottenham lose the North London derby and then crash out of Europe, they answered a lot of critics yesterday, albeit in small doses.
Jose Mourinho opted to make several changes to his side, including mixing up his back four.
Neville shared his thoughts on Tottenham’s backline yesterday, including Sanchez.
“When you are watching defenders and you are thinking ‘are they in control’,” questioned Neville. “You look at Spurs defensively and you are not sure.
“I always think when you watch certain back fours, it’s when they don’t look like they are working as a unit. Just four individuals, who have been put together and that’s how Spurs feel.
“They are not covering each other’s backs. They don’t know the distances between each other. The back four look absolutely knackered – but you look at them, almost watching going on around them. Davinson Sanchez has his arms out wide.
“Jose Mourinho sits down, he knows, once your defenders get messed around like his are then it’s going to be a long night. That’s what happens when you don’t want to defend and you give a foul away. You don’t want to work your legs.”
In the end, it worked out well for Mourinho and it will be interesting to see if he runs with this backline after the international break.
In truth, if Villa had Jack Grealish available, or if they were in better form going forward then they would have punished Spurs a lot more than they should have.
But it’s all about riding that wave and Tottenham have done just that at the right time.
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