Craig Burley has stated that he has ‘question marks’ over Tottenham Hotspur’s midfield pairing over Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, as he told ESPN.
The former Scotland international added that Bentancur is ‘clever’ on the ball, but it does concern him that Antonio Conte’s side get ‘bossed’, more times than not, in the middle of the park.
Bentancur arrived at Hotspur Way during the January transfer window when Spurs sporting director, Fabio Paratici, used his past links with Juventus to sign the struggling midfielder.
Juventus were happy for the player to leave because he wasn’t exactly lighting it up in Turin, alongside Dejan Kulusevski.
But what is Juventus’ loss is now Tottenham’s gain because the duo played a huge part in the team securing Champions League football last season.
Nonetheless, this is what Burley had to say about Tottenham’s team and especially their midfield.
“I worry about that four in the middle getting exposed and exposing that backline of Dier, Davies and Romero,” said Burley.
“Then you have Bentancur and Hojbjerg. Bentancur is clever on the ball, and Hojbjerg is more of a grafter. Is that strong enough in the middle of the park? I think there are question marks there
“It does concern me that they do get bossed a bit in midfield. And, yes I hear ‘we are happy to do that because we can hit teams on the counter’. Whether you can do that all season remains to be seen.”
BENTANCUR AN UNSUNG HERO
Over the weekend, Bentancur netted his first goal for Spurs when he disposed Wilfried Ndidi on the ball, drove forward with the ball and got himself on the scoresheet.
Whilst the likes of Kulusevski, Harry Kane, Cristian Romero, Eric Dier, Son Heung-min or summer signing Richarlison get most of the spotlight.
Someone like Bentancur does go under the radar because he has been an unsung hero for Conte.
It just goes to show, no matter how much a player is struggling at another team, it doesn’t mean he will falter when he puts on your colours.
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