Jamie Redknapp has said that Tottenham Hotspur missed the presence of Rodrigo Bentancur as they suffered a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal at home.
The £73,000-a-week midfielder is yet to recover from his spell out on the sidelines due to injury, which meant he was deemed unavailable for the North London Derby.
And as Jamie Redknapp has suggested, Tottenham lacked any semblance of creativity due to Rodrigo Bentancur being out of action against Arsenal.
For starters, one could not have expected the defensive double pivot of Pape Matar Sarr and Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg to conjure a moment of magic out of thin air against Mikel Arteta’s side.
Ultimately, the onus seemed to be on one of Dejan Kulusevki’s many crosses inside the box to lead to a goal for Antonio Conte’s side.
This season especially, Rodrigo Bentancur has brought so much to the table, in terms of his lung-busting ball-carrying ability, line-breaking passing and knack for a big goal; qualities that would have benefited Tottenham against Arsenal, as Jamie Redknapp goes on to suggest.
However, the hosts’ performance, or lack thereof in some senses without the former Juventus man was telling.
Jamie Redknapp says Tottenham missed Rodrigo Bentancur against Arsenal
On Sky Sports, Jamie Redknapp has said that Tottenham Hotspur looked completely devoid of creativity, as Rodrigo Bentacur failed to feature in the side due to injury against Arsenal.
“He [Rodrigo Bentacur] is that player. He is that big of a blow for Tottenham not to be playing at the moment.”
“He got injured during the World Cup and you see the difference when he plays. The results since he’s been out of the team, there’s been a massive shift”, Jamie Redknapp said about Rodrigo Bentacur after Arsenal beat Tottenham.
When quizzed about whether Spurs have a hard time keeping things ticking on the ball without the 25-year-old, the pundit answered, “Massively, because he takes the ball in tight areas, he can drive with it.”
“He adds a goalscoring threat as well, it’s huge not having him in the team. You’ve got two very similar players, [Pape Matar] Sarr and [Pierre-Emile] Hojbjerg, you need that bit of class.”
“That’s what they haven’t got when he doesn’t play. [Dejan] Kulusevski still not quite at the level because they had the injury and they do miss Bentancur.”
Ultimately, Jamie Redknapp is spot on about how much Tottenham seemingly missed Rodrigo Bentancur, as they suffered yet another disappointing defeat to Arsenal.
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