Aston Villa’s Spurs loanee Josh Onomah struggled to make an impact during the Midlands derby with Birmingham City.
It’s a trademark of Mauricio Pochettino that he tends to keep the young players he rates highest in and around the Tottenham Hotspur first-team, ensuring they fully understand his tactics, style and expectations when given their chance to shine.
Spurs’ decision to send Josh Onomah to Aston Villa on a season-long loan in the summer, then, was a source of plenty of intrigue. Did this mean that Pochettino believed the England youth international, who featured in just five league games last season, was simply not ready to make the grade in North London?
Onomah looked to be on the verge of Spurs’ first-team during the 2015/16 campaign but he failed to kick on at Tottenham in his second campaign in Pochettino’s plans. And if his display in Sunday’s Midlands derby clash with Birmingham is anything to go by, the 20-year-old has a long way to go before he can challenge Moussa Dembele, Dele Alli and co for a place in Spurs’ midfield.
Onomah was arguably the poorest player on the park at St Andrews as Villa were held to a dire goalless draw by their local rivals.
Deployed in an attacking midfield role by manager Steve Bruce, the youngster failed to have any sort of an impact on proceedings and was promptly slammed by underwhelmed Villa supporters on Twitter. In total, Onomah posted a pass completion rate of a distinctly average 72 per cent and failed to produce either a shot or a key pass in 90 minutes.
Though Onomah’s performances have been a little more lively in recent weeks, the midfielder has missed a real opportunity to make a lasting impression in a high-profile, televised game.
If Pochettino was watching, he surely won’t have been drawing up plans to shoehorn Onomah into his Spurs side in the near future.
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