Alan Shearer has stated that Tottenham Hotspur’s backline got ‘bullied’ for an hour during their 3-2 win over Bournemouth on Saturday and how Emerson Royal was particularly at fault, as he told Match of the Day.
The former England striker pointed out the troubles Kieffer Moore caused Tottenham, including wanting to win the header ‘more than anyone else’, especially against Emerson Royal for his second goal of the game.
Emerson Royal started the game yesterday, with Antonio Conte resting several of his key players ahead of their pressure-cooker Champions League encounter against Marseille next Tuesday night in the Champions League.
For large parts of an hour, Spurs were second-best, before the changes started coming in, including Lucas Moura coming on at half-time, Eric Dier and Rodrigo Bentancur replacing Davinson Sanchez and Yves Bissouma after 57 minutes and Emerson being hooked for Ivan Perisic just after Ryan Sessegnon pulled a goal back.
Surprise, surprise, the mood and feel of Tottenham’s play started to change and, in the end, they deserved all three points for a dominant second-half display.
But that shouldn’t hide the fragilities shown at the back by the north London club, especially when Conte makes changes, as Shearer pointed out.
“For an hour, Bournemouth bullied Tottenham and they were too easy to play against,” said Shearer. “The two centre-forward, Solanke and Kieffer Moore, really bullied them.
“Balls like that up back and through the Spurs backline, it was too easy and a really clever finish from Moore. Really well worked.
“Similiar thing again, early on in the second half, it was a beautiful cross in. Kieffer Moore wants it more than anyone else, certainly more than Emerson Royal. What about that for a ball and a fantastic header.”
ISSUES AT THE BACK
When certain personnel are missing or even when certain individuals are playing, then Spurs fans do worry quite a lot and that was evident yesterday.
Emerson Royal and Davinson Sanchez are two players that just can’t be trusted together, especially without Eric Dier and Cristian Romero.
Someone like Japhet Tanganga might be thinking about what he does wrong to continue warming the bench because does he have to be a big-money signing in order to push ahead of those two in the starting XI?
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