Danny Murphy has described Tottenham Hotspur attacker Gareth Bale as ‘physically inept’ and claimed that he isn’t doing enough to play regularly under Jose Mourinho right now.
The 31-year-old’s return to North London is proving very underwhelming so far.
There was so much fanfare when Tottenham re-signed him on a season-long loan from Real Madrid but he doesn’t look the same player who tore Premier League defences to shreds once upon a time.
So far, the Welshman has only earned 169 minutes of league football under the Spurs boss, spread across five appearances.
Bale arrived at the club injured and took a few weeks to get up to speed but, in the eyes of Murphy, he is still struggling in this department and ‘way off’ reaching the standard needed.
He told Optus Sports: “Bale looks physically inept for some reason. I don’t know, maybe there’s a fear factor because of the injuries he’s had, but at the moment he’s way off. He’s not close enough to be playing in the team regularly obviously.”
Averaging 33 minutes of Premier League football this season just sums up Bale’s problems.
This is a player who could and should be starting and finishing virtually every game but, for whatever reason, Mourinho clearly doesn’t fancy him.
There’s a lot of Tottenham fans who’d love to see him play more, but Mourinho is a two-time Champions League winner and as a coach is one of the best in the business, so his judgement has to be trusted.
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