Tottenham might still be deflated by their recent defeat to Fulham, but you can’t argue that it hasn’t been entertaining to watch under Ange Postecoglou.
One key feature of the former Celtic manager’s style of play is how his fullbacks operate in his all-action, no-nonsense, attacking and fearless system.
Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro aren’t your average fullbacks, in fact, far from it, but Tottenham fans watched the worst side of them at Craven Cottage.
Don Hutchison expressed that the Spurs duo can be ‘brilliant’ when they are at their best, but they can also be the team’s ‘worst enemy’, as he told Premier League Productions (17/03/24 at 8:45 pm).
Against Fulham, Tim Sherwood explained the difficulties they faced because Marco Silva’s side produced their best performance of the campaign.
They didn’t allow their London rivals to play through the lines and they ensured James Maddison wasn’t fed the ball how he would have liked, with Owen Hargreaves critical of the 27-year-old.
That just caused further issues for Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro because, acting as number 10’s, they would quickly find themselves being in no-man’s land.
Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro’s struggles
“When you watch Tottenham, sometimes, their fullbacks are brilliant,” said Hutchison.
“But sometimes, they are Tottenham’s worst enemy. And they exploited this space – I didn’t see this scoreline coming, if I am honest.
“They took the game to Tottenham and they couldn’t recover, which is really unlike Tottenham because they could be 1-0 down with a couple of minutes to go and can still win games. But Fulham just ran all over them.”
Dent in top four hopes
After beating Aston Villa last week, this was Spurs’ chance to real motor forward and make that fourth spot their own.
But to follow it up with a defeat just puts a dampener on that Villa Park result.
Unai Emery’s side themselves dropped points in the Premier League after their 1-1 draw at West Ham United – they are now 3 points clear of Postecoglou’s side having played a game extra.
All in all, this probably suits a team like Manchester United, especially after their FA Cup triumph over rivals Liverpool.
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