Roy Keane has claimed that he has ‘sympathy’ for Tottenham manager Nuno Espirito Santo after their 3-0 defeat to Manchester United on Saturday evening, as he told Saturday Night Football on Sky Sports.
The Premier League legend claimed that Nuno came to Spurs thinking he was going to work with a ‘world-class’ player in Harry Kane – but that has been far from the case.
In what is becoming the norm for the North London side this season, they didn’t just lose yesterday, but they produced another abject, slow and defensive display.
Kane was at the heart of it, and it’s not a good look on the England captain because of what happened in the summer.
That’s why Keane was feeling sorry for the man in the Spurs dugout, as he reacted to their attacking and defensive stats being some of the worst in the Premier League this term.
“It’s not a good combination is it,” said Keane. “You are not keeping clean sheets. Spurs traditionally you always think that they will score goals and they aren’t even doing that.
“It’s also the type of defeats they have had. We saw it against Chelsea, Arsenal, Palace and today. Real lack of quality.
“You do have to have sympathy with the manager. You think when he came in here ‘I am going to be working with a world-class striker in Kane’.
“But that saga is just dragging on. Kane’s not recovered from it. The team hasn’t. It must be really hurting the manager to think ‘I thought I would have a top man upfront who would, at least, be getting us goals’.”
Ten Premier League games in, Nuno, who wasn’t even probably the fifth choice to replace Jose Mourinho as manager, has lost five of those encounters.
Even though Spurs are sitting in eighth spot in the Premier League table, many feel that a number of those results, i.e. the wins against Wolves and Watford, papered over the cracks that are now clear to see.
In truth, if they continue in their current ways, then they will only drop further down the table and head towards the bottom half.
Someone like Daniel Levy needs to be put in the spotlight a lot more because he has played a major part in this decline.
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