Gary Neville told Super Sunday on Sky Sports (15/08/21 at 5:05 pm) that it was ‘strange’ that Japhet Tanganga wasn’t booked during Tottenham’s 1-0 win against Manchester City on Sunday.
The Spurs defender was adjudged to have fouled Raheem Sterling in the 36th minute on the halfway line – the fourth time referee Anthony Taylor had awarded a foul against him.
For a minute, it seemed as though the official was going to show Tanganga a yellow card, but instead, he called over captain Hugo Lloris.
But Neville was left baffled by what he was seeing and made it clear that he was ‘not having’ the Spurs goalkeeper being called over for that moment.
“There you go, he’s going to book him (Tanganga),” said Neville. “You can’t call the captain over, surely? Is he?
Martin Tyler added: “It does look like that. Hugo Loris is the captain” to which Neville responded, “For what?”
“I’m not having that,” added Neville. “That’s two final warnings he (Tanganga) has had. It’s a strange one. I am happy he’s not booked him for the game because it’s a real good tussle on this side.”
Tanganga’s pockets will feel a little heavy this morning because he did quite a job on the £100 million man Jack Grealish and Raheem Sterling.
The 22-year-old showed bravery in his play, fronted up to both players and displayed outstanding one v one defending.
Nuno Espirito Santo also deserves credit for handing the keys to the right-back spot to Tanganga because he could have gone for more experienced drivers.
One of them being the more attack-minded Matt Doherty, who he knows very well from his days at Wolves, but it was the youngster who was shown the faith and he thrived.
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