Tim Sherwood reacts to Tottenham’s performance against Ajax

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Tottenham Hotspur lost 1-0 to Ajax on Tuesday night.

Former Tottenham Hotspur boss Tim Sherwood has told Sky Sports’ The Debate that he thought Dele Alli was ‘non-existent’ against Ajax on Tuesday night.

Spurs lost 1-0 at home to West Ham United on Saturday, losing for the first time at their new stadium, and were hoping for a big reaction – but ended up with the exact same result.

Ajax arrived for their Champions League semi-final having dumped out Real Madrid and Juventus, and are on the verge of another huge knockout after beating Spurs 1-0 last night.

Donny van de Beek’s first half goal was enough to get Ajax the win, with Spurs only really coming to life after Moussa Sissoko’s introduction, but still unable to score.

Without Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, this was always going to be a tough challenge for Spurs, and they were so flat going forward for the second game in a row.

After the game, ex-Spurs boss Sherwood suggested that too many Spurs players didn’t play well, believing that Christian Eriksen struggled and Dele Alli was ‘non-existent’, which is far from ideal given the money Tottenham are paying Alli in wages.

Sherwood added that the tactic of going long to Fernando Llorente is too predictable, and Spurs simply aren’t comfortable playing that way, losing fluidity in attack without the injured Kane.

“I always believe that systems don’t win games, it’s about the players on the night, and there was a lot of players in the Tottenham side who didn’t play particularly well,” said Sherwood. “Christian Eriksen was one of them, he’s a real player. A top player, I think he’s a world-class footballer, and he’s shown that over the period of this Premier League season, possibly Tottenham’s best player along with Son this year – but he had a bad night.

“Dele Alli was non-existent really for me, he didn’t play too well. They’re not used to playing with that stick-on centre forward. I know he’s done a decent job when he’s come on recently, the big guy up front Llorente, but it’s not fluid, it’s very predictable,” he added.