Ange Must Drop 2/10 Disappointment After “Diabolical” Spurs Display vs Coventry

Having invested heavily in the summer, and being blessed with the promise of second season success under Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham would’ve been hoping to push on this campaign and build on the Aussie’s debut season at the club. However, the Lillywhites haven’t exactly hit the ground running so far, and a few miserable performances last night, notably the display from Timo Werner, were close to jeapordising their season all together.

Indeed, Spurs have suffered a largely uninspiring beginning to the new campaign. A disappointing draw away at Leicester in their opening fixture was compounded by defeats to Newcastle and rivals Arsenal, and last night’s League Cup tie against Coventry City almost ended disastrously.

With the need to bring in silverware exacerbated by a well documented 16-year trophy draught, Postecoglou will likely place significant emphasis on the cup competitions as an opportunity to put an end to this bleak record. Thus, getting past Coventry in the third round yesterday was of paramount importance, and whilst the former Celtic boss’ side eventually managed to do so, it was far from plain sailing.

The north Londoners fell behind to a nicely worked goal from Brandon Thomas-Asante mid-way through the first half. The away team were on the verge of being dumped out of the competition at this early stage, before two late strikes from Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson saved them from embarrassment.

Despite progressing to the next round, it’s fair to say one man struggled on the day and the stats don’t make for pretty reading either. Werner, given his first start of the new season, put in a forgettable performance in the West Midlands.

Werner Lets Postecoglou Down vs Coventry

He lost the ball 14 times

Having played an intense North London derby on the weekend, and with a difficult game against Brentford to come on Saturday, Postecoglou may have felt a League Cup tie at Coventry would provide ample opportunity to rotate and rest some of his pivotal players. However, the Australian manager ultimately had to call upon the likes of James Maddison and Son Heung-min to change the game late on, and was criticised for selecting the likes of Werner and Forster from the start.

In Werner’s case, drawing on the German to deliver certainly warranted criticism, as the ex-Chelsea forward produced a very below-par display. With a 6.5 SofaScore rating, he was the joint-worst performing Spurs player who started, alongside Wilson Odobert, who was substituted after 18 minutes after sustaining an injury.

Hooked with 16 minutes to go, Werner struggled to impact the game in a positive way. Failing to register a shot, the 28-year-old completed none of his three attempted dribbles, none of his three attempted crosses and lost possession more times than any other Spurs player, with 14 turnovers.

Standing out like a sore thumb was certainly impressive given how poor Tottenham were generally as a team, with former player Jamie Redknapp describing Postecoglou’s side’s performance as ‘diabolical’. Given how non-existent Werner was, it’s no surprise the maligned manager opted to replace him with Dejan Kulusevski as Spurs chased an equaliser.

2/10 Werner Must Be Dropped

Postecoglou can’t afford to use the winger

Such was the appalling nature of Werner’s outing at the Coventry Building Society Arena, that journalist Alasdair Gold gave the winger a two out of ten in his player ratings for the encounter. After admitting that the loanee did make a good sliding block in his own box in the first half, the Football.London reporter wrote:

These damning words are an indictment of just how bad Werner was. Clearly not flavour of the month in Postecoglou’s eyes anyway, given he’s yet to start a league game this season, the 59-year-old may even have to refrain from picking the player in this competition.

While granting fringe players opportunities in the EFL Cup makes sense on paper, the stakes for Spurs are too high in these matches as they look to end their silverware drought, and Postecoglou has to rely on those who are more likely to deliver consistently. This means Werner’s minutes probably ought to be limited this season, and means the club won’t be in a rush to trigger the £8.5 million buy option clause included in the deal with RB Leipzig.

All Statistics via SofaScore – correct as of 19/09/2024