Alasdair Gold was critical of Roberto De Zerbi’s decision not to bring on Xavi Simons earlier in Tottenham Hotspur‘s 1-0 defeat against Sunderland on Sunday.
Jury still out on De Zerbi after Sunderland defeat
West Ham United ramped up the pressure on Tottenham by thrashing Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-0 on Friday night, and the north Londoners were unable to respond in kind, coming up short at the Stadium of Light in De Zerbi’s first game in charge.
Jamie Carragher has since issued a damning verdict on Spurs’ survival chances, and suggested they may not even be able to take anything from the trip to Molineux in just under two weeks time.
The Sky Sports pundit said: “I can’t believe it. Tottenham look like they’re going to go down. The other [relegation threatened] teams have something going for them.
“You look at fixtures, you think that’s a good game for Tottenham. But they’re awful. Tottenham’s a good game for them. Wolves are bottom of the league. Do you think Tottenham will go there, and win? No chance.”
One of the main problems as of late has been a lack of goals, with Tottenham failing to score more than once in a Premier League game since the 2-2 draw against Manchester City at the beginning of February.
However, despite the lack of an attacking threat, there often hasn’t been space in the starting XI for Simons, who has been used as a substitute since failing to make an impact in the 2-1 defeat against Fulham at the start of March.
Against Sunderland, the Dutchman wasn’t called upon until the 85th minute, and Gold was left baffled by De Zerbi’s decision not to bring him on sooner.
“The Xavi thing just bewilders me. At a time when, like I say, they need to be proactive rather than reactive, he’s one of the players with Tel, like I said earlier, that will do that, he will take the game to the opposition.”
Simons must start after Bergvall fails to deliver
It has been far from an ideal debut campaign at Tottenham for Simons, but there have been a few encouraging signs, with the 22-year-old picking up one goal and four assists in 26 Premier League outings.
Lucas Bergvall, on the other hand, hasn’t registered a goal or an assist this calendar year, and the Swedish midfielder was very poor against the Black Cats, being withdrawn after 61 minutes, after failing to create a single big chance or make any key passes.
Playing the 20-year-old in a more advanced role clearly hasn’t worked, and Simons should return to the fold for the remainder of the season, with six huge games coming up for De Zerbi’s side.
He was worse than Solanke: 2/10 Spurs flop must start for De Zerbi again
Relegation-threatened Tottenham fell to their 16th Premier League defeat of the season against Sunderland.