Spurs stumbled in the Premier League once again, this time getting beaten by Arsenal 1-2 in the North London Derby. Mourinho, surprisingly, chose a really attacking side on Sunday but Arsenal’s midfielders completely stole the show while players like Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Ndombele were left chasing shadows.
Hojbjerg has been pretty reliable all throughout this season but on Sunday, he had a really tough time in trying to help build attacks from the back. And while analyzing the game, former Spurs man Jamie O’Hara has compared the 25-year-old and the other midfielders to a bunch of crabs.
“He’s great defensively, he puts his foot in and makes good tackles,” O’Hara told the Sports Breakfast show on talkSPORT.
“But on the ball, I expect so much more. The midfield yesterday was so sideways and backwards. It was like a bunch of crabs playing in there. Get the ball, have some guts to get on it and get the ball forward.
“There’s no point playing Son, Bale, Kane and Moura if they’re not going to touch the ball.
“They just spent half the time defending because we’re not good enough at passing the ball around at the back and sticking it into our front men.
“It was a bad day at the office, but Arsenal, to be fair, pressed very well and they were decent.”
Hojbjerg managed only 49 accurate passes all throughout the match which is really underwhelming when playing as a defensive midfielder against a team like Arsenal. Players such as Thomas and Odegaard ran the show on Sunday while their Spurs counterparts did not know what to do with the ball.
For once, Mourinho can’t be blamed for his tactics at the Emirates but this time, his players failed to properly execute the blueprint on the pitch.
Data courtesy Whoscored
