‘So poor’… Gary Neville left seriously unimpressed with £42m Tottenham player today
Gary Neville was left unimpressed with a piece of defending from Tottenham Hotspur’s Cristian Romero against Newcastle United today.
Tottenham were looking to get back to winning ways on Sunday following a disappointing defeat to West Ham during the week.
Ange Postecoglou opted to make two changes as he dropped Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Giovani Lo Celso, with Pape Matar Sarr and Richarlison coming into the side.
Spurs enjoyed a fast start to the game as they dominated the early exchanges. But Newcastle created a couple of decent opportunities.
Their first came after an excellent piece of play down the left-hand side as Joelinton ran in behind Tottenham’s backline.
And while covering the game for Sky Sports, Gary Neville was unimpressed with Cristian Romero’s defending during the early stages of the game.
Neville on Romero’s defending
Romero failed to track Joelinton’s run in the opening stages of the game which led to a half-chance for Bruno Guimaraes.
The Newcastle midfielder cut the ball back to Guimaraes on the edge of the box, but the Brazilian blazed his effort over the bar.
And it’s fair to say that Neville believes Romero should have done better in the situation.
“At the start of that move it’s so poor from Romero,” the pundit said. “Just watch him just leave Joelinton to run into that space, he doesn’t match the run. From that moment on, they were in trouble.”
Romero returned to action during the week against West Ham and netted Spurs’ only goal of the game.
The £42 million man was serving a three-match suspension after being sent off against Chelsea last month.
Spurs eventually found a breakthrough in the first half against Newcastle today after a brilliantly worked move.
Son Heung-Min beat his former teammate Kieran Trippier down the left-hand side before giving Destiny Udogie a simple tap-in for his first Premier League goal.
Tottenham picked up a deserved second goal and Son was the architect again as he set up Richarlison after beating Trippier once more. While Neville was right to single out Romero at the start of the game, Spurs improved massively defensively as the game wore on.
Romero was part of a backline that helped Ange Postecoglou’s men through a tough spell at the start of the second half before Richarlison grabbed his second goal and Tottenham’s third.
The Argentine can be rash at times and that was on display once again as he was lucky to escape a red card later in the game. But it’s a huge boost for Postecoglou to have him back in the side with Van de Ven out until the new year.
