Gary Neville labelled Tottenham midfielder Lucas Bergvall as “pathetic” during Spurs’ 5-1 defeat to newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool.
The Reds just needed a draw to win the Premier League title on Sunday but they did it in style by putting five past Ange Postecoglou’s men at Anfield.
Tottenham did open the scoring on 12 minutes through Dominic Solanke but Liverpool soon rectified that when Luis Diaz scored only four minutes later to equalise.
Further goals from Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah and an own goal from Destiny Udogie gave the Reds a comfortable win and saw Tottenham remain in 16th position.
Manchester United legend Neville was not impressed by Spurs midfielder Bergvall for Liverpool’s third goal which started their procession to the title.
When defending a corner at the front post, Bergvall was only able to flick the ball into the danger area with Gakpo there to score his ninth Premier League goal of the season.
On the Tottenham midfielder, Neville said on Sky Sports commentary: “Bergvall’s header is appalling, it’s pathetic. He half ducks his head.
“I have no idea what he’s doing. It was a free header and he ended up glancing it into his own box.
“But take nothing away from Gakpo, what he does really well is get it away so quickly. It’s a good strike.
“Spurs are the perfect opponents for Liverpool today. They just don’t smell danger.
“Liverpool have got so many players out there who will punish any mistake at any level.”
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Tottenham boss Postecoglou will come under even more pressure after the result against Liverpool with Spurs suffering their 19th defeat in 34 Premier League matches.
Postecoglou told a press conference: “Credit to Liverpool, worthy champions and they have been the outstanding team all year, consistent and again today obviously. I thought we started the game well and sort of made things difficult for them.
“Even apart from the goal, I thought just in general we had decent territory but once they got in front with the atmosphere inside the stadium fair to say it was going to be difficult for us to claw them back and that’s how it proved.”
When asked about the balance between performances in the Europa League and Premier League, Postecoglou added: “It’s not easy, it’s not easy on the players because if you sort of look at Liverpool’s line up you can almost pick it on a weekly basis. I had made a lot of changes but I just felt it was necessary.
“A lot of our players have missed a lot of this season with injuries and it wasn’t just about bringing them back but managing their minutes because obviously we want them ready. Guys like Micky and Romero today could have played but they’ve missed so much of the season that we’ve just got to be really careful about when we use them.
“Guys like Pedro and Bentancur have played a lot this year. It has been a juggling act for sure and that hasn’t helped the team, hasn’t helped the players and when you’re facing the best you pay that price.”