James Maddison has been warned that he must elevate his performance to maintain his spot in Tottenham's starting line-up.
The midfielder was substituted at the interval of Spurs' victory over West Ham on Saturday. Maddison struggled to impact the game, which was evenly poised at 1-1 going into half-time following Dejan Kulusevski's leveller after Mohammed Kudus opened the scoring for the Hammers.
As the half-time whistle sounded, Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou was seen signalling to Pape Sarr to inform him of his impending introduction. Maddison was the player replaced, despite having assisted Kulusevski's goal.
However, it turned out to be a masterstroke, with Spurs netting three goals to secure a commanding 4-1 triumph. And ex-Chelsea player Tony Cascarino believes Maddison is now at risk of losing his starting berth.
"He [Postecoglou] has put the challenge of changing Tottenham's mentality and notoriously soft centre on his shoulders. I liked that he was prepared to make a big call and withdraw James Maddison at half-time," Cascarino told The Times.
"It would have sent a message to every player that their place is not assured after the Brighton debacle. Maddison was a big signing last year and I have no doubt he would have taken the timing of the substitution personally. Postecoglou can manage the situation.
"But Maddison may reflect on his delivery, especially from corners, and work rate. Maddison is no longer a promising young player. He turns 28 next month and needs to impose himself on matches. He finds himself out of the England squad and his starting place for Spurs is no longer guaranteed."
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Postecoglou stood firm on his tactical choices post-match, praising Sarr's impact in the midfield tussle. "We needed more running power in midfield and Pape [Sarr] has lots of that, bags of energy and running. He really helped us to get control of the midfield and that gave us a good platform to go forward," the Australian coach told Match of the Day.
"Our general play improved from there and we looked dangerous going forward. We knew there had been a bit of an arm wrestle and we always back ourselves to keep going at the intensity we always do and upping it and taking the game to West Ham.
"We knew that putting them under pressure here at home we would eventually get there. We had to fight hard in the first half. Going a goal down wasn't ideal but we clawed our way back into it, and it is not easy.
"Second half we were outstanding. We upped the tempo and played some quality football, defended when we needed to and got our finishing right. We want to be that sort of side that creates lots of chances."