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Tottenham Hotspur have been in Europa League action
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Former Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Paul Robinson has slammed Yves Bissouma for his ‘lazy’ defending as Ange Postecoglou’s side conceded a late equaliser to Roma in their Europa League clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The hosts drew 2-2 with the Serie A outfit in the end and were left kicking themselves at the end.
Spurs looked on their way to a 2-1 win after goals by attacking pair Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson. However, the visitors levelled things up in added-on time through defender Mats Hummels.
Bissouma failed to push out after a corner and played a few Roma players onside. Robinson was on pundit duties for BBC Live 5 and said : “It is (Yves) Bissouma who is standing in front of his goalkeeper. He is playing everyone onside. If Bissouma steps out of the six yard box, Hummels is two or three yards offside but he doesn’t, he’s lazy and he stays in the six yard box. How many times as a goalkeeper do you see that? He (Fraser Forster) makes an absolutely fantastic save. You think it’s a match winning save for your team but from the resulting corner a goal like that goes past you.
“It’s just the basics, it’s defending set plays. The corner was unavoidable because it was a fantastic save by Fraser Forster. The reaction that he had and the power he had in his hands to get it over the bar but then the lack of marking, the lack of awareness from Tottenham from the corner that followed that, everybody’s still admiring Fraser Forster’s save. Nobody is picking up the free cross that came in, Hummels (was) unmarked.”
‘Only got themselves to blame’...
He added: “They have only got themselves to blame. Defensively from the set play, it is all about organisation, it’s about leadership, it’s about marking players in the box. I think it was (Nicola) Zalewski or Angelino who put the cross in, the initial corner came all the way through Tottenham’s defence. As the ball came back in to Mats Hummels, there were two or three others who could have tapped it in at the far post. It is just the fundamental basics of defending corners and set plays, especially that late in the game.”
Spurs find themselves in 9th position in the Europa League table and would have gone inside the top four had they held on against Roma. They have 10 points on the board from their first five outings in the competition and have three more games to get through against Rangers, Hoffenheim and Elfsborg.
Postecoglou’s men beat Manchester City 4-0 last time out in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium and are positioned in 6th place in the league. They are now three points off the top four as they prepare for their upcoming fixture against Fulham at home on Sunday.
Spurs then have upcoming matches in early December against AFC Bournemouth, Chelsea and Southampton as they look to build some momentum this winter and put some pressure on the teams above them.