Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou has been heavily criticised by The Athletic reporter Jack Pitt-Brooke for his team selection in Spurs' late 2-1 win over Coventry City in the League Cup on Wednesday - stating that it was one of the worst performances under the Aussie boss, before questioning why he would play Fraser Forster and Timo Werner as a stoppage-time winner spared their blushes.
Tottenham started slowly and hadn't even registered a shot on target until Coventry took the lead through Brandon Thomas-Asante just after the half-hour mark to send the Championship side into ecstasy. But an equaliser from Djed Spence in the dying embers set up a grand stand finish, and when Brennan Johnson turned home just moments later, Spurs fans were all of a sudden in raptures for a game that they didn't really deserve to win. But that didn't stop Pitt-Brooke from criticising the team where appropriate - notably the inclusions of Foster and Werner, who failed to impress.
Werner and Forster Criticised vs Coventry
The fringe duo weren't up to scratch on Wednesday
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Pitt-Brooke stated that what he saw in Coventry was one of the worst performances that he'd witnessed in the past 13 months, whilst he showered Dejan Kulusevski with praise for his performance.
And that led to him questioning the inclusion of Forster and Werner, who are presumed to be on a combined £240,000-per-week - with Spurs evidently needing wins under their belt. He said:
"That was one of the worst performances I've ever seen from Postecoglou's Spurs. Directionless first half, abysmal second half. But they scored twice at the end and they're in the hat for the fourth round of the Carabao Cup!
"I never thought he should have played such a weak team, and the fact that they needed Kulusevski to dig them out of the hole points to that too. I get why he wanted to play Gray and Bergvall. Spence did well when he came on. Can't see any point in playing Forster or Werner though."
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With the likes of Destiny Udogie, Papa Matar Sarr, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dominic Solanke all playing from the usual starting XI, it was a hugely disappointing performance for Spurs as they looked set to crash out in the West Midlands.
GIVEMESPORT Key Statistic: Ange Postecoglou has managed 46 games for Tottenham, winning 23 of those.
They've not been in the best of form in the Premier League, and with just four points from four games, there is a small bit of pressure on Postecoglou to deliver results sooner rather than later as the club languish in the bottom half of the table.
The fact that Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski and Coventry-born James Maddison were all introduced could show just how much Postecoglou wants to win a trophy, having all but promised to do so in his second year at the club following Tottenham's 1-0 loss to local rivals Arsenal over the weekend.
They're into the round of 16, meaning that they only have to win four more games to taste their first major honour for almost two decades - and if that does become a formality, it will at least give the club the foundation to go on and push for other titles as they would finally end the dark cloud that looms above them in their long wait for silverware.