Nuno Espirito Santo’s Tottenham’s reign has been heavily criticised and maybe unfairly sometimes.
However, the Portuguese boss doesn’t cover himself in glory with some of his decision making and clubs pay managers to get the important decisions right.
He left several of his key players at home for their Europa Conference League match against Vitesse last week as he plotted the downfall of West Ham at the weekend.
However, Spurs ended up losing both matches and former defender, Alan Hutton believes he should have at least had his best players on the bench against Vitesse and they could have won that fixture.
“I covered the Vitesse game and I thought it was a risk to leave the whole starting XI at home,” Hutton told Football Insider.
“If you want to rest players, I understand that, that’s fine but have them on the bench with you. Bring them on to change the game if you need to.
“They were so poor, they were shocking against Vitesse. I was sitting there thinking: ‘Oh my, I can’t believe I have to cover this.’ It was that bad.
“To move on to the West Ham game, you’ve got your starting XI back and they looked flat. It was a flat performance. Harry Kane had hardly any touches, second half not a shot on goal.
“You would expect them to overrun West Ham. They had a game midweek and they played a strong team. Really poor. A risk that did not pay off.”
The Boy Hotspur says
Spurs have a goal of ending this season back in the European places and that probably explains why Nuno Santo prioritised the Premier League match.
However, we are also one of the favourites to win the Conference League and it would be a good way to end our wait for a trophy.
Nuno Santo needs to know these things and his lack of awareness of the situation makes it hard to justify why he remains the manager.
He has now ridiculed himself by losing the game against the Hammers and Hutton is right to question his decision making.
If he keeps getting these decisions wrong, he will be out of the job sooner than he expects and Spurs fans are already growing tired of how his team plays even when they win matches.