After an excellent start to the 2021-22 Premier League season, Tottenham Hotspur is dealing with some adversity as they look not to let this three-game losing streak spiral out of control.
The north London-based club has lost to Crystal Palace, Chelsea FC, and Arsenal FC in less-than-steller fashion. Following the loss to The Gunners, there’s been plenty of skepticism about whether Nuno Espírito Santo is the right manager for this squad.
One of the pundits not buying into Nuno being the guy for Spurs is pundit Jamie Carragher. On Sky Sports’ “Monday Night Football” (via Mirror), Carragher questioned the tactics of Nuno, pointing the issues he sees in Tottenham’s midfield.
“One minute into the game: Dele Alli, Ndombele, and Hojbjerg are the midfield players, and they are not in midfield positions,” Carragher said. “The only reason you’d stand there (Alli and Ndombele upfront and Hojberg deep) is if your manager has told you to go there.”
“They wanted to go direct, but who to? Even if you win the ball, you need someone behind you to pick up second balls, but Dele Alli was on the same line as Harry Kane.”
Carragher further detailed what he sees wrong in the midfield and stated that some of the players’ positioning is due to Nuno instructing them to be there.
“When you look at the space in midfield, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it in my life,” Carragher said. “Where would you want them? Surely not there.”
“There’s less space on the moon than what you see in that midfield for Tottenham. It’s actually unbelievable. The manager must have told them where to go: this is before the first goal. It was always going to happen.”
The Sky Sports pundit rates Nuno as a good manager but feels that Spurs may be the wrong place for him, describing the Portuguese boss as “Jose Mourinho lite.”
“I’ve seen this before one time at my own club with Roy Hodgson,” Carragher said. “He was a really good manager, and he is a really good manager, but he wasn’t the right manager for Liverpool.”
“I think the Spurs supporters even early on now are thinking: “Is Nuno a Tottenham manager?” That was a bad one for Nuno. You’re never going to talk about managers after five or six games in a job.”