Gary Neville slams ‘awful’ Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg as Tottenham enrage Ange
Ange Postecoglou made a triple-substitution in the second half at Chelsea as he looked to capitalise on an improved performance from his Tottenham side after the break but saw it backfire.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg came on with Rodrigo Bentancur and James Maddison after 64 minutes with Spurs trailing by a goal, as Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and Richarlison were withdrawn.
But the Tottenham boss was soon left with his head in his hands as Nicolas Jackson doubled the hosts’ lead eight minutes later after the new arrivals failed to have a positive effect, with Hojbjerg singled out by Gary Neville live on the Sky Sports match coverage for his unhelpful introduction.
Neville said (2 May, 8.55pm): “Hojbjerg’s first three touches have been awful.”
The Dane’s half an hour on the pitch was far from his best as, according to stats from SofaScore, he managed to lose possession five times and concede a foul, while completing neither his one ground duel or one in the air (0%).
Tottenham lose again at Stamford Bridge
He was better passing as he delivered one key pass and 26 of his 30 attempts (87%), but his failure to adapt to the pace of the game early contributed to any momentum Tottenham had built up following a miserable first half quickly subsiding, and summed up a fairly awful team performance that all but threw away any Champions League hopes.
The first 45 minutes at Stamford Bridge were pretty dismal from a Spurs point of view, and aside from Cristian Romero’s header narrowly wide and a possible penalty shout for Emerson Royal the visitors were probably fortunate not to go in at the break further than one goal behind.
Postecoglou has been notably unmoved by most of his first season in the Premier League but the defensive performance before the interval caused even the Australian to finally lose his temper, and the half-time team talk could likely have been termed robust.
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The effect was a noticeably better start to the second half, with Spurs on the front foot at last and Chelsea hemmed in more often, but Postecoglou’s reinforcements from the bench let him down and helped consign the club to yet another defeat at Stamford Bridge.
In other Tottenham news, the club do at least hold the honour of being the Premier League’s “best” in one increasingly-important area.
