Ange Postecoglou told Tottenham Hotspur star is scared to play after draw at Leicester City

One game in and Ange Postecoglou is already frustrated with his Tottenham Hotspur side.

Tottenham had watched every other team do their job and ensure there were no upsets on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season.

But the London club had to be the ones who, unfortunately from their perspective, deliver that unexpected result, and that’s a draw away at a newly-promoted team.

Leading up to the game, many at Hotspur Way were excited because they had a strong transfer window and were showing real promise in pre-season, especially with their youngsters.

Timo Werner returned on a season-long loan deal, Archie Gray secured a transfer to Tottenham from Leeds, Lucas Bergvall also joined the party and Dominic Solanke made his Tottenham debut at Leicester.

But that lift couldn’t be enough for the team to secure an opening three points, even though they opened the scoring via Pedro Porro’s head and were all over the Foxes in the first half.

But a different team turned up in the second half and it didn’t please Craig Burley who thinks Spurs have a player who is scared to play.

The former Scotland international let rip at Werner and how he is ‘frightened stiff’ to play and he questioned what on earth he does, as he told ESPN.

It’s fair to say that fans weren’t exactly jumping from their seat when they heard Postecoglou was going to bring him back for another season.

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But now that Werner is back, for the third time in English football, ex-Chelsea man Burley, after also watching him at Stamford Bridge, just doesn’t know what he brings to the table.

Timo Werner is scared to play
“We talk about making an impact off the bench and there were quite a few youngsters who come on,” said Burley. “But another one, for me, and I look at him, as a player and an international footballer of apparently some repute, who has been around the block, is somebody going to tell me what the hell Timo Werner does?

“He came on against Leicester. He looked as if he was frightened stiff of the fullback. He never runs in behind anymore. He never gets the cross in. I was watching him thinking, ‘maybe you played well in Germany’. I don’t give two stuffs what he did in Germany. He’s not in Germany anymore or at Leipzig in his happy home. Easy street. For a player of his ilk, to come off the bench and have some impact. I have seen it before from him. Whenever a ball is played up to him, if a defender gets near to him, he is like a frightened school kid and he taps it off to the side. Five yards, five yards and five yards. He did it again against Leicester and it’s just a lack of responsibility.

“I look at him as someone who should be putting the frightener on defenders as a fast and experienced international footballer. He came on, stood on the right wing and did absolutely nothing. Somebody tell me a cross he put in the box. Somebody tell me a fullback that he beat. Somebody tell me a run he made in behind. I am not picking on Timo Werner because there were others. But others were youngsters, for the most part.”

Timo Werner and Djed Spence of Tottenham in action during the Premier League match between Leicester City FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC at The King P…

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images
Tottenham Hotspur’s defending
Many would look towards the attack and it lacking the bite to kill teams off, but their biggest issue is probably the defence.

Cristian Romero was dubbed a ‘shambles’ for his defending for Tottenham against Leicester, with the London club lacking that depth in quality.

You do worry if someone like Destiny Udogie gets injured because the drop in quality at left-back is big after that.

The same at centre-back. Radu Dragusin got praise for his performance at Euro 2024, but he is yet to lift off at Spurs and the club can’t afford Micky van de Ven or Romero to get injured.