View: 60% Tottenham man flops v Brighton, left Ange 'Fuming' after what he did

Tottenham fans and Ange Postecoglou would have been furious to let their two-goal lead slip to lose with Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

Having dominated the first half courtesy of goals from both Brennan Johnson and James Maddison, the Seagulls found the net three times in the second half to secure a 3-2 win on Sunday (6 October).

While both Postecoglou and the fans would have delighted with Spurs’ start, BBC Sport pundit Mark Warburton believes the Australian would have been left “fuming” by Destiny Udogie’s mistake for Brighton’s first goal.

Speaking on BBC Radio Five Live on Sunday (6 October, 17:37) he said: “We spoke about how well organised they were defensively in the first half.

“It’s got by two centre-halves and somehow Brighton are back in the game. An early goal is everything the manager would have wanted and the fanbase of course.

“Ange will be fuming to give away something of that nature.”

What happened to Destiny Udogie in the clash between Tottenham and Brighton?

For so much of the game, Udogie was excellent but when it really mattered the Italian defender let the travelling support and Postecoglou down with a major mistake.

The 21-year-old won 75 per cent of his 12 ground duels in the contest, more than any other player on either side and came away possession in 60 per cent of his five attempted tackles, according to Fotmob.

However, the left-back was dribbled past once and that one time he was beaten led to Danny Welbeck’s second-half header as Georginio Rutter bundled his way into the Tottenham penalty area.

In possession, the defender was consistent but failed to have any real impact in the final third of the pitch. On the whole, Udogie completed 89 per cent of his 44 attempted passes, but only two of those efforts found a teammate in the final third.

While he played a part in two of Brighton’s goals, the Spurs star failed to create a single scoring chance for his teammates and finished the game with just 0.01 expected assists, which is incredibly low for a full-back in Postecoglou’s system.

So far this season, Udogie has averaged an expected assisted goals rate of just 0.02 per 90 minutes, which places him in the bottom 11 per cent of Premier League fullbacks, according to Fbref.

Last season, however, he placed in the top 49 per cent of his positional peers with an average xAG of 0.08 every game. For whatever reason, the Italian defender is not having anywhere near as much of an impact at the top end of the field.

Despite having Dominic Solanke to aim for in the penalty area, the defender is attempting notably fewer crosses as well. When compared to his positional peers, he lies in the bottom nine per cent for crosses attempted per match.

Defensively, Udogie has always been capable of making major errors in the backline. Last season he placed in the third percentile of fullbacks for errors per 90 minutes with an average of 0.19.

While his mistake for Brighton’s opener on Sunday was his first big error of the Premier League campaign, it allowed the Seagulls to find a way back into a game that appeared to be done and dusted at full-time.

Is Ange Postecoglou at risk of the sack?

Spurs and Postecoglou cannot afford to throw away points in this manner if they want to be successful this season and if they want to start winning more games, they need to be harder to break down in the final third.

Over the last year or so, Udogie has been guilty of making too many errors at important stages of games and he has to cut it out if both he and the Lilywhites want to get their hands on silverware.

In other Tottenham news, Postecglou’s side could be in line for a £35.8million windfall after new developments in North London

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