View: Neville spot on with 'Nonsensical' Tottenham outfielder claim, Ange must address 33% ace

Gary Neville has heavily criticised Tottenham captain Son Heung-min after the 6-3 loss against Liverpool on Sunday.

Liverpool taught Spurs a lesson at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 22 December as the pressure on Ange Postecoglou’s future in North London intensifies.

However, Neville appeared to shift the focus away from Postecoglou’s tactics and placed blame on Son for mindlessly pressing the Liverpool backline with no success and allowing the visitors to bypass the press easily.

Neville said to Sky Sports [22 December, 8m 18s]: “They’ve got a really exciting front six, but I did put a clip in during the second half, which we don’t normally do, showing Son making a silly press towards Joe Gomez and the ball getting played past him over to Trent Alexander-Arnold.

“They do some stupid things like that, which almost forces the full-backs then to jump out and press and then, all of a sudden, it leaves a situation like the third goal,”

“They had some experienced players up top – I think Son was one of the worst actually, and I love him to bits. He’s a world-class player.

“But some of his decisions to actually leave Trent Alexander-Arnold, go and press Joe Gomez or go somewhere else and leave that space for Trent Alexander-Arnold to go into were just nonsensical. It’s just mind-boggling, really.”

Son Heung-min drops “nonsensical” howler for Tottenham v Liverpool

While it is difficult to assign blame on a Tottenham forward in a match wherein they put three goals past the opposition, Neville’s analysis is right on the money.

On far too many occasions, the Spurs press aimlessly chased after the Liverpool defenders, who easily passed the ball around the oncoming attacker and, after three or four passes, were bearing down on Fraser Forster’s goal.

Against a side notoriously known for building out from the back, paired with Trent Alexander-Arnold, one of the best passers of the ball in the Premier League, Tottenham needed an effective gameplan and fell flat.

Son was one of the main culprits – despite running all over the pitch, he won only 33 per cent of his contested ground duels, only made four recoveries and failed to register a single defensive contribution, whether that be tackles or interceptions [Fotmob].

Furthermore, his usual attacking threat was non-existent against the Premier League leaders – he failed to register a single shot on target, completed 50 per cent of his dribbles, completed zero per cent of his crossing attempts and registered only four touches in the opposition box.

When he attempted to stretch Liverpool’s defence, he was unable to beat the offside trap and was flagged for offside three times.

Whether or not Sunday was merely an off-day for the 32-year-old remains to be seen, but the tactics need to change – that is clear as day, but unfortunately for Tottenham supporters, that will not happen anytime soon with Postecoglou at the helm.

In other Tottenham news, Daniel Levy green-lights £20m Spurs transfer in January.

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