‘You can’t do that’: Paul Scholes unhappy with Tottenham duo after horror defeat to Brighton

Tottenham were beaten at Brighton in a way only they can.

There can’t be any excuses from Ange Postecoglou’s side here because they were riding a wave going into this match.

Tottenham had won six games in all competitions and were in a very confident mood, with several players in form and the negative noise being silenced.

Brennan Johnson can’t stop scoring, and in fact, he opened the scoring against Brighton after some brilliant build-up from the team.

But all of that first-half dominance, which read 2-0 to the away side, was all thrown away within the space of 20 minutes of the second half.

That’s Tottenham in a nutshell and many players were in the firing line, with the defence collapsing once more.

This isn’t a surprise to the supporters because these defensive issues have been visible ever since Postecoglou walked into the building.

Paul Scholes shared his thoughts on Tottenham’s defending, including how ‘weak’ Destiny Udogie was for Danny Welbeck’s winning goal.

That wasn’t even the left-back’s first mistake because he also had a horror moment when Brighton opened their scoring early in the second half.

Whilst Udogie is young and can perhaps hide under that umbrella, it’s fair to say that the under-fire Cristian Romero can’t.

As Scholes mentioned, Romero was ‘ball-watching’ as Welbeck had the easiest of headers, at point-blank range, to score and, in the end, win the game for his team, as he told Premier League Productions (06/10/24 at 6:40 pm).

This isn’t the first time the World Cup winner has made a mistake this season and it’s not even Christmas yet, which proves the difficult waters he is already swimming in.

Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero’s defending against Brighton

“It was a great goal and a brilliant tackle, more than anything (from Rutter),” said Scholes. “Again, Udogie’s a little bit weak in his defensive display. I think Bentancur also tries to actually see the ball out.

“A great retrieving tackle from Rutter. You have to say that it’s a little lucky that it falls to Danny Welbeck.

“But watch Romero, absolutely sleeping, he actually thinks that Bentancur is in control of it. You can’t do that. You have to anticipate that your forward, the man you are marking, it might come to him. You stay with him. But he is just absolutely ball-watching, Danny steps in front, uses his experience and finishes it well.” 

Cristian Romero’s form

Tottenham’s high line and expansive football is difficult to play against as it is, so it doesn’t help matters when your key defensive player is out of form.

Romero hasn’t started the new Premier League season well and he simply needs to get the simple things right again because that’s what is going wrong.

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Perhaps going on international duty with Argentina will help matters because he is consistently on fire for them and doesn’t miss a beat.

But, either way, you don’t know if Tottenham should be glad the international break has come about or if they just needed another game to come about as soon as possible.