Ange Postecoglou was enraged after Tottenham Hotspur were defeated by Newcastle United down N17. It is the fifth defeat in seven games in Premier League and condemns Spurs to a further place at the bottom of the table.
Context is key, with Tottenham dealing with a shocking injury crisis that has prevented any sort of consistency, but it’s still frustrating to watch capable players make mistakes with incredible regularity.
Although dealt a terrible hand, Postecoglou was at fault for some of his tactical decisions, he certainly didn’t get it right when he decided to start Timo Werner on the left wing.
The German international was truly terrible. Again.
Tim Werner’s performance against Newcastle
Last summer, Werner was recalled for a second loan spell in north London. Postecoglou wanted added depth and enjoyed the 28-year-old’s pace last season, although not his finishing.
Heung-min’s son he was dropped against Newcastle after struggling against Wolves before the new year. He is still a fantastic player, but the South Korean captain is 32 years old and lacks his former athleticism.
A flattered Werner cheated for him, lasting just an hour before being hauled off to the touchline again in place of his captain, who at least added some encouragement with a dribble finish, a key pass and a 75% tackle success rate, according to Sofascore.
This is proof that Werner is not good enough, especially if you look at his performance through the lens of comparison, with Newcastle’s left-back Anthony Gordon showing a vastly superior display.
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Tottenham 1-2 Newcastle – Timo Werner vs Anthony Gordon |
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|---|---|---|
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Match statistics |
Werner |
Gordon |
|
Minutes played |
62′ |
78′ |
|
Objectives |
0 |
1 |
|
Assists |
0 |
0 |
|
It touches |
22 |
48 |
|
Shots (on goal) |
0 (0) |
5 (2) |
|
Adding accuracy |
10/12 (83%) |
20/24 (83%) |
|
Key passages |
0 |
2 |
|
Dribbling (complete) |
1 (0) |
2 (0) |
|
Doubles (won) |
4 (2) |
9 (2) |
|
Statistics via Sofascore |
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As you can see, Werner’s opposite number outplayed him, not only chalking his name up on the scoresheet, but taking plenty of touches and slipping a few passes to ever-growing teammates.
Most importantly, he peppered Tottenham’s goal throughout, showing the Spurs they missed out when signing a contract with Richarlison before the English national team in 2022.
After this roar, Werner will have his head down and expect to return to the bench. However, he wasn’t Spurs’ most culpable star that afternoon – not with him Radu Dragusin continuing to blow his chances of a long-term future at the club into oblivion.
Ange has to brutally sell Rada Dragusin
Almost exactly one year has passed since Tottenham’s extraordinary signing in the 2023/24 transfer window. January. He joined from Genoa in a £27m deal but he failed to separate himself from the role of essential role.
As Sofascore notes: Dragusin completed a pretty poor 53% of his passes, taking 17 touches (fewer than the anonymous Werner) and failing in one lone tackle.
It’s no surprise that London World tagged the Romanian with a match rating of 3/10blaming him for not being able to defend himself. That is certainly a very important part of being a central defender.
It is worth noting that Dragusin and Gray were among the Tottenham players who contracted the disease during the preparations for the match, as Ange confirmed after the gamebut he is more than a natural centre-half and is still overshadowed by his younger partner.
It’s fair to say that questions must be asked of Tottenham’s tactical team, as Dragusin doesn’t show the kind of technical play required to be a sustained success within Postecoglou’s system, and has instead fallen by the wayside and languished as an inferior piece alongside the 18-year-old – the old midfielder works as a defender.
According to FBrefDragušin actually ranks in the bottom 24% of centre-backs in Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for progressive passes (2.60) per 90 and only in the top 50% for completed passes.
chairman of Tottenham Daniel Levy he may be inclined to encourage Postecoglou to cut the club’s losses and make the Romanian international expendable, a rather damning thing to do with all of Spurs’ other centre-backs lying injured.
From being sent off after seven minutes in the Europa League during Tottenham’s away win over Qarabag to a series of mistakes during the run through the starting line-up, thanks to various other injuries, it has been a testing campaign.
And let’s forget about his ball-playing flaws, why don’t we? Sofascore has signed up that the 22-year-old has been the author of four separate errors in the Premier League this term, his supposedly steely defensive qualities have deserted him in a team crying out for authority.
We’ll go out on a limb and assume that Postecoglou won’t be playing his young defender when Micky van de Ven, Cristian Romero and Ben Davies are expected to return at the end of January.
He is young and has a platform to grow, but it is unlikely that many Lilywhites fans would regret the decision to offload him given his poor performances in white this season.
With a transfer value of around £21 million, according to TransfermarktDragušin’s stock may have taken a hit during his disastrous run at Tottenham, but he still has talent and many years of football ahead of him.
Some might say that’s a fact to steer towards persistence, keep him on the books and continue to invest in his potential, but Postecoglou might see things differently, with Dragusin lacking the brains and resources to thrive in his system.
