Blame Tottenham players, not Mauricio Pochettino, for Spurs’ under-performance says Tim Sherwood

Spurs have won just three league games this season

Karl Matchett
Monday 18 November 2019 13:19 EST
Comments
Tottenham's Harry Kane
Tottenham's Harry Kane (AP)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Tottenham Hotspur have had a dismal start to the Premier League season, with injuries and poor performances having a big impact on results.

After 12 league games they lie in 14th place, with only the bottom three teams in the league having won fewer matches than Spurs this season.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino has naturally come under more scrutiny as a consequence, but ex-Spurs boss Tim Sherwood says the culprits lie elsewhere.

Instead of the man in the dugout, Sherwood says that poor form is down to those on the pitch, some of whom are “hiding” from responsibility.

“I don’t blame the manager, I blame the players,” he said on Talksport.

“They have to look at themselves and have that bravery when things are not going well to get on the ball in dangerous areas and really take the game to the opposition.

“Because, at the moment, a few of them look like they’re hiding.

“When you have a bad run of form you always look for excuses why, and everyone is pointing to the obvious one, which is the uncertainty among the squad.”

On that point, Sherwood expanded on how an element of the unknown in terms of players’ futures can impact on performance level.

Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur reacts
Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur reacts (EPA)

Even with that caveat though, Sherwood acknowledges that it’s down to the manager to get the best out of his squad – which reached the Champions League final in June.

“Three or four players are out of contract and others are coming quite close to running their contracts down next year. That’s not what Pochettino wants, he wants players who are going to be there for the long term.

“But you still need to get the best out of what you’ve got.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in