Spurs dud who lost the ball 23 times must be dropped

Tottenham Hotspur’s inconsistent form came back to bite them on Sunday afternoon.

Despite going into their Premier League game away to Nottingham Forest off the back of a draw away to Newcastle United and a win at home to Brentford, Thomas Frank’s side looked second-best from the first minute to the last.

The North Londoners were unable to keep the hosts at bay, unable to create decent chances for themselves and generally looked bereft of ideas.

There were poor performers wherever you looked for Spurs, but two really stood out, one of which was Guglielmo Vicario.

Vicario’s poor performance vs Forest

Vicario is a particularly frustrating goalkeeper: in one game, he can look like one of the best in the league, pulling off sensational saves, and the next game, he can look like one of the worst.

Unfortunately for Frank and Co, Sunday’s match against Forest most certainly fell into the latter category.

For example, while he is not entirely blameless for the first goal, most of the blame for the hosts’ second should fall at his feet.

If the Italian were better positioned for Callum Hudson-Odoi’s audacious effort, then it would have been a relatively straightforward stop, and the Lilywhites would’ve still been in the game.

Unfortunately, the former Empoli man got it all wrong, and while he made some saves after the fact, it was too little too late.

It wasn’t just his shot-stopping that was poor either, as in 96 minutes of action, the 29-year-old completed just 21 of 31 passes, was accurate in just three of his 12 attempted long balls and managed to lose the ball ten times despite taking just 39 touches.

In all, it was a truly terrible showing from Vicario, but while the media are mainly focusing on him, one of his teammates was arguably just as bad.

The Spurs dud who was as bad as Vicario

The bad news for Frank and Spurs fans is that you could realistically make the case for any number of players being the worst on Sunday, from Richalison to Mohammed Kudus and even Micky Van de Ven.

However, when it comes to the outfield player who was as disappointing and as detrimental to the side as Vicario, it is impossible to look past Pedro Porro.

The Spanish full-back is enormously talented, and at his best can be far more of an attacking outlet than most others in his position.

Unfortunately, he’s not been anywhere near his best for some time, and was arguably at his worst on Sunday.

The former Sporting CP was entirely ineffective in attack, a massive liability in defence and, unsurprisingly, the watching press were not impressed with what they saw.

For example, the Standard’s Matt Verri awarded the full-back a 2/10 match rating, writing that he was ‘shocking defensively’ and that he ‘frustrated throughout.’

This may all sound a little hypobolic, or unfair, but the 26-year-old’s statistics prove otherwise.

In his 96 minutes on the pitch, the Spaniard produced an expected assists figure of just 0.04, lost four of his six ground duels, committed two fouls, failed to play a key pass, failed in 100% of his dribbles and took 81 touches, but lost the ball 23 times.

Ultimately, Sunday was a terrible day at the office for the entire Spurs’ squad, but Vicario and Porro were particularly poor, and Frank should really be looking to drop them.

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