Jamie Carragher named one of Spurs’ star players after the draw with Brighton. (Image: Getty)
Liverpool icon Jamie Carragher has highlighted the contribution of Jed Spence, who helped Brighton equalize against Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend. Coach Roberto De Zerbi’s side entered second-half stoppage time with a 2-1 lead, and it looked like they were going to pick up an important three points in their battle against the Reds.
However, Georginio Rutter’s goal in the 95th minute dashed Tottenham’s hopes, leaving them firmly in the relegation zone with six games remaining. Pedro Polo and Xavi Simons appeared to have put Spurs in a commanding position to secure their first win since December 28th.
Despite a markedly improved performance, Spurs squandered a golden opportunity to move out of the bottom three ahead of Monday night’s game between West Ham United and Crystal Palace.
Express sports on FB! Get all the best sports news and more on our Facebook page
Reflecting on Saturday’s performance, Carragher told Sky Sports: “We’re talking about time, we’re talking about 94 minutes. Jed Spence, who came on in the 76th minute, is doing well now. We’re closing out (his players).”
“He can’t back off (from the press) and has to keep going, and that’s unfortunate. But Jed Spence, I don’t like this. We’ve got to sprint back.”
“He’s walking. He came on as a substitute, playing just 15 minutes. Then we brought in two young midfield players. We highlighted them against Sunderland, but they didn’t start in this game.”
“But they understand football and those two lads (Bergvall and Gray) are smart. They know someone has to play the left-back role.
“The left-back has come here (Spence is on the pitch) and they are trying to fill the void. Now, the situation here is that Porro has left the team, but Paulinha is going to be the right-back.”
Spurs’ Jed Spence to play against Brighton (Image: Getty)
“We’re going to focus on Jed Spence here. The ball comes in to Danso, everyone’s talking about his mistake, but he (Spence) starts walking and starts walking again because he thinks Danso has the ball.
“The two midfield players replaced him at left-back, opening up a space in midfield and from there Rutter scored. That was a great left-footed finish, but this was an absolute body blow for them.”
“We’ll see how they react, but listen, there were a lot of positives for Tottenham in terms of the way they approached and the way they played.[De Zerbi]won’t feel that now.”
Spurs return to action this weekend against relegated Wolves. This is a crucial game for De Zerbi’s team, as their opponents have little to offer.
Despite this, Mr Carragher remains unconvinced. He said, “We’re talking about when was the last time they won? What month was that? December?”
“They haven’t won a Premier League game since December, which is unbelievable. So to go to an away game and think they’re just going to win… I can’t imagine them losing the (Wolves) game, they could go bad, of course they could, but I’ve seen other teams go there and I find it difficult the way Wolves are going.”
