Tottenham Hotspur qualified for the semi-final of the Carabao Cup with victory over Manchester United but almost allowed the Red Devils back into the match late in the game
Jamie Carragher has encouraged Tottenham’s stars to take Spurs’ tactics into their own hands, in a bid to shore up results.
The north London side prevailed 4-3 over Manchester United in the Carabao Cup, but did so having led Ruben Amorim’s side 3-0 after 46 minutes. United were able to pull two goals back through Joshua Zirkzee and Amad Diallo to offer a scare before Son Heung-min secured victory and Jonny Evans added a late consolation.
Former Liverpool defender Carragher has been left frustrated by Spurs on more than one occasion. The pundit has been left perplexed by Ange Postecoglou’s inclination to never stray away from a system that can leave the side exposed.
Thursday evening’s scare at home, follows the Lilywhites giving up a two-goal lead against Chelsea earlier this month. Carragher has now called upon Tottenham’s stars to take more responsibility to react to the state of a game.
“They never change how they play no matter how the game state is. I don’t think football should be played the same from minute one to minute 90. At that stage [just after Tottenham conceded] you don’t pass the ball back to the goalkeeper and make him nervous.
“What we’ve created now is robots on the pitch. I wasn’t a great player technically or physically, but I understood the game.
“Some of the things I saw tonight I wouldn’t have allowed to happen. The manager has told you to play a certain way but someone has to get a grip and say ‘no, we are changing for the next five or 10 minutes’.
“It frustrates me when players can’t see how the game state changes and recognise they have to change their approach to suit it.”
Postecoglou nevertheless remained content with his team’s performance, albeit frustrated with the errors leading to United mounting a small comeback.
“We played so well, well in control of the game,” he said following the game. “It’s the way our season has gone a little bit, we self-inflicted some pain on ourselves and then we had to scramble to get a foothold again. Ended up getting a fourth and winning the game.
“It should have been a lot more comfortable than it ended up being but having said that I still can’t get away from the fact this group of players is doing an unbelievable job at the moment to get us through this. The fact we again scored four goals and played some outstanding football.
“We got tired in the second half because we have a small number of players we keep putting out there. Obviously made it tighter than the game should have been.”
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