Rio Ferdinand believes Tottenham missed a great opportunity to target one Arsenal player during the North London derby at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
As expected, Thomas Frank decided to set his team up to defend deep and soak up pressure, as he has done in most away games and even at home against good sides this season.
However, his decision to go with a back five backfired, with the Lilywhites struggling to get on the ball and ask any questions of their opponents in attacking areas.
While Tottenham looked defensively resolute for the first 35 minutes of the game, they crumbled after Leandro Trossard’s deflected effort gave the home side the lead, with Eberechi Eze netting a hat-trick to further pile on the misery for Spurs.
Tottenham should have tested Piero Hincapie
While Frank did revert to a back four in the second period, it did little to stem the flow of the game.
Ferdinand felt that it was incumbent on Spurs to look to test Piero Hincapie early in the game, given that the Ecuadorian was making his full Premier League debut in place of the injured Gabriel.
The Manchester United legend said on Rio Ferdinand Presents: “I looked at it when they [Tottenham] set up, and I’m thinking, if I’m looking at how Gabriel is out what type of formation can I play to put the new centre back coming in under pressure?
“In a big game like this, I want to ask, can you deal with this? So I’m going to get in and around him as much as I can, and the game doesn’t always work out like that, but you show the intention to set up like that.
“That’s where I was a little bit disappointed with the Spurs team in that you’ve got a new kid in there in Hincapie who’s come in and has done well to be fair,, when he’s coming and been the understudy.
“I want that kid questioned, and I want him drilled a little bit early, especially the first 15-20 minutes of the game, and say, ‘okay, right, we’ve had a bit of hype about you, and let’s get the real answer right now.’ They never even got their gloves on him.”
Spurs’ lack of courage in London derbies has angered fans
Just a few weeks ago, Tottenham registered an xG of 0.05 against Chelsea, and Spurs fans would have been hoping that they would not have to watch an abomination like that ever again.
However, their performance at the Emirates was very similar, with Spurs managing an xG of 0.07 against Arsenal, taking just four touches in the opposition box.
Going down without any fight in London derbies will simply not be accepted by the supporters, and one can clearly see on social media that large sections of the Tottenham fan base are already writing off Frank.