Newcastle United scout Bruno Reis has revealed the secret behind his team’s victory over Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, and it all comes down to targeting Clement Lenglet in the Spurs defence.
Tottenham’s strong start to the season – officially their best-ever Premier League start after ten games – has been derailed somewhat by defeats to Manchester United and Newcastle United last week.
Losing at home to Newcastle on Sunday afternoon was a particular blow for Spurs as it ended an unbeaten run at home that stretched back to last season.
On the day, Spurs were overrun by an energetic Newcastle side who came away from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium 2-1 winners. Tottenham’s defence looked shaky all afternoon as Spurs conceded two fairly avoidable goals in the first half.
According to Newcastle scout Bruno Reis, in an interview with Bola Branca, Newcastle were able to take advantage of frailties they had identified in Clement Lenglet in the Spurs backline.
Reis said: “They expose some of the players who have these weaknesses, namely the left centre-back, Lenglet. That was exposed in our game on Sunday, in the second goal, in which Miguel Almiron easily passed Lenglet. I can visualise Sporting, with Edwards or Trincao, being able to exploit that.”
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Interestingly enough, although Lenglet did not play against Sporting, it was indeed on the left side of the back three that Marcus Edwards caused problems in the Champions League clash, and Ben Davies couldn’t seem to handle him. Maybe Reis is on to something.
Spurs Web Opinion
It’s a curious one, because you would imagine Clement Lenglet, with all his experience and composure, would be the strongest defender out of the back three we fielded against Newcastle.
Davinson Sanchez is not a ball-playing defender and Eric Dier, though much improved, always has a mistake in him.
You’d think it would have been Sanchez who Newcastle would target, but they went for Lenglet and got it right and got a goal out of him. We obviously need to offer more protection down that side.
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