Opinion: Tottenham player ratings from the 2-0 CL defeat to Sporting Lisbon

Tottenham Hotspur fell to their first defeat of the season this evening as Sporting Lisbon put two goals past Hugo Lloris without reply. 

Let’s take a look at how the individual players got on:

Hugo Lloris – 8 – No complaints from Hugo tonight. Unfortunately, he was Tottenham’s best player. Turned Marcus Edwards’ shot around the post in the first half, then tipped Pedro Porro’s wide in the second. Two huge saves.

Emerson Royal – 4 – Nowhere near it at either end tonight. He was wasteful in the final third with his crosses and efforts on goal, and was also uncharacteristically unreliable in defence. Nutmegged for the second goal and caught out a few other times too.

Cristian Romero – 4 – Honestly forgot he was playing. Romero usually gets stuck in and dictates when on the ball. Today, he pressed high and missed the ball over and over again, leaving Spurs in all kinds of trouble. Also at fault for the second goal.

Eric Dier – 5 – Sprayed the ball around nicely when Tottenham were in possession and made some key blocks, but he was caught out a few times when stepping up to press the Sporting forwards.

Ben Davies – 5.5 – Offered a constant underlap/overlap to Perisic on the left and looked pretty solid at the back for the mostpart. Unfortunately, he lacked the quality Spurs needed on the ball in the attacking half.

Ivan Perisic – 5.5 – Did well in flashes when taking on his man 1v1 and getting crosses into the box, but I also wanted to see more from him on the ball across the 90 minutes. It was all a little safe at times.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg – 5 – Not his best game by a long shot. Hojbjerg was overrun at times in the midfield and misplaced an uncharacteristic number of passes. So often the driving force for Spurs in the engine room, but couldn’t get out of third gear today.

Rodrigo Bentancur – 6 – Kept the tempo rolling over nicely, as he always does, but that was about it today. He lacked those killer passes through the lines to kickstart attacks. Have to say that he played better than most though.

Richarlison – 6 – You always get 110% effort at the very least with Richarlison. He chased all day long and looked dangerous on the shoulder, albeit before that pesky offside flag kept going up.

Harry Kane – 4 – One of the worst I have seen him play in a long time. The ball wasn’t coming to him up top and he was all over the place when he dropped deep. One to forget for Harry.

Heung-min Son – 4 – Just was not in the game at all today. Had his back to goal all night and that really isn’t where Son thrives. With little space in behind for him to run into, Son looked a little lost on the left.

Substitutes:

Dejan Kulusevski – 7 – Probably Tottenham’s best outfield player and he only came on for 20 minutes, so that sums it up. Always takes on his man, often wins, and always picks out the best pass.

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