Spurs battled hard to beat Lyon on Thursday night but eventually the sheer class of Gareth Bale defeated the French. Still, it was a very solid defensive display by Spurs although they didn’t show too much going forward.
Brad Friedel – 7 – didn’t have too much to do, other than deal with a load of dodgy Gallas backpasses. No chance for the goal.
Kyle Walker – 8 – one of his best games of the season in my opinion. Solid defensively and extremely potent going forward, drilling in some great crosses.
William Gallas – 7 – Played well and his experience came to the fore. Ironically, a superb defensive header led to the Umtiti goal.
Jan Vertonghen – 6 – Didn’t do anything wrong but hardly set the world alight. Solid as ever.
BAE – 6 – Defensively sound and decent going forward.
Aaron Lennon – 7 – Yet again, terrorised defences with his dribbling without ever really achieving too much. Still, worked extremely hard as ever and helped out in defence effectively.
Scott Parker – 6 – his age showed in this game in terms of his on the ball ability, but off the ball and defensively he performed as solidly as ever.
Mousa Dembélé – 8 – first half, he ran the show, before going a bit quiet in the second half. His slide rule pass to Adebayor was sensational and deserved a goal.
Clint Dempsey – 6 – worked as hard as ever but failed to really make any chances. Put in a good shift and just lacked service.
Gareth Bale – 8 – not the best performance, but his two free kicks were sublime. Proved his worth to Spurs yet again and showed how he can turn a match in an instant.
Emmanuel Adebayor – 6 – missed a great chance but in general worked much harder than pre-ACON. Looks like goals will come if he keeps making the same runs he was in this game.
Subs:
Lewis Holtby – looked spritely and got involved without really achieving much. Looks like he is acclimatising to English football and he will eventually click.
Gylfi Sigurdsson – didn’t have time to influence the game off the bench. AVB needs to give him a longer spell on the pitch so that he can shine.
Jake Livermore – all that he really achieved was to wear the captain’s armband for a minute or two.
By Alex Beck