Chris Sutton has claimed that Ben Davies’ comments following Tottenham’s defeat to Vitesse Arnhem were ‘quite alarming’ and believes it was a missed opportunity for a number of the club’s fringe players to make their mark.
Tottenham failed to trouble the spirited Dutch side, who recorded a 1-0 win in the third fixture of the Europa Conference League in front of a sold-out GelreDome.
It was a much-rotated Spurs line-up by Nuno Espirito Santo, who elected to rest all of the players who participated in the side’s 3-2 win against Newcastle United last weekend.
The opportunity was there for a number of fringe players to stake their claim as regular starters to the Portuguese coach, however, none produced a display worth writing home about.
Spurs full-back Davies was one of those involved in the Netherlands but admitted his side found it hard to settle into the game due to the tricky conditions of the pitch following the encounter.
The Welshman’s comments have particularly bemused BT Sport pundit Sutton, who believes Davies and his Spurs teammates avoided taking responsibility on Thursday.
Speaking on BT Sport, he said: “It was quite alarming some of things he said there. Tough to get going? Why? Blaming the pitch, it was the same for both teams. Losing a lot of second balls.
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“I don’t understand a lot of what he said there. It’s about taking responsibility.
“They’re playing in the second team at this moment in time for a reason because they’re not good enough to get in the first-team and they’re not applying themselves properly.
“Whatever way you want to look at it, tonight was an opportunity for those players in a Tottenham jersey to go out and have the right attitude and we know they have the ability, then their talent shines. That didn’t happen tonight.”
Spurs Web Opinion
The performance was poor all round and although there were some good players in the line-up, you expected it from a second-string team.
None of the players staked their claim to Nuno to be regular starters, so the starters really have little to worry about in terms of being dropped any time soon.
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