‘Spurs just did not turn up’ – Jermaine Jenas slams performance against Sporting

Jermaine Jenas has claimed that Sporting deserved to take all three points against Tottenham, insisting that Antonio Conte’s men simply failed to turn up to the match yesterday evening.

Spurs knew going into the clash in Lisbon that three points would have gone a long way towards helping them seal progression to the next round, having won their opening clash against Marseille last week.

For the most part, it was a tightly contested affair, with Antonio Conte’s men having the upper hand territorially while the Portuguese side looked threatening on the counter-attack.

In the end, the Lilywhites were hit with a couple of sucker-punches late in the game, with both of Sporting’s goals coming in stoppage time.

Jenas insisted that the result was nothing more than what Ruben Amorim’s side deserved.

The former Spurs midfielder told BT Sport 3 (13/09/22 – 19:45): “Sporting deserved it in my opinion. There was a stage of the game where neither side really deserved to win but I think Spurs just did not turn up, again, if I’m totally honest.

“They spent 65 minutes against Marseille getting away with it and got the result based on a red card in that game. They’ve turned up to Lisbon today and not turned up again.

“There were too many sloppy performances individually. In fairness to Lloris, he was keeping them in the game. So those two late goals for Sporting Lisbon, I thought they thoroughly deserved them in the end. Spurs have got to have a good look at themselves and do better.”

Jenas also remarked that despite Tottenham’s positive results so far this season, a defeat such as the one on Tuesday was coming, based on the performances that Conte’s men had put in on a few occasions.

He added: “They’re going to be really disappointed and they’ve got to have a look at themselves. Weirdly, the points are on the board in the league, but their performances have been very much like that [tonight]. Very lethargic, they almost look tired in games.

“Whether that’s a training situation that he’s still pushing them too hard, or whether it’s players out of form. Either way, they’ve got to pick it up and pick it up quick because that was miles off what Antonio Conte and a lot of Spurs fans are expecting.

“I honestly can’t think of a clear-cut chance they created tonight. That’s the bigger concern for me. We’re talking about a front three that’s so exciting. They’ve got so many options and scored so many goals.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Weirdly, I do not even think this was anywhere near our worst performance of the season.

I thought we did enough in the second half to have potentially won the game but we were extremely sloppy in the final third, which was unusual.

In the end, too many individuals, including the likes of Kane, Son, Hojbjerg and Emerson, were off the boil for us to get anything from the game.

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