‘We miss him’ – Graham Roberts can’t wait for Rodrigo Bentancur return at Tottenham
Graham Roberts is eager to see Rodrigo Bentancur return to action after Tottenham confirmed the midfielder is “stepping up his rehab”.
Spurs posted images of Bentancur, 26, at training on Wednesday (9 August) with the Uruguay international now in the latter stages of recovering from a ruptured cruciate ligament.
Roberts, who played for Tottenham between 1980 and 1986, is clearly a massive fan of Bentancur and cannot wait to see the ex-Juventus star back with the first-team squad.
“We miss him,” said Roberts via his personal Twitter account on Wednesday night (9 August). “Hurry up and come back.”
Midfield warrior
Tottenham’s form last season was notably worse when Bentancur wasn’t in the squad.
The Uruguayan ace played 18 times in the Premier League for Spurs, scoring five goals and supplying two assists before he suffered that season-ending knee injury in February.
When Bentancur played, Spurs won 61 per cent of league matches. Without him, their win rate fell to 35 per cent.
Spurs’ form in the Champions League was similar, too. Bentancur played and started all six of the group-stage matches as the North London side finished in first place.
However, Bentancur’s knee injury was suffered just before a last-16 showdown with AC Milan, which Tottenham lost 1-0 on aggregate.
Despite missing so many games, Bentancur finished last season as Spurs’ third-highest goalscorer with five goals. Harry Kane scored 30 and Son Heung-min netted 10 times.
Stats by FBRef show that Bentancur also finished the season with 76 progressive passes, which was more than players like Yves Bissouma (67), Ivan Perisic (61) and Oliver Skipp (56) despite all of them playing in more games.
Off the ball, Bentancur also shone. His 45 completed tackles ranked him fourth in Tottenham’s squad for the whole season with only Cristian Romero (68), Pierre-Emile Hjoberg (56) and Emerson (54) completing more. He also ranked fourth for shots blocked (15) and fifth for interceptions (20).
More tellingly of Bentancur’s performances, he didn’t commit a single error that led to an opposition shot at goal.
Bentancur is an all-round midfielder and Tottenham are very clearly a worse side without him.
There’s no doubt that his injury cost the North Londoners a spot in European football for this season but, hopefully, he’ll be able to help make amends in the upcoming campaign, which kicks off on Sunday (13 August) against Brentford at the Gteh Community Stadium.
While Bentancur won’t be available for that game, he should be in the reckoning to return after the international break when Spurs take on Sheffield United in the capital on 16 September.
In other Tottenham news, John Wenham expects Tottenham trio Alfie Dorrington, Mikey Moore and Tyrese Hall to kick on this season.