Dion Dublin praise for Cristian Romero misplaced in Tottenham loss v Liverpool
Tottenham ace Cristian Romero earned praise from Dion Dublin for his “outstanding” piece of defending during the first half against Liverpool.
However, those plaudits seemed misplaced come the end of the 90 minutes after Tottenham shipped another four goals in another poor defeat.
Romero did well to cancel out some Liverpool danger, with the scoreline 1-0 at that stage, before Liverpool went on to claim a 4-2 victory.
“That is absolutely outstanding defending from Romero there,” Dublin said on BBC Radio 5 Live [5 May, 5:05pm].
Tottenham fall to defeat at Anfield
Romero was as composed as ever on the ball, with his 91.7-per-cent passing accuracy bettered only by Micky van de Ven (91.9 per cent) among Spurs starters [WhoScored].
The Argentina international did not win any tackles, however, and did not win any ground duels [Sofascore]. Of the two aerial duels he contested, he came out on top in one of those.
Romero did have a Tottenham-high 86 touches, showing he is not afraid to get on the ball, but eight of those were misplaced.
In attack, he could not add to his tally of five league goals for the season, giving him a respectable 26-per-cent conversion rate for a defender.
To concede four goals in the manner Spurs did means the centre-backs have to take accountability. That is now 13 goals conceded across Romero’s last three starts – an average of a goal conceded every 20 minutes or so.
Romero continues to shine in a number of metrics for Tottenham, but one area his defensive game lacks is in terms of blocks.
As per FBref, he is in the bottom 38 per cent of all centre-back across Europe’s top five leagues for that (3.48 per 90).
This is not to dig out the 26-year-old – and he was not even Spurs’ worst-performing defender – but the full 90 minute package was in stark contrast to that “outstanding” moment earlier in the game.
If Tottenham are to tighten up at the back and return to form, they will need Romero – a player who ranks in the top 14 per cent for aerial duels won, incidentally – to get back to his best.
In other Tottenham news, a pundit was blown away by what a “dangerous” Spurs player did versus Liverpool.
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