Destiny Udogie abysmal in Tottenham loss v West Ham United, Ian Wright blasts him for ‘terrible’ error
Destiny Udogie put in a shockingly bad performance for Tottenham as they suffered a defeat to West Ham on Thursday (7 December).
The Italian international was at fault for the Hammers’ winning goal when he played a loose pass back to Spurs keeper Guglielmo Vicario that led to James Ward-Prowse making it 2-1 to the visitors.
It was an off night for the 21-year-old overall as he wasn’t very effective going forward and looked shaky at the back on a couple of occasions against the Lilywhites’ London rivals.
The left-back has been a revelation on the whole for Tottenham this year after he spent last season on loan with Udinese, who the club signed him from in August 2022.
His performances for the Serie A side during the last campaign, where he scored three goals and laid on four assists in 33 matches, persuaded Ange Postecoglou to hand him a chance in the first team in North London.
It has been a decent few months for Udogie after nailing down the position on the left-hand side of the defence, recording two assists in his 13 starts for the club.
He’s averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.83 in the Premier League this season, but that figure has been brought down massively over the past few weeks following his performances in the past five games, where Spurs have failed to win a single match.
It was another disappointing night for him against West Ham after he was handed a 6.6 rating, which was by far the lowest of any of the Lilywhites players.
The Italian’s biggest involvement in the game came in the second half when his poor pass to Vicario was almost seized upon by Jarrod Bowen, with the keeper having to push the ball out to the feet of Ward-Prowse, who slotted the ball home at the second attempt.
Speaking on Premier League TV production after the game, former Arsenal forward Ian Wright wasn’t impressed at all by the incident, having labelled it as “terrible play” from the defender.
“If you look at Udogie for instance, that was just poor play,” said Wright. “Terrible play. You can get that out of your game.”
It’s a moment the left-back will certainly be looking to learn from as everyone knows you simply can’t make errors of that magnitude in such a big game.
Although he did make three clearances, four interceptions and two tackles throughout the evening, he was dribbled past once to go alongside his match-defining error.
Despite having 72 touches, which is up on his average of 63 for the season, Udogie made zero key passes and didn’t complete a single successful cross into the box, either.
There is no doubt that he is still young and possesses an awful lot of talent, but it’s clear that the defender has a lot to learn.
He will be looking to make amends for his error when Spurs face Newcastle United on Sunday (10 December).
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