Gary Neville cannot believe Destiny Udogie ‘madness’ in Tottenham draw v Manchester United
Tottenham star Destiny Udogie proved Gary Neville wrong with a brilliant display against Manchester United after the Sky Sports commentator slammed him for a moment of “madness” in the 2-2 draw.
The former Manchester United man was left perplexed by Udogie’s decision to head the ball back towards his own goal, hitting the post, rather than away from danger as United looked to pile the pressure on.
Udogie’s performance for Spurs at Old Trafford was the complete opposite of Neville’s “madness” label as he wowed fans with yet another impressive display.
Speaking live on Sky Sports [14 January, 17:10], Neville exclaimed: “He does head it towards his own goal, it’s madness” as Ugodie and Spurs were briefly pinned inside their box and struggled to deal with the pressure.
In the end, it was Spurs who dominated the game despite going into half-time 2-1 down, as they finished the game with 64 per cent possession and 1.35 expected goals compared to United’s 0.84. [Sofascore]
From the look of those match stats, it was Spurs who could feel hard done by at full-time, despite United missing a late opportunity to win it. Ange Postecoglou’s side pulled off 16 shots, 12 of which came from inside the box, and despite conceding twice, Guglielmo Vicario did not make a single save.
Udogie also stepped up his display despite the criticism from Neville and played out a fantastic battle with Alejandro Garnacho on the wing with both struggling to get the better of one another throughout the game.
His defensive work was outstanding despite momentary lapses in concentration, as he made four clearances, three interceptions and five tackles while preventing any of the opposition attackers from completing a single dribble past him in one-on-one situations.
Seven ground duels won from his 11 attempts gave him a success rate of 63%, but he also committed two fouls and failed to complete any of his crosses with a 0 per cent accuracy from those situations.
In fact, Udogie’s combined defensive actions from the game at Old Trafford (12) were more than he had made in his previous two games against Burnley and Bournemouth (8), as he rose to the occasion.
Ange Postecoglou will no doubt be pleased with his display despite the madness, showing more maturity to his game and that he was able to deal with the threat posed by Garnacho on the right-hand side of United’s attack in a game that required him to be switched on for 90 minutes.
In other Tottenham news, an expert was wowed by one United ace today.