Michael Dawson rages at ‘unacceptable, mindblowing’ Tottenham star v Everton
Radu Dragusin would be forgiven if Sunday was the first time he ever played football after a horrific performance for Tottenham.
Everton – yes, Everton – beat Spurs 3-2 at Goodison Park to put huge pressure on manager Ange Postecoglou and to introduce the North London club to the frightening prospect of a Premier League relegation battle.
Dragusin, 22, has been Spurs’ only real centre-back option for the last few weeks due to injuries to Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero.
Postecoglou, therefore, has had to depend a lot on the Romanian to help stand firm in his defence, especially while playing alongside teenage midfielder Archie Gray at the back.
Instead, it’s looked like Gray has been the seasoned defender while van de Ven and Romero have been out with Dragusin seemingly well out of his depth.
Dragusin’s shortfall were on display at Goodison Park on Sunday (19 January) as he endured a shocker against struggling Everton.
For Iliman Ndiaye’s goal, the Toffees’ second of the match, the Romanian was completely at sea as the Senegal forward fired home.
Ex-Tottenham centre-back Michael Dawson was particularly disappointed by the former Genoa man, who was substituted off at half-time and replaced by Richarlison after an injury.
Michael Dawson blasts Radu Dragusin in Everton v Tottenham
“Take nothing away from Ndiaye – it’s brilliant play from Everton. But defensively, Spurs have been all over the place,” said Dawson on Sky Sports Premier League (3:01pm, 19 January).
“This defending from Dragusin. I’m sorry, it’s unacceptable.
“Archie Gray has stepped in to get tight to him, it’s flicked around the corner and the distance between Archie Gray and the defender… Dragusin’s got to come off.
“They’re playing a back-three. They’re all over the place.
“I can’t believe it, it’s mindblowing.”
Not only was Dragusin appalling for Ndiaye’s goal, his overall statistics for Spurs’ defeat on Merseyside make for sorry reading.
According to stats by Sofascore, Dragusin failed to make any tackles of interceptions in his 45 minutes on the pitch.
He also won just one of the four aerial duels (25%) he contested, won one of the two (50%) ground duels he was involved with and was also dribbled past once.
His 85% pass accuracy was also shy of expectations due to the way Postecoglou likes to set up his team to play out from the back. The Romanian failed with all four long-range passes he attempted.
Dragusin’s going to be on borrowed time at Hotspur Way with more performances like that.
If anything, he should be told to empty out his locker at Spurs’ training headquarters right away after how bad he performed.
In other Tottenham news, Gary Lineker has mocked Postecoglou after what he did on Match of the Day.
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