Tottenham: Alan Brazil blasts Timo Werner after what he saw v West Ham – ‘He might as well sit here’
Alan Brazil has blasted Timo Werner’s performance against West Ham on 2 April, calling the Tottenham forward “nowhere near good enough”.
Spurs were held to a 1-1 draw in their London derby against the Hammers, with Kurt Zouma cancelling out Brennan Johnson’s early opener.
And Brazil feels Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou should have hooked Werner instead of James Maddison in the 70th minute, suggesting the German was so bad that he should become a pundit.
Brazil said on talkSPORT: “I was baffled [at Maddison’s substitution], take off one of the wide players. I’m sorry, Werner, for me, he might as well sit here [in the studio].
“I don’t want to be nasty, but just come and sit here. He’s nowhere near good enough [to be considered] top class.”
Timo Werner’s Tottenham performance nowhere near as bad as Alan Brazil made out
Werner has developed a reputation within England, following his time at Chelsea, for profligacy and wastefulness.
While those accusations are not entirely unfounded – the German can be guilty of lacking ruthlessness and authority at times – his time at Tottenham has certainly not been the disaster it is being painted as.
Two goals and three assists in 618 minutes of Premier League football is a respectable return – a goal or assist every 123.6 minutes – and Werner has mixed creditable showings with less effective ones.
In fact, the most recent of those assists came against the Hammers, crossing low for Johnson to score the opener inside five minutes, while he also created goals in the 2-2 draw against Manchester United and 3-2 win over Brentford.
He also scored in the 3-1 win over Crystal Palace and got one off the bench in the 4-0 mauling of Aston Villa.
A comparison of his xG and xGOT (expected goals on target) totals (3.21 to 2.28, per FotMob) reveal that the quality of his shooting is not living up to the promise of the chances falling his way – a valid criticism, but certainly not enough to describe his loan spell as calamitous.
In other Tottenham news, American investment groups are ‘circling’ in North London amid a £86.8million update.
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