Glenn Hoddle believes Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou asked Oliver Skipp to play the wrong role against Liverpool on Saturday.
Speaking on The Final Word, Hoddle was discussing the tactics behind Tottenham’s dramatic last-minute win at the weekend.
Ange Postecoglou would have been delighted with his side coming away with three points against a very strong Liverpool side.
The classic cliché that it’s not easy to play against ten men was rolled out after Curtis Jones’s red card.
Playing against nine men appeared to be even more difficult after Diogo Jota’s dismissal but Spurs eventually broke through in the 96th minute.
However, Tottenham didn’t make it easy and looked bereft of ideas when it came to creating chances against a side trying to hold on for a point
Postecoglou turned to Oliver Skipp as one of his substitutes, but Glenn Hoddle thought he gave the 23-year-old some counterproductive instructions.
The midfielder isn’t well known for his attacking contributions but moves the ball quickly when in possession.
That wasn’t necessarily what Spurs needed at the time, especially with young forward Jamie Donley sitting on the bench in exceptional form.
Hoddle unimpressed with Skipp introduction for Tottenham
Speaking about how Tottenham went about breaking down Liverpool’s nine-man block, Hoddle said: “I think there’s players on the pitch, if there’s real leadership in there, they can spot it.
“At the end of the day, they came in at half-time Tottenham, they had a chance against ten men, I didn’t see it once.
“[Oliver] Skipp comes on, he’s told to make the runs inside, like we’ve just seen [Destiny] Udogie do.
“They’re not the runs! I’m sorry, but they’re not the runs.
“And in pre-season, you set your team up, you down to ten men, OK what are we going to do?
“This is our principle, we either go two banks of four and one upfront or whatever.
“But, on the other side of the fence, if we go against a team and they go down to ten men, this is what we do to open them up.”
Hoddle is right to question why Postecoglou told Skipp to run inside when Tottenham needed to get the ball out wide.
The issue he had is Manor Solomon on the left is well known for cutting inside in order to create chances, but that meant he simply kept running into trouble.
Kulusevski wasn’t sticking to the touchline either, but thankfully Pedro Porro was on hand to overlap to create the space needed to dig out one final chance that Joel Matip smashed past Alisson Becker.
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