View: Postecolgou strikes pure gold as 0% Tottenham player axed v Brighton tonight
Ange Postceglou has struck pure gold ahead of Thursday’s game with Brighton as he axes Tottenham midfielder Oliver Skipp for the match at the Amex Stadium.
On Thursday night, December 28, Spurs announced their starting lineup for the encounter at the Amex on their official Twitter account. Postecoglou made two changes from the team that defeated Everton 2-1 on December 23.
With a confirmed five-week absence due to a hamstring injury, central defender Cristian Romero is replaced by Postecoglou, who starts alongside Davies in defense. Emerson Royal also starts.
In the match against Everton, Royal started at left defense, but Destiny Udogie, who served a suspension, will start in his customary position. Additionally, Postecoglou has decided to bench Oliver Skipp, who has shown some lackluster play recently.
He is replaced at the center of the Spurs midfield by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who sits next to Pape Matar Sarr.
After Giovani Lo Celso returned to the field, Skipp was a surprising addition to the starting lineup, but he did not exactly shine throughout the first ninety minutes of the Toffees game in north London.
Although he was able to complete 92 per cent of his passes, zero per cent of those passes were key, and he was unable to impact the game in forward areas by providing zero crosses into the box and zero long balls forward (Sofascore).
Defensively he was solid, winning four of his five ground duels which he contested and making two clearances, but he also gave possession away seven times during the whole game whilst failing to attempt an aerial duel as the Toffees ran riot in the second half which nearly cost the Spurs all three points.
The Englishman’s display for Spurs before that, coming on for Brennan Johnson withdrawn early after injury against Nottingham Forest, Skipp failed to stake his claim.
While he did execute 87% of his passes, one of which was crucial, according to Sofascore, he failed in other areas, winning only 2/3 of his ground duels out of 6 and losing the one aerial duel he engaged in.
He was dribbled past twice and was only able to complete one successful dribble. He also only managed one tackle and one clearing.
Skipp has just not been able to live up to Postceoglou’s demands for security and effort from his midfield players, and it was only fair that the Australian coach cruelly cut him out of the starting lineup for the match against Brighton.
In other Tottenham news, following a “wild development,” a recent decision made by Daniel Levy may still be beneficial to the team.
