The real villain: 4/10 Spurs star who lost the ball 25x was even worse than Dragusin – opinion
Tottenham lost at Craven Cottage and missed the chance to move into the top four.
Watch Radu Dragusin play for Tottenham
After losing badly to Fulham 3-0 at Craven Cottage, Tottenham Hotspur lost a great chance to move into the top four sides.
Just one week ago, Spurs were celebrating after beating fourth-placed Aston Villa at home. But after their loss on Saturday, the Villains are now in charge of their own near future.
Notably, Micky van de Ven wasn’t there because he hurt himself last time, and Radu Dragusin will be upset because his first game for Ange Postecoglou’s team wasn’t very good.
A look at Radu Dragusin’s game against Fulham
Tottenham bought Dragusin from Genoa for £27 million in January to help out when Cristian Romero and Van de Ven got hurt, but the Romanian will be hoping for better things in the future.
The 21-year-old had played four times in the Premier League before facing Marco Silva’s team, but this was the first time he was let loose from the start, and it’s clear he needs to get used to English football after a bad performance.
Alasdair Gold of Football.London wrote about what went wrong for him: “It was his first start, and Robinson’s pass was great, but the Romanian left Muniz with a lot of space behind him.” He tried to pass to help Udogie score the second goal but failed, and Muniz beat him to the ball for the third.
| Radu Dragusin: Stats vs Fulham | |
|---|---|
| Stat | # |
| Minutes played | 90′ |
| Touches | 65 |
| Accurate passes | 47/52 (90%) |
| Duels won | 4/8 |
| Tackles | 0 |
| Interceptions | 2 |
| Clearances | 5 |
| Blocked shots | 2 |
| Stats via Sofascore. | |
But based on the numbers, it wasn’t the worst show in the world.
He shouldn’t be blamed for this performance; some analysts said he looked “very awkward in possession,” but others said he did a good job.
In fact, Pedro Porro was the real bad guy that terrible evening; he may have put on his worst performance of the campaign.
How well Pedro Porro did in numbers
This season, Porro has been amazing. He has made more tackles than any other Tottenham player in the Premier League and is tied for second place in the league in terms of assists. He’s active and aggressive, and his boss has gotten a lot of use out of him.
He tried to trick the Cottagers by acting nice. Sofascore says Porro was very poor with his passing. He completed only 71% of his passes, lost the ball 25 times, made only one of his eight long balls go in, and failed on both of his move attempts.
He also lost all six of his ground battles, which is an average of 17%, and only made one tackle on a bad night when he wasn’t moving or firing like he usually does.
Gold gave the Spain international a 4/10 match rating, saying in his post-match player grades, “Wasteful in possession, with only Sarr having a worse passing success rate on the pitch (72%).” When Willian came into his area of the field, he caused him a lot of trouble.
One thing is for sure: Porro has been one of Tottenham’s best players this season. He will be excited about his chances to make a real impact in the coming weeks as his team tries to finish in the top four.
But because of his exceptional skills, it is his duty to perform at his best at this crucial point in the campaign.
Porro will be let down, but he needs to put this behind him and go back to the heights that made everyone in N17 respect him so much.
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