Former midfielder Jamie O’Hara has slammed two Tottenham Hotspur stars in the wake of the 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa on Sunday, branding their performances “painful”.
Spurs fall to sixth after Aston Villa defeat
Tottenham suffered their second Premier League defeat of the season at the weekend, suffering a 2-1 loss at home against Villa, which means they have now fallen to sixth in the table.
On the balance of play, it was a relatively even game, with very few big chances being created by either side, but the visitors were ultimately more clinical, and Morgan Rogers’ first-half goal was particularly eye-catching.
Thomas Frank admitted the loss was a fair result in his post-match interview, saying: “I don’t think we did enough. If we’d done enough we wouldn’t have lost this game. I don’t think we gave too much away, they scored two goals from outside the box. But I think we can also create more for ourselves.”
As you’d probably expect, O’Hara was a little more scathing in his assessment of Spurs’ performance, taking to X to single out two players in particular for heavy criticism.
Paratici planning to spearhead Tottenham move for "world-class" £100m forward
The Tottenham sporting director is looking to strengthen Thomas Frank’s attack.
1 ByDominic Lund
The former midfielder said: “We’re so frustrating to watch it’s painful, why is Tel playing? Why is Odebert starting? They are not good enough, we need more than just long throws, our home form needs to be million times better.”
Tottenham must improve ahead of tricky run of fixtures
Frank’s side’s fixtures have been relatively kind on paper so far this season, but things are about to get more difficult, with upcoming Premier League opponents Everton still undefeated at home since their move to the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
Tottenham’s next five Premier League fixtures
Date
Everton (a)
October 26th
Chelsea (h)
November 1st
Manchester United (h)
November 8th
Arsenal (a)
November 23rd
Fulham (h)
November 29th
As such, Spurs must start showing signs of improvement soon, and O’Hara is right to be concerned about Odobert’s performances, with the winger still yet to register a single goal or assist in eight Premier League games this season.
Tel has also disappointed since his arrival, scoring just four goals in 28 outings, and the 20-year-old struggled once again on Sunday afternoon, receiving a 6.1 SofaScore match rating before being withdrawn on the hour mark.
Consequently, Frank could do with Dominic Solanke returning sooner rather than later, and the Tottenham boss recently provided a promising update on the centre-forward’s return from injury, saying: “The good thing is it’s positive, he’s progressing now. But he’s still training on his own. I don’t want to be too excited or too negative either way, so I’m actually taking it a little bit day-by-day and week-by-week to see how quick he progresses.”