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Today’s player ratings do not have a theme. Why, you ask? Because these things take a lot more time than you probably realize, there’s the Liverpool match tomorrow, I’m having a busy week at the day job, and this website is free. Sue me.
5 stars:
No Tottenham players were this good.
4 stars:
Harry Kane (Community — 3.5): Disappeared along with everyone else in the second half, but took his goal very well. That wasn’t easy and was as much his shot as Guaita’s mistake.
Toby Alderweireld (Community — 3.5): Solid at the back again (5 tackles!), and it looks like he’s regained his previous form after a spell on the bench early in the season.
3.5 stars:
Eric Dier (Community — 3.5): Got bossed by Benteke (who’s a bit of a load) but was decent defensively overall and nearly won the match with an achingly wide header and a late free kick that was well saved by Guaita.
Pierre Højbjerg (Community — 3.5): Not one of his best matches but still a pretty solid outing. Wish he had stepped into the ball-progression-through-midfield void, but that seems to be tactical instruction.
3 stars:
Tanguy Ndombele (Community — 3.0): Had couple of good chances on goal early on in the match but tired quickly and looked gassed when he came off for Lo Celso. Bonus points for the rabona pass that I missed in real time.
Steven Bergwijn (Community — 3.0): I see why he’s continuing to get starts as he works very hard as a Mourinho-esque defensive winger, but he was a passenger offensively in this match. He’s not contributing much apart from defense, and that’s where Spurs really needed the extra help especially in a match where Sonny was off the boil. Call this 2.76 stars, really.
Gio Lo Celso (Community — 3.0): Didn’t take the match by the horns but tried cool stuff and provided the ball that Dier headed wide.
Dele (Community — 3.0): I know he wasn’t on long, but he put in a good tackle with his first contribution and generally tried to do good things. Can we please play him more?
2.5 stars
Son Heung-Min (Community — 3.0): Fed Kane beautifully for the assist but that was about the extent of his contribution in this match. A difficult one on which to impose his style of play.
Sergio Reguilon (Community — 3.0): Looked good in the first half when Spurs were pinning Palace back, but fell off a cliff in the second half, especially with the ball at his feet.
Hugo Lloris (Community — 3.0): The thing about goalkeeping is that one mistake can often undo a ton of otherwise good work. I didn’t think Hugo was horrible, but he was caught out undecided on the play and muffed the catch that led to the equalizer. Not a great moment, but there’s plenty of blame to go around in this match.
2 stars:
Moussa Sissoko (Community — 3.0): Picked up an early yellow and continued to play almost recklessly while not contributing much to the attack. Surprised he didn’t get sent off, and this was not a match that played to his strengths.
Serge Aurier (Community — 3.0): We’ve been rightfully praising Serge for his good performances lately. This was not one of them. Had difficulty containing Eze and Zaha (which, that’s tough!), lost possession 24 times (!!) and was not especially great going forward.
Jose Mourinho (Community — 2.5): Mourinho tried to blame his players (“the team” instead of Hugo) for the equalizer, but he got his tactics horribly wrong in this one, and didn’t make adjustments to take the match to Palace until it was almost too late.
1 star:
No Tottenham Hotspur players were as bad as 1 star in a themeless player ratings article.
Tom Carroll Memorial Non-Rating
Ben Davies