Ange Postecoglu gives strong opinion on forward's performance
By Tom Vinall
On Thursday evening, Spurs dropped points in the Europa League against Rangers, on a night where most players did not play well, at all. However, there was one player who managed to particularly stand out for playing poorly - Timo Werner.
In fact, the winger was so poor, that Ange called him out publicly, something we have not seen the manager do very often. Indeed, it was only this week where he compared Cristian Romero calling out the owners to him calling out players, implying it is not the right thing to do.
Ange does not mince his words about Werner's performance
However, Ange was clearly tipped over the edge from the 28-year old's display on Thursday, where he was substituted at half-time. Speaking to the media after the game, he said: "He wasn't playing anywhere near the level he should. It's not acceptable to me. He's a senior German international.
When I'm asking younger guys to do massive jobs, I expect a level of performance from the senior guys, and today wasn't that. His performance in the first half wasn't acceptable."
Pretty damning words, and a clear indication that he has had enough of the forward. As mentioned above, calling players out publicly is not something Ange tends to do, so you know that performance from Werner really was the straw that broke the camels back.
The 59-year old has suggested the comments weren't as brutal as has been made out to be the case, saying today: "No. It wasn’t criticism, it was assessment. I’m not going to go around worrying about bruised egos. If somebody who’s fit feels he needs something extra in this moment, he’s probably not the right type."
You would assume that if Mikey Moore was available, he would be the one getting those minutes on the left-wing instead. The truth is that Ange has very little alternative at the moment. Even Richarlison, if he was (ever) fit would be surely getting plenty of minutes off the left hand side at the moment. This would have also been such a good opportunity for Wilson Odobert to get consistent minutes, and show what he can do.
When Dominic Solanke is available, which he generally is, and was just being rested on Thursday, the likelihood is that Heung-Min Son will move back to the left. In reality, he isn't looking too good at the moment either, yet still feels like an infinitely better choice than Werner off the left hand side.