Tottenham Hotspur were riding a streak of three straight wins, and Mohammed Kudus had actually been playing pretty well overall on the right flank despite a clear lack of end product, which has been a problem for him both last season and so far this season.
But Spurs came crashing back down to earth on Saturday afternoon at Elland Road, losing 1-0 to Leeds United in a game that, on paper, they should have been able to handle almost as easily as their 2-0 win over Crystal Palace or the 3-1 over Coventry City on Monday Night Football a couple of weeks ago.
There were several poor performers for Spurs in this nightmare loss, and, in all honesty, Kudus wasn't even the worst forward on the pitch with how inept Omar Marmoush and Dominic Solanke were again. But that does not absolve Kudus from how poorly he played, especially when his problems were apparent in the other games.
Mohammed Kudus is having serious production problems
Kudus had two successful dribbles but was still inefficient overall with five unsuccessful dribble attempts. He did not come close to threatening the goal, and he had just one accurate cross on seven attempts. On a day when Spurs needed him to rise to the occasion and create something for his teammates, Kudus honestly exacerbated the scoring woes for Solanke and Marmoush while doing nothing himself to get into position.
Tottenham Hotspur need goals more than anything else, and even when they beat Palace last weekend, Kudus did nothing to help in that regard, including missing an absolute sitter put to him on a platter by Luca Williams-Barnett.
In 540 Premier League minutes, Mohammed Kudus has zero goals. And it's not like he can use the luck or xG excuse, because he's only hit the target once this season despite getting eight shots. And that lack of end product can be seen in his crossing, too. In addition to hitting the target on fewer than 15 percent of his shots, Kudus has a similar crossing accuracy rate of just 12 percent, too.
Despite being in the 79th percentile among his peers on the wings in European football in terms of ball carrying statistics, Kudus is only in the 28th percentile in chance creation. Tottenham need goals, quality chances, and tangible production from their forwards. Kudus is offering hard work, dribbling, and excitement, but he's not offering what Tottenham actually need: production. And they are going to have a hard time justifying playing him.
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