Tottenham Hotspur are sinking further and further into the abyss of incompetence. After losing 4-1 to Arsenal in a North London Derby that can never be repeated again and will be discussed with derision and laughs by the Gunners ofr years to come, Spurs followed that up with a 2-1 defeat that cemented home Thomas Frank's complete lack of progress or a tangible response in the Premier League.
At mid week at least, Frank did make some changes, and one of the most important was giving center midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur a Kane-like (yes exactly, the OTHER famous Kane) Big Boot to the face out of the starting lineup. Instead, Spurs have been rolling with Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall. And as literally any semi knowledgable Spurs fan would have told you and predicted correctly, Spurs look ten times better with the young midfielders in the lineup.
Now, Bentancur did get a good 30 minutes to run around at the end of the Tottenham loss to Fulham in order to try to make something happen. And, spoiler alert, Bentancur did not, in fact, make anything happen for Spurs on Saturday night.
Rodrigo Bentancur is not offering anything
If anything, he somehow buried himself further on the roster and made every single Spurs supporter in the crowd wonder just why in the heck upper management rewarded him with a new contract just weeks into a season that was already going poorly. And now, Bentancur is somehow even worse, yet Spurs are on the hook to keep paying him.
While Bentancur did create a couple of chances, the rest of his game was a reminder of why he is untenable in the starting lineup these days. He was completely overrun by the Fulham midfielders and defended like a man made out of plastic straws. Bentancur folds and flies away with the slightest breeze, he literally ducks out of shots, and he cannot control games because he is not present enough off the ball or incisive enough on it to do so.
As a progressor with the ball at his feet? Forget about it. Bentancur does not have the athleticism or verve to take and beat defenders to the next level; he's certainly not half the player that Gray and Bergvall already are in this regard.
It was only 30 minutes, but it was 30 minutes too long and more than enough time for Tottenham fans to double down on their opinion that Bentancur, when he is on the pitch, is one of the biggest things wrong about the club in the Frank era.