Garth Crooks believes that the Tottenham Hotspur coaching team need to act immediately before Yves Bissouma costs the club following his red card on Saturday.
Crooks was speaking on BBC Sport after Spurs picked up the 1-0 victory which leaves Ange Postecoglou’s side top of the Premier League table heading into the international break.
Yves Bissouma is probably coming in for criticism for the first time this season. The Mali international has been outstanding so far, proving a real point after such a difficult first year in North London.
However, he really let the team down at Kenilworth Road. Bissouma picked up two yellow cards in around 10 minutes during the first-half of Tottenham’s trip to Luton.
Thankfully for Bissouma, Spurs still got the job done. But Garth Crooks believes that that should not let the 26-year-old off the hook for his error.
“Son Heung-min and Richarlison were well off the pace and why Yves Bissouma thought it a good idea to dive having already been booked earlier in the game beggars belief,” he told BBC Sport.
“His second caution was totally justified and such recklessness needs to be addressed by Tottenham’s coaching staff immediately before a costlier moment comes against a much bigger club.”
In fairness to Bissouma, it is not uncommon now for officials to wave play on when a player blatantly goes to ground without being fouled. And he probably anticipated that the defender was going to stick a leg out.
Having said that, it was a terrible dive. And Tottenham will now be without him for one game. And he is back to being on four yellow cards – and thus, one caution away from another one-game suspension.
It is going to be interesting to see how Spurs fare without him. The £25 million man has been superb so far. And people are now starting to really talk about Tottenham as potential title contenders this season.
