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Tottenham hero Glenn Hoddle tears into Mauricio Pochettino’s side and singles out ONE star
TOTTENHAM legend Glenn Hoddle was left frustrated by his former side’s performance against Ajax on Tuesday night - but he is hoping the return of Son Heung-min could make the difference in the second leg.
Tottenham vs Ajax: Pochettino reacts to ‘difficult’ loss
Ajax beat Tottenham 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.
A Donny van de Beek goal in the first half gave the visitors a deserved advantage heading into the return match in Amsterdam next week.
And Hoddle, who was working on the game as a pundit, could not believe how poor Mauricio Pochettino’s side were.
“Very, very disappointing,” he said on BT Sport.
Very, very lacklustre performance from Tottenham, it really was
“They’ve got to be with the way they played. There was no creativity, nothing special, no width at all.
“We said at half time in actual fact they had to go a little old school and go direct.
“They didn’t really sort that out until the last minutes of the game where it was desperate.
“Very, very lacklustre performance from Tottenham, it really was.
“They were like this against West Ham at the weekend, I thought they had one eye on this game.
“But they played in a similar vein, didn’t move the ball quick enough.
“Yes, we’re missing some top, top quality players at the cutting edge of the pitch, [Harry] Kane and Son.
“But you’d expect more than that performance.”
Hoddle still gives Spurs a fighting chance of making the final, especially with the return of Son from suspension.
“The spark could be Son,” he continued.
“I think [Lucas] Moura and Son over there, breaking on this Ajax team.
“If you get that away goal, Ajax have got it tonight, and they deserved it the way they opened the game up.
“For the first 30 minutes they were different class to Tottenham.
“But who’s to say when you go away from home you get a little bit more space, the home team can go and attack you, Spurs are capable with Moura and Son in the team to hit teams on the counter.
“They did it to City and they did it to [Manchester] City in the league, in the league match even more so with them two. So there’s still heart there.
“It was key when they hit the post - if that goes in it’s game over.”