Football London journalist Alasdair Gold has slammed Davinson Sanchez after the centre-back played at right-back for Tottenham in their 2-2 draw with Olympiacos on Wednesday.
He also spotted something worrying in the warm-up, with Sanchez failing at crossing drills – and claimed the 23-year-old is lacking in confidence and not cut-out for the right-back role.
With Serge Aurier rested and Kyle Walker-Peters on the bench, Sanchez played out of position for the second time this season, after the 2-2 draw with Arsenal.
Talking in a YouTube video on Thursday, Gold said, “We have to talk about the Davinson Sanchez experiment. Quite frankly, he’s not a right-back.
“He’s a big, bulky Colombian centre-back who really has the turning circle of a cruise liner.
“He absolutely can’t deal with fast wingers coming down that flank. He just really struggles to deal with pace and a bit of trickery.
“You get the flipside of that that he’s got no attacking intent whatsoever. I watched during the warm-up, they were doing crossing drills and his crosses were lacking in confidence, they were either low crosses that weren’t going to anyone or crosses that were so high at the back post that no one had any chance of getting to them.
“You saw last night he had no interest in getting into the Olympiacos half of the pitch.”
TiF Tactics – Poch must get it right
Right-back has been a problem for Tottenham this season after Kieran Trippier left to go to Atletico Madrid.
And, while the former Spurs player was rescuing a point for his new side against Juventus with a late assist, Spurs were playing a big centre-back in his old position.
The Sanchez experiment has come about through an injury to Kyle Walker-Peters who was playing there in the opening games of the season.
But questions surely have to be asked about Serge Aurier. The club’s only other recognised right-back came in and got two assists in the 4-0 win against Crystal Palace in his first game of the season, but he was rested for the trip to Greece.
Aurier put in five crosses against Palace while Sanchez put in just two against Olympiacos, neither of them successful. [WyScout]
Defensively, Sanchez doesn’t look good at right-back. Like Gold said, he really struggles for pace and he doesn’t have the mobility you need to deal with the threats from the flank.
He got a 6.33 rating from WhoScored against Olympiacos, which was marginally better than his 6.15 against Arsenal, but far removed from the 8.07 Aurier got against Palace.
Arsenal and Olympiacos might have been tougher games but that’s when you need your best players in each position. Aurier and Walker-Peters might not have been 100% but Pochettino must stop playing Sanchez out of position and make use of all the players that he’s got at the club.
We expect the pacey Aurier to come back in against Leicester and, with the threat of James Maddison out on the left-wing, we wouldn’t be surprised if Sanchez was thinking the same thing.