Speaking on a recent episode of the Last Word On Spurs podcast, Sky Sports Presenter Marcus Buckland questioned Jose Mourinho’s decision to start Serge Aurier ahead of Matt Doherty in Tottenham Hotspur’s recent draw with West Ham United.
In the fixture, which saw Spurs throw away a 3-0 lead to 82nd, 85th and 94th-minute West Ham goals, rather unsurprisingly, many of the Tottenham defenders did not come out of the game with very impressive WhoScored match ratings, with Sergio Reguilon earning a 6.74 rating, Toby Alderweireld earning a 6.62 rating and Davinson Sanchez earning a 5.82 rating.
However, Aurier received a much more favourable WhoScored match rating of 7.19, ranking him as Tottenham’s third-best player in the fixture, behind only Son Heung-min and Harry Kane, who earned ratings of 8.31 and 10.00 respectively.
Despite this, speaking on a recent episode of the Last Word On Spurs podcast, Buckland questioned why the 27-year-old was selected at right-back ahead of Doherty.
He said: “Aurier – who I want to like because there is a lot to like about him – [gave] away a free-kick in the last couple of minutes [which led to a West Ham goal]. From the start I was actually wondering, in terms of game management, why didn’t Doherty start the match?
“Aurier did have his best ever game at Manchester United, and I want [him] to play in the Europa League on Thursday, but I was surprised that Doherty didn’t start and I don’t think he necessarily would have made a mistake like that.”
Do you think Aurier was to blame for Tottenham's collapse against West Ham?
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TIF Thoughts on Buckland’s criticism of Aurier…
From Buckland’s comments, it is clear that he feels the right-back was partly to blame for Tottenham’s collapse against West Ham, and that, if Doherty had started in place of Aurier, he doubts that the Irish defender would have made the same so-called error as the Ivory Coast international.
However, while it is indeed true that Aurier gave away the free-kick which eventually led to Fabian Balbuena’s 82nd-minute goal, the 27-year-old’s WhoScored match rating clearly shows that he was actually Tottenham’s best defender in the fixture, which, in our opinion, makes Buckland’s singling out of the right-back rather unfair.