Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou full of praise for Cristian Romero after Arsenal clash
He was the best player in our 2-3 loss to Arsenal at home in the league and deserves all the bit of praise coming his way from Ange Postecoglou. 3-0 down to your arch-rivals at home and you can’t even do much about it as a defender. Are you sure? Cristian Romero gave Tottenham a lease of life when he struck past David Raya in the 68th minute of the game, giving the Spurs faithful a glimmer of hope.
Even though we were unsuccessful in beating Tottenham, there was much to admire about how Romero went about his game. Won three of five tackles, made two blocks and made as many clearances. 11 defensive actions and won 11 out of the 15 duels he contested in. All stats from FotMob.
It was crystal clear that Cuti was on a different tangent to the rest of the squad. His heatmaps via WhoScored show his positive intent throughout the game, featuring most of the game in Arsenal’s half. That’s just his defensive performance.
He hit the woodwork once and saw one of his shots blocked as well. How much did we depend on this one player in this game… Man, oh man, he even missed two big chances, but we surely cannot blame a centre-back for that.
Let’s put Romero’s performance into perspective. Remember that famous Champions League final back in 2005, where Liverpool came back from 3-0 down against AC Milan to win on penalties? Yeah, that one. Now, while our game against Arsenal wasn’t quite on that level of miraculous comeback, Romero’s individual display was certainly reminiscent of Jamie Carragher’s heroic defensive efforts on that historic night.
Now, here’s where the real lesson lies. Romero’s performance wasn’t just about his individual brilliance – it was about his mindset. You see, even when things looked dire, when we were staring defeat in the face, Cristian Romero refused to give up. Here is what the boss had to say about Romero via Fabrizio Romano – Twitter.
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So let’s take this defeat on the chin, learn from it, and come back stronger. Because if there’s one thing we can take away from this game, it’s that with the right mindset and the right attitude, we can overcome any obstacle that comes our way. And that’s a lesson worth learning.
