Tottenham Hotspur saw their unbeaten record in the Champions League for the season come to its conclusion as defending champions PSG got the better of Thomas Frank’s side on a 5-3 scoreline.
While it was the night where Randal Kolo Muani had an inspired performance upfront, the Lilywhites skipper Cristian Romero had an outing to forget.
The Argentine looked all over the place as Spurs’ backline continued to show leakage. If we aggregate the goals that Tottenham have conceded in the last two games, it comes down to nine.
After that Arsenal thrashing, it was important for Tottenham to have a strong defensive performance. And that is where Frank hoped his senior defenders would step up, but instead Romero had a horror display.
Cristian Romero vs PSG
Romero has been one of the most consistent defenders of the English top tier in the past seasons. But we did see a bit of inconsistency surface in the last campaign after he was denied that Real Madrid transfer. While the same rumours were on display once again in the summer, he ended up staying put at N17.
But then he became central to problems against PSG, when all stakes were sky high and pressure was on. And he set the tone, especially for that second half, where his mispass to Pape Matar Sarr in the first phase ended up with pressure that the Lilywhites could not escape. This ended up with Sarr being robbed of possession and PSG midfielder Fabian Ruiz netting home their third for the night (which was also the first time that the hosts led on the night).
While many Spurs faithful were criticising Sarr for losing the ball, you need to start pointing at Romero because he put in a pass in the crowded space. Now this is the type of pass that you don’t expect your skipper to make, especially when you’re 2-2 on an away ground to the European champions. And then things got worse for the Argentine. When Vitinha was lining up a shot, the 27-year-old ended up throwing himself in to block and ended up giving a penalty.
Vitinha ended up converting that penalty to score his first senior hat-trick. This also made it five for PSG.
Numbers behind Romero’s night at Parc des Princes
If we start looking at the numbers from the game, it does show that his game against the French giants was as bad as we saw.
He was on the pitch for the full ninety minutes, but only took 37 touches and 22 completed passes. While that is already bad, he ended up losing the ball six times along the way.
And then when it comes to duels, he has no sense of dominance. The former Atalanta star lost half of the duels he went into and was dribbled past twice. Romero also committed three fouls, including the crucial one for the late penalty we mentioned earlier.
[Game stats via. FotMob]
For someone who prides himself on playing on the front foot, those are absolutely underwhelming numbers. When your most experienced centre-back is playing like that, everything behind and in front of him starts to wobble (as we have seen in the last two games now).
It is not a surprise that the Argentine was given just a 3/10 rating by Football London’s Alasdair Gold. While Footballfancast insisted that there was a feeling that this was Romero’s worst display donning the Spurs badge.
TTLB Opinion
It has been a while since Romero has been living up to his credentials. And the fact that the Argentine had another underwhelming display means many would be looking at his counter part when Tottenham face Fulham. With Romero suspended, you expect Kevin Danso to start. And he has been doing well in that RCB role in the past weeks.
For a captain, he has to put in better performances than he did against PSG. But for now all eyes will be on Danso and Fulham. What do you make of Romero’s performances against PSG? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.