Soccer Football - Premier League - Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur - Selhurst Park, London, Britain - January 4, 2023 Crystal Palace's Wilfried Zaha in action with Tottenham Hotspur's Bryan Gil and Oliver Skipp REUTERS/David Klein EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
The UK media have slammed Tottenham Hotspur’s Oliver Skipp after his latest showing.
The Lowdown: Poor midweek performance
Skipp was handed yet another start by Antonio Conte as Spurs looked to pick up their first win in the Premier League since returning from the mid-season break – and the team duly delivered.
Tottenham eventually ran out 4-0 winners against Crystal Palace despite going into half-time level, but very little of Spurs’ success is going to be credited to the performance of Skipp.
For the second game in a row, Skipp was hooked off by Conte at around the hour mark, suggesting that the Italian doesn’t trust him to go the full distance and carry out his strict instructions.
The Latest: Media slam Skipp’s display
The midfielder was also the first Spurs player to be booked during the first half, which sums up his night and some of the media were left unimpressed.
Alasdair Gold had the following to say on Skipp: ‘Both Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and the rusty Oliver Skipp have struggled against their Palace counterparts, the latter picking up a yellow card after lunging to try to get to a poor pass from Ivan Perisic.’
Whereas, Dan Kilpatrick picked out a particular flaw in Skipp’s game against Palace as he said just before the 40-minute mark: ‘Skipp started the game well but Zaha has already ghosted past him twice and he just lost out to Eze, too.’
The Verdict: Skipp fails to grasp his opportunity
Given the continued absence of star midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, Skipp will have done himself no favours at Selhurst Park to show why he deserves to keep starting when the Uruguay international returns.
This is because according to Sofascore, the midfielder put in a 6.5/10 performance and also struggled in several key areas of the match, losing possession four times and touching the ball on just 35 occasions, while not managing any key passes or shots at goal.
Therefore, it was no surprise to see him hooked off, and if Bentacur can return for their next crunch clash against Arsenal, it would be no shock if Skipp was the man to make way.
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