Gary Neville believes Tottenham have a discipline problem following Yves Bissouma’s red card in Friday’s 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest.
Spurs won thanks to goals from Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski, keeping them fifth in the Premier League but level on points with fourth-placed Manchester City and six ahead of sixth-placed Manchester United.
Spurs were reduced to ten men in the 70th minute, however, when Bissouma was sent out for his challenge on Ryan Yates after a VAR review.
Spurs‘ fourth red card of the season was sent to Bissouma, and Neville feels Ange Postecoglou would be ‘angered’ by the ‘ill-discipline’ in his side.
‘I’ve seen teams over the last five or six years, Jurgen Klopp‘s Liverpool, Pochettino’s Spurs, obviously Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, Brighton as well I think the way they play, but you can put this team [Tottenham under Postecoglou] right up there in that bracket and this manager has only had three or four months to work with these players, and he’s had injuries,’ Neville told Sky Sports.
‘The one thing he has to control is the minor discipline problem, well, it’s a discipline problem, they make some pretty risky challenges, they’re crazy on the pitch at times, and they don’t need to be.
‘There’s only a few of players in the team who have got real composure and that’s Ben Davies and Son [Heung-min], the rest of them have all got a little of something in them where you say, ‘what are they doing?’.
‘They’re so talented these players, Bissouma, [Cristian] Romero, [Destiny] Udogie, they’re so vital to Spurs that they’re available, fit, and in the team,’ Neville added later.
‘To lose them constantly through ill-discipline, I got sent off two or three times in my career and made mistakes, but some of these players, it’s the same players, are getting sent off two or three times a season and they’ve got to stop because they’re going to cost Tottenham, they are costing Tottenham.
Spurs will lose points if these players are not available. If they are harmed, there is nothing you can do, but if they continue to be impulsive and reckless with these trials, it becomes folly, it becomes crazy.
‘I’d be really angry, I’m sure he’s [Postecoglou] angry inside, I’m sure Spurs supporters are angry, and I’m a little bit angry because I haven’t watched a team play football in a few years that has delighted me as much as this club in terms of knowing I’m going to get a good game of football. They have to stop those little acts of ill-discipline; I understand that it takes commitment, but they just seem to do it on a regular basis; they have to stop it.’
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