Tottenham Hotspur’s top-four chances were blown in tatters after they were demolished by Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon.
Under the guidance of interim boss Cristian Stellini, the north London outfit put in a shambolic display, likely their worst of the entire 2022/23 Premier League campaign as the Magpies hit them for six, with Harry Kane only mustering a mere second-half consolation goal.
It marks another sad page in Spurs’ sorry season, with the struggling side opting for a four-back system, in which Cristian Romero partnered Eric Dier and neither could register a rating above 5.6, per Sofascore figures.
The former was particularly disappointing, even more so than goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, who was hooked at the break with a suspected injury.
How did Cristian Romero play against Newcastle?
Having played a three-back all season, it was clear that the Argentine could not adapt to the system at such short notice and he was severely punished as Eddie Howe’s men stuck five goals past the trio by the 21st minute.
Across the 90 or so minutes he was on the pitch, the £50m aggressor won just one of his five duels (20%), was dribbled past on three occasions, including for Joelinton’s sumptuous strike – a moment that Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville lambasted as “shocking” on Twitter – and the renowned “liability” – as once described by Jamie O’Hara – also recorded one error leading to a shot.
In addition to that, within eight minutes of coming on, Romero was booked for scything down Callum Wilson, who had bagged the Magpies’ sixth and final goal with practically his first touch.
BBC contributor Oli Prince-Bates also claimed the £165k-per-week defender was “the most overrated player” in the Premier League, whilst the Evening Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick was equally unimpressed by the World Cup winner as he wrote in his post-match column: ‘A World Cup winner in a back four but just as poor as the rest, and all at sea for at least three of the goals.’
Elsewhere, Romero failed to register a single interception or tackle, which are usually two key facets of his aggressive game and only further highlights just how much of a difficult afternoon he had up against the likes of Alexander Isak and Josh Murphy, who both bagged themselves the easiest brace of their careers.
All in all, you could pick fault in any of Spurs’ backline as they are not equipped to be deploying a four-at-the-back system and whilst Lloris may get scapegoated, given his persistent errors, Romero should have done far better as arguably the Lilywhites’ best centre-back.