Article from The Athletic.com
Serge Aurier is useless. Of course he is, we can all see that. The guy can’t defend, can’t cross. He’s a complete waste of space.
I mean, let’s start with his tackling — I’d probably have more chance of winning the ball off a Premier League winger. And Tottenham Hotspur’s new system under Jose Mourinho means he barely has to do any defending anyway. He basically plays as a winger himself.
What’s that? Only one Premier League player who’s featured for 1,000 minutes this season has more successful tackles per game than Aurier’s 2.65?
OK, so he wins a lot of tackles, fine. Making so many is probably why he gets booked all the time. Hmm. He’s actually only been cautioned three times this season. Six of his Spurs team-mates have more, including Eric Dier, Danny Rose and Christian Eriksen, who have all played significantly less football than he has.
Alright, maybe he’s not as bad as I thought defensively, but give him the ball and he’s like a bull in a china shop.
Huh? Of regular Premier League defenders (ones who have played at least 1,500 minutes this season), only three have created more chances per 90 minutes this season than his 1.33? And in the Tottenham squad, only three players with more than 800 minutes of league action have created more chances per 90 than him this season? Meaning he’s created chances more frequently than Dele Alli, Harry Kane and Tanguy Ndombele?
Oh, whatever… Maybe he got lucky with a few passes, but his crossing is a joke — everyone knows that. Look, I don’t care that his 0.94 successful crosses per game is the fourth-highest for a regular Premier League defender this season and is comfortably the best figure of any Spurs player (Son Heung-min is next best at 0.23).
Anyway, enough with these secondary, irrelevant stats. Give me something proper if you’re so desperate to defend him.
Well, Aurier has assisted seven goals in all competitions this season — the only Premier League defender who has set up more is Trent Alexander-Arnold (12). Of Tottenham players, only Son has posted more (eight) — a tally Aurier would also have if assists for own-goals by the opposition were included.
Ugh, fine. Maybe he’s not that bad. But you just know he’ll drop a clanger sooner or later. After all, how many errors has he made leading to goals this season? Um, that would be zero. (Thank you Opta for not classifying his slip against Southampton on Saturday as one of these).
OK, have I made my point? Yes, his Spurs career started badly with a series of errors, bad throw-ins and injuries. But he was very impressive in Champions League games against Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in particular and he has now hugely improved. On Saturday at Southampton for instance, he gave the ball away a fair bit but was Spurs’ second-best player for all four of tackles, interceptions, clearances and possession gained.
To reiterate: more chances created than Dele and Kane, as many tackles, crosses and assists as anyone and no errors leading to goals.
Surely it’s time to stop dwelling on the past and embrace the improvement?
He’s a more mature man these days, too. Since leaving Paris Saint-Germain in summer 2017, Aurier has calmed down considerably from a period when he attracted controversy for insulting team-mates and making homophobic comments in a video. That was shameful. Now though, he lives a quiet life in London, centred around his one-year-old daughter Nehcha. One prominent French journalist told The Athletic that Aurier is enjoying “a new dawn” this season.
As for his role in the dressing room, midfielder Oliver Skipp told The Athletic in November that Aurier is one of the best characters at the club. “Serge has always got energy, he’s one of the jokers,” Skipp said.
Aurier is very close with midfielder Moussa Sissoko, a former team-mate at Toulouse, and could be seen laughing and joking with another Spurs star who has Ligue 1 roots, Hugo Lloris, on Wednesday against Norwich City as the goalkeeper made his first appearance since an October elbow injury. Over the last two and a half years, he has become one of the most popular players inside the club.
The view at Paris Saint-Germain meanwhile was, according to one insider, broadly of a “kind, laid-back, easy-going friendly guy” who simply couldn’t help himself in terms of making stupid mistakes on and off the pitch.
True, his relationship with manager Mauricio Pochettino was certainly strained. By the end, Aurier was desperate to leave and thought he would be granted his wish last summer. He had tired of Pochettino’s demanding style and was keen to join AC Milan but the move was blocked. He’d actually thought about leaving soon after joining Spurs as he initially struggled to settle. Aurier lacked the drive and relentlessness associated with Pochettino prototype players. But come last year he was not the only one who could no longer cope with the manager’s exacting methods.
Under Mourinho, in a system that plays to his strengths, the 27-year-old Ivory Coast international has enjoyed the most consistent period of his career and feels more settled than he has ever done at the club. He has started every Premier League game since Mourinho took over and has rarely put a foot wrong.
Alright, alright, enough. Next you’re going to tell me Aurier has been Spurs’ best player this season.
Er, well, that’s not my view necessarily — but my colleague Jack Pitt-Brooke did make that claim in a recent episode of our The View From The Lane podcast.
Forget it. You guys just don’t understand. Surely we can agree that Tottenham need a new right-back?
Um, never mind.
(Photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
