Darren Bent

Wed 25 September 2019 10:32, UK

EXCLUSIVE

Darren Bent has blasted the defensive qualities of Tottenham defender Serge Aurier and insists he puts the team at risk with his lack of positional sense.

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider assistant editor Russell Edge, the former Spurs and England striker says that the Ivory Coast international is a threat going forward but that he leaves too much space on the right-hand side of the defence for opposition attackers to exploit.

The 26-year-old has started the last two Premier League games under Mauricio Pochettino, seeing a goal chalked off for a marginal offside decision in the 2-1 defeat to Leicester City.

Bent says that the former PSG man is too erratic with his displays at the back and that he puts the rest of the side at risk by not being in the right place at the right time.

Asked if he thought the Ivorian defender was top-four quality, Bent told Football Insider: “No, personally no. Defensively, he’s all over the place, positionally, he’s all over the place.

“People get in behind him, I don’t think he’s particularly great on the ball – yeah, he scored a great goal the other day which was chalked off but when you look at the right-backs that they’ve had.

“People aimed a lot of Trippier but you knew what you were getting from Trippier. Technically on the ball he was very good, positionally he got himself into the right areas.

“Aurier, he’s powerful, but he’s often left wanting. He’ll break forward and leave that right side exposed, a lot of the time the right centre-half are one-v-one with the wide man. That’s something they definitely need to work on.”

Aurier had not featured in Spurs’ opening four games of the season, with Kyle Walker-Peters and Davinson Sanchez chosen to play by Pochettino.

The Ivorian has a total of 43 appearances under his belt for the Lilywhites since joining back in the summer of 2017.

In other Tottenham news, Darren Bent has told Football Insider that one Spurs star has been off the boil for “years”.