Thomas Frank saw his Tottenham Hotspur side finish with nine men against Liverpool.
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Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero was subject to criticism from Sky Sports pundits on Saturday evening after his red card in the 2-1 defeat to Liverpool.
It was a dramatic meeting in north London with Spurs finishing the match with just nine men on the pitch. Xavi Simons was shown a straight red card in the first half after leaving his studs up when trying to tackle Reds defender Virgil van Dijk.
Romero was then given his marching orders in the 93rd minute after kicking out at Ibrahima Konate. The Tottenham Hotspur captain was shown a second yellow card, having already been booked for dissent earlier in the second half.
Jamie Redknapp slams ‘stupid’ Tottenham Hotspur player
The defender was sent off as Thomas Frank’s side piled on the pressure against Liverpool, despite being down to 10 men. Spurs, who pulled one back through substitute Richarlison, had come close to levelling the scores at 2-2 with Liverpool backs against the wall.
Romero’s sending off helped take pressure off Liverpool and the defender was slammed by Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville for costing his side a chance of a point. Speaking on Sky Sports, Redknapp said: “It was so chaotic, it was madness. What Liverpool did was a masterclass in how not to manage the last 10 minutes of the game. Tottenham ended up with nine men and looked like the team who had 11. Thomas Frank will go into that dressing room and think, we actually did okay there.
“What Romero did is what Romero does. It was ridiculous. To get involved right in front of the referee and to kick out at someone. It was so stupid. If my four-year-old did that, I’d go, ‘what are you doing?’”.
Gary Neville took a similar view as he reacted to the red card live on commentary and said: “He’s not right, him. His team have a chance to get back in it. What is he doing? Forget the fact it's madness because he is already on a yellow card, his team have a chance here. Absolute madness, it really is.”
Thomas Frank reacts to Cristian Romero red card
Speaking after the game, Frank shared his frustrations with the red card shown to Simons but was less hard line on whether he felt the referee shouldn’t have sent off Romero.
The Spurs boss said: “I also think we got on the wrong end on two. You can see there's probably a reason why the whole team reacted as they do. I think that's probably a good indicator.
“Normally, if it's one player reacting, if it's the whole team, probably because there's something about it. I think we all played football enough and seen enough football that there's something probably around that. So, I can't see if it's right or wrong that he gives the first yellow.
“The second yellow, I see two big boys competing. Konate absolutely smashing through Cuti. It's a foul, I'm not saying more. His foot landed on Cuti's head. Not a yellow, I'm not saying that. Cuti makes a reaction. I think I guess it can be given, but also I guess it can be not given.”
In other news, Why Tottenham should be concerned for Xavi Simons after 'farcical' Liverpool red card - opinion.