Jamie Carragher’s war on defensive midfielders has acquired another adversary but his criticism of Joao Palhinha could not be further from the truth.
As part of his Monday Night Football punditry duties, Carragher was passing verdict on the weekend’s Premier League action when he decided to take issue with Spurs’ summer signing Palhinha.
Ignoring the £50m Xavi Simons’ poor start, Carragher instead suggested Palhinha did not have the “quality” to be a midfielder for a side like Spurs.
“We spoke about courage; now we can talk about quality. Palhinha hasn’t got the quality,” Carragher said.
“For a player playing for Tottenham in central midfield, for me, that’s a pass you have to be able to make. He can’t make it.
“So even though I’m being critical of it, saying he hasn’t quite got the ability, he’s actually done okay for Tottenham in terms of his job, but they go back, listen to the boos.
“The only reason he does a clever turn on the ball is because of the boos. Again, Palhinha is on the ball, five touches because he hasn’t got the confidence or the ability.
“What you’ve got is you’ve got a lack of courage and confidence from certain players, but you’ve also got a lack of ability of certain players.”
Carragher’s suggestion that Spurs should not be playing the Portuguese midfielder is a strange one simply because almost everyone else agrees that Palhinha is exactly the sort of player they needed.
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Last season under Ange Postecoglou, control was an alien concept, and the Australian’s uber-aggressive high line often left Rodrigo Bentancur, who is far more attack-minded than Palhinha, scrambling as oppositions countered. At this stage last season, Tottenham had let in 11 goals. Now, that tally is down to eight.
When Postecoglou was given the boot, Spurs appointed a manager in Thomas Frank who is far less willing to give up control of a game. The high line and pass out from the back at all costs were dropped and as a result, Spurs have conceded the second fewest goals in the league this season.
And if Frank were to sit down and single out which one player had been the most crucial to that change, Joao Palhinha would be at the top of any list.
To be fair to Carragher, he was used to playing behind the likes of Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard who could pick a pass while also getting a tackle in, but Palhinha has not been brought in for his ability to pick out a Hollywood ball; his job is to stop the opposition.
Since arriving from Bayern Munich on loan in the summer, Palhinha has made the most tackles of any player in the Premier League, averaging 5.1 a game. He is in the top 3% for duels won per game, and Spurs have conceded 0.8 goals a game, a tally only bettered by their north London rivals. Spurs’ games are no longe frantic basketball-type affairs and three league lossess this year have been by a single-goal margin.
Carragher’s individual criticism of Palhinha is taking aim at exactly the wrong player because Palhinha is doing all the things he was brought in to do. Goals have also been a welcome bonus, with the 30-year-old scoring twice in the league and once in the Champions League against Copenhagen on Tuesday.
Carragher’s criticisms should instead be directed at Palhinha’s midfield team-mates. A pre-season injury to James Maddison forced Spurs back into the transfer market, and they pulled off what everyone thought was a coup in Xavi Simons. Two months later though, and while Florian Wirtz may have taken the title of ‘expensive midfielders yet to hit the ground running’, Simons’ performances have been far more concerning.
In his 458 minutes of league action, Simons has registered zero goals and just one assist. On average, he has an xG of 0.05 – which is in the bottom 15% for the league – and has created a little over one chance a game, a dribble success rate of 41.2% from just 1.38 attempts a game, and while he has had 298 touches of the ball, just eight of those have been in the opposition box. To put that into context, he has been dispossessed more times with nine.
Simons may have more ‘quality’ than Palhinha in Carragher’s eyes but when those moments are so fleeting, a more consistent player is always going to be preferred by the manager.
Blaming Palhinha for Spurs’ problems feels a bit like blaming whoever cooked the potatoes for a poor Christmas roast while the turkey is dry and burnt.
They are 15th in expected goals, with the same ranking for shots on target per match. They have had the fifth most touches in the opposition box but have consistently been unable to find a way through.
Another derby defeat to Chelsea saw them record a well-publicised 0.05 xG, but blaming Palhinha for that is pointing the finger at the one player in Spurs’ midfield actually doing their job.