Tottenham Hotspur eased into the next round of the FA Cup with a 5-0 victory over non-league minnows Marine this evening, though for all of the positives, one player’s performance will have Jose Mourinho seething.
A first-half 13-minute hat-trick by Carlos Vinicius, a pinpoint free-kick from fellow Brazilian Lucas Moura and a debut strike from history-maker Alfie Devine settled the resounding rout at the Marine Travel Arena in Crosby.
Indeed, it was a routine win for against a side that competes in the eighth tier of English football, some 160 places below Spurs in the pyramid.
It gave Mourinho a chance to look at several of his fringe players with the likes of Eric Dier and Harry Kane not even making the trip north.
Benfica loanee Gedson Fernandes was one of many to be gifted a golden opportunity to impress, but he did anything but and was quite clearly the worst player on the pitch.
His performance looks even worse considering the opposition and many fans took fire at him on social media during and after the match.
Gedson was dubbed “absolute garbage” and “one of the worst signings” in Spurs history by one fan, another labelled him a “possession vacuum” as he often lost the ball and there were even members of the Hotspur faithful asking the club to send him back to Portugal.
It’s easy to see why so many were left fuming by his display – per SofaScore, the 22-year-old recorded more touches (117) than any other player but failed to provide much substance as he made 0% of crosses, had zero key passes and fired two shots off target.
The attacking midfielder also lost the ball more times (22) than any other Spurs player, which meant he handed possession back to Marine once every five touches.
Alasdair Gold at football.london wasn’t impressed by the £12.15m-rated Portugal international either, grading him as Spurs’ worst player with a 5/10 in his post-match ratings and claimed: “This won’t have done his case much good to get more minutes.”
Whilst Dan Kilpatrick at the Evening Standard teased that it could’ve been his final game for the club, he said: ” Quite possibly a farewell appearance.”
Sky Sports reported last week that the Primeira Liga outfit wanted to recall Gedson early and Spurs would be open into doing so, well, after that performance, Daniel Levy might as well pay for his plane ticket now.
The £55k-per-week flop’s career at Spurs is surely finished after that shocking and pathetic outing.
AND in other news, Spurs must land dream Lo Celso partner in £18m-rated gem, Jose dubbed him “phenomenal”…
