Erik, give him his ball back
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino made light of the penalty squabble of Erik Lamela and Son Heung-min at the time, but his words did acknowledge that it was a problem that needed solving.
As Gary Neville said at the time, there would have been a designated penalty taker on the changing room wall so the embarrassing squabble shouldn't have taken place. Did it affect the penalty? It has to have done but a penalty should still be tucked away. It was weak, to near the goalkeeper, hit with no conviction and was at a nice height. Just as everyone can't be a goalkeeper Harry Kane, some can't be penalty takers. It is a pressure situation where you need to be mentally strong and therefore confident. poor penalties are from a lack of confidence.
"It's difficult from the touchline to say 'no, you' because they're fighting and I cannot run to the middle of the pitch and say 'no, you'."
As Gary Neville said at the time, there would have been a designated penalty taker on the changing room wall so the embarrassing squabble shouldn't have taken place. Did it affect the penalty? It has to have done but a penalty should still be tucked away. It was weak, to near the goalkeeper, hit with no conviction and was at a nice height. Just as everyone can't be a goalkeeper Harry Kane, some can't be penalty takers. It is a pressure situation where you need to be mentally strong and therefore confident. poor penalties are from a lack of confidence.
Former Tottenham captain Steve Perryman, who lifted a few trophies for us, felt Mauricio Pochettino would sort it out and make sure it didn't happen again when he spoke to the Hertfordshire Mercury.
"The little bit of nonsense before the penalty, well if that's going to happen in a game that's 0-0 and they need to win and they make that same mistake, no-one is going to be to happy with it. So these problems sow themselves up and get solved and hopefully that wont happen again.
"I'm sure a penalty will be missed but without the fracas that led to that one. You've got to learn from what you're doing and I think they've got the manager that is a football nutter and spending time at it, and spends enough time at the training ground that all those things are being covered and talked about and shown and improved."
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