When Tottenham found out they had drawn the Premier League’s bottom side Norwich in the FA Cup fifth round, they may have been forgiven for immediately turning their attentions towards a potential quarter-final tie.
After all, the Canaries remain rooted to foot of the top-flight, scoring just 25 goals and conceding 51 – both of those statistics being in the bottom three amongst all sides in the division.
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But in a real turn-up for the books, Daniel Farke’s men did the unthinkable, taking the game to penalties, before winning the lottery of the shoot-out. And whilst there were certainly a number of under-performers for Spurs, perhaps one of the biggest disappointments on the night, was Giovani Lo Celso.
The Argentine has been a regular under Jose Mourinho, playing 18 times across all competitions from the gaffer’s 24 games in charge. The Portuguese boss even lauded the “incredible evolution” the midfielder had enjoyed since his appointment as Mauricio Pochettino’s successor.
A true test for any Spurs fan: Can you match these iconic images with the right results?
However, against Norwich, he looked a shadow of his recent self. As per Sofascore, he lost possession a staggering 28 times, lost a quite remarkable 15 of his 20 total duels, and completed just one of the six dribbles that he attempted.
Whilst he did provide the inch-perfect free-kick for Jan Vertonghen’s header, Lo Celso just seemed to lack ideas and ran into cul de sacs far too many times. Particularly in the latter stages of the game when the crowd sensed the game could be won within the 90 minutes, the former Real Betis ace seemed to take an eternity to release the ball, and often missed the chance to keep the momentum of the Spurs attack going.
He struggled to match Norwich’s intensity in terms of their work off the ball, losing the physical battles and seeing the Canaries players simply bypass him – he was dribbled past three times in the game, the most of any Spurs player.
After all the plaudits Mourinho has given him recently, Lo Celso’s nightmare display would have no doubt left his manager speechless.
Meanwhile, Tottenham fans have slammed this ace after his shocker against Norwich.