Tottenham star branded ‘absolute liability’ by Sherwood in Aston Villa loss

Robin Bairner

• Updated: 13 May 2023 17:00 BST
• 3 min read

Tottenham defender Cristian Romero has been branded an “absolute liability” by former Spurs boss Tim Sherwood for his part in the club’s 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa on Saturday.

Tottenham’s European hopes were hit with the loss at Villa Park, in which goals from Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz gave Unai Emery’s side a win that puts them level on points with the London side. Harry Kane got a late consolation for Spurs.

Sherwood was scathing of Romero for his part in Douglas Luiz’s free kick that secured the points.

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“The free kick leading up to it, Ollie Watkins goes and gets a straight ball off the midfield player and Romero just comes through him. There’s absolutely no reason why he should do that,” Sherwood told Sky Sports.

“He’s an absolute liability this guy. I think he’s got a lot of qualities, but he keeps making these rash challenges all over the pitch. It’s cost them here.”

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The former Spurs midfielder exonerated goalkeeper Fraser Forster to an extent for failing to keep the effort out.

“It’s not over his side. It’s gone over the wall and he’s trying to scramble across. Yes, it’s not into the corner of the net and he’s got a good hand on it, so Fraser Forster will be disappointed,”

Sherwood rages at Romero again

A short while later, Sherwood again attacked the Argentina defender, who was a member of the World Cup winning side in December.

“McGinn looks at him and says: ‘Oh, who is it? It’s Romero. I know what I’m going to do here.’ And he sees him coming, jumps in the air and says to the referee: ‘Do what you need to do here.’ He lunges in and the referee books him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a red here,” he fumed.

“The boy has got a lot of ability but he needs to cool down. He’s costing Tottenham.”

Spurs are next in action on Saturday, when they face Brentford at home.