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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Verri

Pedro Porro slammed after Tottenham debut as Tim Sherwood questions Daniel Levy: ‘So bad it’s unbelievable’

Tim Sherwood claimed Tottenham’s new signing Pedro Porro “doesn’t want to defend” as he slammed the wing-back’s display on debut against Leicester.

Spurs spent the entirety of the January transfer window chasing the 23-year-old, with negotiations dragging on before a deal was eventually agreed late on deadline day.

Porro had to wait for his debut, after Emerson Royal got the nod last week against Manchester City and produced one of the best performances of his Spurs career.

That was still not enough for the Brazilian to keep his play though, as Porro came into the side for the trip to Leicester on Antonio Conte’s return to the touchline.

It proved to be a miserable debut for the defender, who was run ragged by the likes of Harvey Barnes and James Maddison. Spurs fell to a 4-1 defeat at the King Power, bringing a swift end to any momentum picked up against City.

Former Spurs boss Sherwood was less than impressed with what he saw from Porro.

“I don’t want to keep picking on the kid but he needs to be relieved of his duties at the moment,” Sherwood told Sky Sports during the match.

“I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt because it’s his debut but Pedro Porro is so bad it’s unbelievable.

“His positioning is absolutely disgusting, Barnes and Maddison are destroying him down the left hand side. He’s just ran inside him, he hasn’t even seen him, he gets the ball played in and lets him run inside him.”

Sherwood also took aim at Daniel Levy, as he already questioned the decision to spend in the region of £40million on Porro.

“Daniel Levy said this week they’ve spent a lot of money, yes they have, but their recruitment has been very, very poor and this is the latest addition,” he continued.

“Let’s not make any conclusions yet, but what I’m looking at is a player who doesn’t want to defend, Conte has complained about the defending and this player is struggling to defend, very disappointing.”

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