Martin Keown slams Tottenham’s woeful first-half display against LASK

Martin Keown has slammed Tottenham‘s first half performance against LASK, as the former Arsenal defender accused the side of looking ahead to the north London derby this weekend.

Spurs travelled to Austria needing a point to seal qualification from their Europa League group, but looked well off the pace in the opening stanza against their rivals. 

And when Peter Michorl opened the scoring with a fine effort from range, few could claim that Jose Mourinho‘s side were unfortunate to have suffered the setback. 

Martin Keown has slammed Spurs’ first half performance against LASK in the Europa League

 The Premier League leaders looked off the pace as the Austrians took a surprise lead 

Keown slammed the opening 45 minutes from the Premier League side, claiming that Mourinho’s men had one eye on Sunday’s crucial derby in the top flight.

‘Strangely disjointed,’ Keown said of the first half display. ‘I’d be very interested to know what this man (Mourinho) says to them at half time, because he needs to rally them. 

‘There are one or two playing, there’s three players who normally play in the main games… maybe they are looking like “I’m not sure I want to play in this”, maybe they are looking ahead to the weekend.

Gareth Bale equalised from the spot to make the scoreline more respectable at half time

However, Keown claimed that the side may have one eye on the derby against Arsenal

‘The ones who are in there who should be busting a gut don’t look either confident or a game plan. Often Tottenham let teams come onto them and don’t take the game to them, they should be doing that here.’

Former Spurs star Peter Crouch concurred with Keown’s assessment, agreeing that the Premier League leaders looked ‘disjointed’.  

‘There just hasn’t been much urgency defensively,’ he added. ‘Most of them are walking. It has not been what we have been accustomed to this season. They are lucky just to have conceded one.’