‘3/10’: Defender who Tottenham reportedly want hammered by national media after his display at the World Cup

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The World Cup has put plenty of players in the shop window, and Tottenham Hotspur are one club keeping a close eye on performances.

Nearly half of their first-team squad are at the tournament, and will have plenty to report on when they return home.

Every country’s national media have been reviewing their team’s performances throughout the tournament.

The latest group to be completed was Group C, which had a dramatic finish.

Poland had to wait until full-time in Mexico’s match against Saudi Arabia to know if they had progressed.

They nearly relied on their better disciplinary record to quality until Salem Al-Dawsari scored a last-minute consolation goal.

It was a very poor performance from Poland overall though, except for goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Tottenham have been linked with young centre-back Jakub Kiwior in recent days too.

However, the 22-year-old won’t want to watch the game back any time soon.

Kiwior put in a poor performance, and will know his side are very lucky to still be at the World Cup.

Tottenham target Kiwior slated for Poland performance

A number of Polish media outlets reviewed Kiwior’s performance yesterday, and he received some mixed reviews.

Weszlo gave Kiwior a three out of 10 and said: “He was too far from [Alexis] Mac Allister on the first goal.

“He also lost running duels with [Julian] Alvarez. On one occasion he pushed him and made him shoot only into our side netting. After the shot, he cleared a [Nicolas] Tagliafico shot that headed for our net, keeping us in the tournament.

“Aside from his clearance kicks, he didn’t excel much in forward play, and getting the ball into action is supposed to be one of his strengths.”

Radio Zet gave Kiwior the same rating, and were worried that he couldn’t keep up with 34-year-old centre-back partner Kamil Glik.

“Solid first half of Kiwior, but much worse second half,” Radio Zet said.

“Glik’s younger colleague from the defence line couldn’t keep up with his partner and as a result he had to be secured by him very often.

At the end of the match, he made a shameful mistake, passing the ball directly to Lautaro Martinez’s feet, from which only the striker himself saved him.”

However, Goal Poland was much kinder to Kiwior, giving him a 4.5 out of 6 rating for his performance: “After such a meeting as with Argentina, the defenders had a lot of work to do.

“Kiwior, like Bartosz Bereszyński and Kamil Glik, did very well. Not only did he play very calmly, but he also protected his colleagues from the defence line. A definite positive performance.”

Tottenham face competition for Kiwior

Spurs could face competition from West Ham to sign Kiwior in January.

The centre-back has an asking price of £17m and is comfortable playing in Antonio Conte’s back three system.

Kiwior’s performance for Poland yesterday may be a deterrent for Premier League sides.

Against a top attack, he struggled to cope, although the entire team looked bereft of ideas on how to get out of their own half.

Kiwior and co. will now be preparing to face the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann in their last-16 match on Sunday afternoon.