‘Poor’: BBC Sport pundit not impressed by £20m Tottenham player in first-half v Everton

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Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur earned criticism from BBC Sport pundit Michael Brown in the first half against Everton.

Spurs hosted the Toffees at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday, hoping to make it three wins in a row in all competitions.

Tottenham asked most of the questions in the opening exchanges of the game, though it proved a bit of a stalemate at first.

In the 22nd minute, Son Heung-min set up Harry Kane to have a go, but his effort deflected off James Tarkowski and out for a corner.

A minute later, it was Everton’s turn to threaten, and they came very close to opening the scoring.

Conor Coady sent a long ball towards Demarai Gray, who got the better of Bentancur and raced into the box.

The £20million man was on the wrong side of the Everton winger, who sized up Hugo Lloris, only to blaze over.

It was a big let-off for Tottenham, and Brown didn’t like what he saw from Bentancur.

“Gray does really well,” he said on BBC Radio 5 Live (15/10, 17:55).

“He gets into the area and it’s poor defending from Bentancur who doesn’t get goal side.

“Gray skies the shot but he should do better.”

The first half ended 0-0, but both sides had several chances to open the scoring.

Tottenham threatened on 25 minutes as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg tried his luck from 20 yards out but failed to hit the target.

Jordan Pickford then had to save at Harry Kane’s feet on 31 minutes, and Richarlison forced a block from Coady in the 40th minute.

Meanwhile, Seamus Coleman had a go from range on the half-hour mark, and James Tarkowski headed wide from the resulting corner.

And late on in the half, Amadou Onana sprinted through a static Tottenham defence, but skied over from 12 yards out.