Hugo Lloris breaks silence after 'embarrassing' Tottenham performance against Newcastle
Tottenham Hotspur captain and beleaguered goalkeeper Hugo Lloris delivered a damning review of his side's 6-1 implosion against Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon.
Lloris made just one save in a disastrous opening 21 minutes for Tottenham as they rapidly tumbled to a 5-0 deficit at St James' Park. Lloris' solitary stop may have rebuffed Joelinton's effort from the top of the box but Jacob Murphy gleefully tapped in the rebound to open the floodgates.
Joelinton quickly got on the scoresheet himself, rounding Lloris before Murphy made it 3-0 from range while the clock ticked into the ninth minute.
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As Cristian Stellini's reshuffled back four haemorrhaged chances, Lloris failed to deny Alexander Isak twice in quick succession. The Sweden international hared between the yawning gaps in Tottenham's backline before picking out the bottom corner for Newcastle's fourth goal. Isak didn't come up against much resistance when he bypassed Tottenham's hapless keeper from a tight angle seconds later.
Lloris wasn't on the pitch to concede Newcastle's sixth goal, making way for Fraser Forster during the half-time interval.
"It’s very embarrassing," Lloris sheepishly admitted when speaking to Sky Sports after the match. "We should apologise to the fans. We didn’t show a good face and we could not match the performance of the Newcastle players. We were late in all aspects of the game and we completely missed the first part of the game. The second half is a different story but it’s really painful."
When the result was framed as a consequence of Stellini's switch from a back three to a back four, Lloris was not impressed with that explanation. “It is not even about tactics, we just could not fight and we were late," he stressed. "I think Newcastle just had a great performance, they were very aggressive and offensive everywhere they had the ball.
"It is difficult right now to assess the performances but there was a lack of pride," Lloris continued. "You can get punched once or twice, but it was like we could not even react or bounce back. Newcastle deserve a lot of credit for starting the game at 100 miles per hour. They knew exactly what to do."
Tottenham trail third-placed Newcastle by six points with just six games of the season to play. Fourth-placed Manchester United were not involved in league action this weekend while contesting the FA Cup semi-finals but enjoy the same cushion above Spurs despite boasting two games in hand on the north Londoners.
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