Tim Sherwood has labelled the challenge from Tyler Adams which saw the Leeds United midfielder sent off against Tottenham stupid, telling Soccer Saturday (broadcast on Sky Sports; 12/11; 16:45) that he made a really poor decision.
Jesse Marsch’s men go into the World Cup break off the back of a sickening loss at Spurs on Saturday. Leeds led three times in North London. However, two late goals from Rodrigo Bentancur saw the Whites fall to an agonising defeat.
To add insult to injury, Adams was sent off shortly after. The American brought Yves Bissouma down inside the Tottenham half.
Tyler Adams makes ‘stupid’ challenge in Leeds loss
It was a needless challenge from Adams. Bissouma was hardly in a dangerous position, and there were other players around him at the time. And of course, Adams was already on a yellow card at that stage.
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He could have no complaints with the decision to send him off. And Sherwood was baffled to see Adams make that kind of challenge at that point in the game.
“Adams has been sent off, second yellow card. Bissouma, who’s just come on as a sub, has just burst past him,” he told Soccer Saturday.
“Stupid tackle because he knows as soon as he makes the tackle, he’s going to get sent off. It was almost like: ‘I’ve done my job now, we’re out of this game, I’m going to the World Cup’. Poor decision from the kid, gets himself sent off. Really good player as well.”
You can understand why Adams’ frustration got the better of him. Leeds had an amazing opportunity to make it three wins on the bounce. But they looked set to throw that chance away at Tottenham.
Adams must have very briefly forgotten that he was on a yellow and acted on instinct. It was such a poor decision to let frustration get the better of him.
And it will hurt Leeds after the World Cup break. The Whites face Manchester City in their first game back. And they will now have to do it without arguably their best player this season.
Leeds really struggled without Adams against Fulham last month. So supporters will be fearing the worst.
Something that Sherwood has surely got wrong is the notion that he was thinking about getting off the pitch before the World Cup.
It makes little sense given that he played 85 minutes up until that stage.
Ultimately, Adams probably felt like the rest of us when Tottenham went 4-3 ahead. And in that split second where Bissouma got past him, he let his disappointment cloud his judgement.