Tottenham Hotspur crashed out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
Spurs were beaten 4-3 on penalties by Colchester United – after the League Two side ground out a 0-0 draw.
Mauricio Pochettino had responded aggressively to claims he would not take the cup seriously, yet he made ten changes to his side for the match – with only Paulo Gazzaniga surviving.
Debuts were handed to Troy Parrot and Japhet Tanganga while Dele Alli and Lucas Moura were allowed to stake a claim for a regular first-team place.
Alli returned from injury at the beginning of the month but has only started two games since.
Here he was poor struggling to show any of the attacking talent that made him one of Europe’s most coveted players in 2017.
The 23-year-old has such natural ability but against a well organised Colchester United side he could not produce any real moments of attacking flair – he did at least score his penalty though.
That is more than can be said for Lucas Moura who was well off the pace but then when given a chance to redeem himself smashed his penalty off the bar.
Moura is a popular player with a lot of Tottenham fans, but the 27-year-old did nothing to prove to Pochettino that he deserves to be starting in more games from now on.
Christian Eriksen came off the bench for Parrott and had no impact on the game and then missed his third penalty in a row.
The Dane, to me, looks like he has given up this year.
Pochettino made ten changes but the players selected should have had enough to beat Colchester, yet their international stars did not show up.