Just as we saw against Arsenal before the international break, Davinson Sanchez started at right-back in the Champions League against Olympiacos on Wednesday, and it is something that simply does not work. The Colombian is not a right-back, and we’ve now seen him struggle there for far too long.
All you need to do to get a scope of how poor the defender has been out of position, you can look at the player ratings that he’s picked up in the media for his performances in the North London derby and Champions League opener for Spurs.
His first outing on the right against Arsenal saw The Express pull no punches and award the ex-Ajax starlet with a dreadful 2/10, meanwhile an improved 4/10 against Olympiacos, given by Football.London, hardly shows that he’s made to play on the right of a back-four.
The issue isn’t in the defensive work that Sanchez puts in. It can be hard to forget that the Colombian is a strong, tough-tackling central defender who excels when played in the middle, but at right-back, he lacks the dynamism and confidence to get forward and attack.
One-on-one against a tricky winger is certainly not where you want to see a burly centre-half, and that was evident in the week. Daniel Podence turned the young defender inside out and considering that Sanchez’s turning circle is similar to that of a JCB, it was not an easy night for him.
Against Arsenal, it was easier to understand why he featured there. Kyle Walker-Peters and Juan Foyth were both injured. However, for Wednesday’s Olympiacos tie, there were no such excuses, as Walker-Peters was fit and in the squad as he watched the 2-2 draw as an unused substitute.
It’s high-time this experiment stops. Whether Mauricio Pochettino reverts to a back three or starts putting more faith in Walker-Peters is up to him, but Sanchez is not a right-back, and there is no point to prove by forcing a round peg into a square hole, so to speak.