Neville: Spurs need reinforcements

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Spurs now find themselves seven points adrift of fourth place and Neville, speaking to The Gary Neville Podcast, thinks Mauricio Pochettino’s side have hit a wall at the crucial point in the season.  

When asked about their top-four chances immediately after the final whistle at Turf Moor, Neville said: “It’s mathematically possible, but with a performance like that, I think you’ll find it’s difficult.

“They look a little bit depleted as well. I saw them before Christmas play at home against Everton, and they were really sharp and they looked fiery in that game.

“If I’m looking at them in this last month, you think of the game at Old Trafford, they’ve gone out of Europe, and they’ve lost the Capital One Cup.

“They’ve had a couple of heavy blows in this last four, five weeks and I think at this point in the season, it looks to me like they’ve just gone over the top a bit.

“They maybe need some reinforcements and that obviously won’t be coming until the end of the season.”

Spurs could have gone above Liverpool into fifth with victory at Burnley but put in a laboured display which Neville believes may have been partly down to the international break.

“I’ll start with some reasons,” he added. “People listening to this might call them excuses. Having probably had seven or eight players away on international duty, and Burnley only having one or two, I think that maybe has an impact, having been there myself as a player.

“Burnley will have had more time to prepare. I’m trying to think of another one, and I can’t… they’ve got no excuses.

“Although the fact it is a difficult place to come – and others have failed here – but I expected it to be a bright Tottenham performance.

“I saw them at Old Trafford in their last away game three weeks ago, and they were playing against a really good United side on that day and they struggled.

“I thought they would come into this game really thinking that Southampton and Liverpool have dropped points, it’s a good opportunity for us, but I didn’t see a bright Tottenham performance.

“I saw a performance that was laboured and slow in possession, particularly from the back.”

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