Cristian Romero’s ‘red mist’ has cost Spurs yet again – he simply has to learn

A few days ago, Cristian Romero was lorded as the “rock” in Tottenham Hotspur’s defence by Ange Postecoglou.

Unfortunately, the Argentinian took that description very literally, as in ‘a weapon which can be used to hurt somebody’.

Head coach Postecoglou’s pre-match praise was completely justified after a stellar start to the season in which Romero reinvented himself from the unhinged hothead who slid, studded and snarled his way around a football pitch for much of last season with all the patience and grace of a raging bull who was having his nether regions flicked with a wet towel.

His decision-making was often poor, he was occasionally rash and petulant — not just with tackles and fouls but also with his defending, rushing out of position unnecessarily or not covering for team-mates.

To see Romero evolve into an assured, graceful and dependable leader, channelling his fire inward and showing why Spurs were more than happy to part with £42.5million ($52.1m) for his services in the summer of 2022 has been one of the highlights of their start to the campaign.

The partnership he had developed with new signing Micky van de Ven — a partnership which has been a sumptuous mix of football brains and brawn — had helped transform not just Tottenham’s defence but the whole team, enabling and encouraging a new style with a high line, energy, enterprising movement and attacking play from back to front.

Romero looked like he had grown up — as if he had taken the extra responsibility of being made vice-captain very seriously.

In his first two appearances of the season, he registered as many goals (one) as tackles. He did not give away his first foul until his fifth appearance of the season (against Sheffield United), with his first booking coming in the sixth (at Arsenal).

In his first 14 appearances for club and country, he only picked up two yellow cards.

Compare that with the high/low point of Romero’s madness last season when, in an 11-game spell immediately after the World Cup, he was booked five times and sent off twice (against Manchester City in February and AC Milan in March). It was a wild, mouth-frothing period of undiluted rage.

It has been quite the evolution.

“The way our defensive side of the game has come together… the one constant and the rock in that has been Romero, with the way he’s taken on that responsibility of guiding those other guys around him so that they look assured,” Postecoglou said on Friday. “I think they feel security having him beside them, he’s a big part of why we’ve done so well defensively.

“And there’s more to come from him. He wants to improve and he works hard every day. He’s a winner — you can see that in him with the way he trains and the way he plays, and that helps from a cultural perspective as well.”

The number of tackles Romero has made compared to last season has marginally gone down, from 2.59 per game to 2.32 but, conversely, he is winning more of those tackles, up to 1.58 per game from 1.37.

So what on earth happened against Chelsea on Monday? Well, a massive regression. A costly relapse.

In a heated game in which the atmosphere was highly charged and challenges were flying around left, right, and centre, Romero seemed to get a taste for meat. He was Barney in The Simpsons getting a sip of Duff again after being transformed by going teetotal. Jekyll into Hyde.

You could see some of the old Romero a few minutes before his red card just past the half-hour.

Here, he races upfield to win a header in the Chelsea half…

…then follows the ball further up the pitch…

…and gives Thiago Silva a shove to the floor for no real reason. Had the red mist already descended?

His petulance returned when he flicked a kick at Levi Colwill, an offence that could have been viewed as a straight red card by some referees. He then stayed down on the floor while his team-mates struggled to defend a counter-attack that saw Chelsea put the ball in the net, although it was ruled out for a handball by Raheem Sterling.

And then came his final act of the game.

Romero messes up a pass…

…tries to win the ball back once, then twice, then crashes into countryman Enzo Fernandez.

He got a bit of the ball but it was an extremely risky challenge and no surprise that it resulted in his dismissal.

Gary Neville called it a “mad challenge” and “mayhem” in commentary for the game’s UK broadcaster Sky Sports, and it is hard to disagree.

“Trust me, as a defender, that is not a natural follow-through,” former Manchester United and England full-back Neville added. “He knows what he’s doing.”

Whatever way you look at it, the aggression is unnecessarily over-the-top.

Postecoglou, as you would expect, refused to criticise Romero after the match, saying: “He’s a physical guy, it’s a part of his strength. Today it was deemed he went too far. We just had to cop it.”

Instead, the Tottenham coach turned his ire on VAR, and the length of time taken to send Romero off and deal with a whole host of other incidents on what was a barmy night of football and chaos. But privately, Postecoglou must surely — despite wanting his Spurs side to be high octane, high line and the rest of it — have wished that Romero kept his temper, or his needless aggression, from view.

Destiny Udogie wasn’t great on this front either but, fairly or unfairly, the 20-year-old gets a pass for the naivety of youth. Romero, a World Cup winner, an increasingly experienced and senior centre-back at age 25, doesn’t. He hindered Tottenham on the night and his absence, compounded by that of Van de Ven through injury, could hinder them in the coming weeks too.

Romero has cost his team in the past and if a lesson isn’t learned, he will do so again.

(Photo: Robin Jones/Getty Images)