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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

Roy Keane proved right about Serge Aurier after Tottenham suffer Europa League exit

Tottenham Hotspur crashed out of the Europa League at the last-16 stage on Thursday night.

Despite taking a two-goal-lead into the second leg against Dinamo Zagreb, Mislav Orsic's hat-trick completed a stunning turnaround to dump Spurs out of the competition.

And once again, Tottenham's defensive issues were exposed in a disappointing defeat where Serge Aurier, in particular, struggled down his right flank.

He was at fault for the opening goal of the game as he gave Orsic so much time and space and didn't make much of an attempt to stop the Zagreb ace who simply breezed past him in extra-time to complete his hat-trick.

Aurier's struggles will not have come as a surprise to a certain Manchester United legend in Roy Keane.

Speaking after Spurs' 2-0 loss against Leicester City before Christmas, the former midfielder highlighted Aurier as a defensive weakness after conceding a needless penalty on the stroke of half-time.

"There is a word – madness," Keane said on Sky Sports. "I want to be careful what I say about this defender, I’ve been on this road before with him.

"Utter madness. There is no danger, he’s not in on goal, he’s not looking at the ball… an experienced player, madness.

"He doesn’t think, this lad doesn’t think."

And that's not the first time Keane has been critical of Aurier as he brutally included the Ivorian as part of a 'dumb and dumber' act alongside Danny Rose after a 2-1 loss against Liverpool last season.

"The two Tottenham full-backs were dreadful. Dumb and Dumber, I'd call them," Keane said. "I thought they were really poor. You can't compare them to Liverpool, the two lads who are absolutely fantastic.

"Particularly going forward, okay defensively there's parts of the games they can improve on, but going forward they're absolutely fantastic."

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