Tottenham are facing huge Christian Romero headache as Premier League players will receive a two-match ban after accumulating ten yellow cards.
Tottenham pounced over the summer to sign Romero, securing him on loan from Atalanta with a view to a £42.5million permanent deal.
Emerging as one of the top young centre backs in Italy, Romero showed huge potential at Atalanta and a move to Tottenham wasn’t a surprise.
Romero has largely impressed in the Premier League, returning strongly of late after a three-month injury lay-off turning to be Tottenham’s best centre back and will be the player Antonio Conte builds his back line around in the coming years.
However, If there is one problem with Romero though, it’s the number of yellow cards he picks up.
Cristian Romero has developed quite the habit of picking up yellow cards since during his years in Italy. Getty Images)
In 14 Premier League games – of which one was a substitute appearance – Romero has already picked up seven yellow cards and he is three bookings away from a two-match ban with Tottenham already in dilemma of a place in Premier League top four.
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Earlier this summer, Hoddle did praise Romero as a ‘really good player’ and a ‘good defender’, but thinks Romero needs to cut out these problems or risk red cards down the line.
“That is a point and I think it was the same in Italy,” said Hoddle.
“It’s something that follows him, there’s too many yellows. Obviously, if you’ve got a yellow early in a game, it’s difficult then to go the rest of the game always having that threat over your head that it’s going to turn into a red.”
“But he looks a really good player, a good defender,” he added.
Cristian Romero tackles Cristiano Ronaldo of Man Utd during the Premier League match between Getty Images)
Romero is aggressive and doesn’t back down, so these yellow cards may just be a product of his style of play, however, he can do better.
His first season at Atalanta saw him pick up 15 yellow cards in all competitions, which in fact was the same as the previous campaign during his time with Genoa and with the two yellow cards which led to his red card against Rennes in Uefa Conference League included, it means he has now picked 11 yellow cards in all competitions for Spurs in just 22 appearances.
Speaking in an interview on Atalanta’s YouTube channel in November, the Argentine outlined that he must stop receiving yellow cards after picking up quite the tally in his time in Italy.
I have to improve regarding the amount of cards I’ve received, but I think I’ll get better at this team,” he stated.
With eleven matches remaining, Could Tottenham afford to do without their best center back due to suspension?