Tottenham Hotspur will be looking to bounce back from mid-week embarrassment when they head to the south coast to face Brighton in the Premier League this evening.

And Jose Mourinho has plenty to ponder as his side have slipped to sixth place, some four points adrift of the top four.

Despite deploying three centre-backs and two wing-backs against Liverpool only three nights ago, Spurs still leaked three goals to a side that had failed to score in four straight league outings.

Something must be done defensively, and one decision could be to take away Matt Doherty's place in the starting XI...

On the Chalkboard

The summer arrival started at left wing-back before reverting back to his natural right-sided position during the second half against The Reds but he still endured a nightmare evening against the defending champions.

And Mourinho let him know about it as he was playing on the side of the dugout in each half.

According to journalist Julien Laurens on ESPN FC, the Spurs boss was "roasting him the whole game." He added: "Mourinho had a go at Matt Doherty pretty much from minute one to minute 90. He had him in his ear all the time because he made mistakes because he was not very good."

Indeed, the 29-year-old's performance was far from pretty, which is why he must be facing the axe tonight.

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As per SofaScore ratings, the Irishman graded as Spurs' worst player (6.1).

In 90 minutes of action, he lost possession 17 times from 55 touches, meaning he handed the ball back to the Reds once every five minutes. It also meant that, on average, he lost the ball once every 3.2 touches.

Sloppy and wasteful returns.

In addition to that, Doherty was hugely lightweight against the tricky exploits of Saido Mane, Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson as all four received better ratings whilst the Spurs defender managed to win just one of his five duels (20%) on top of committing two fouls and being dribbled past twice, via SofaScore.

No other Tottenham player managed more fouls, so clearly he was a bit of liability and this cannot be risked tonight as the north Londoners need to get back on track against a side battling against relegation.

The right wing-back, valued at €40m (£36m), must be dropped.

Mourinho's constant berating of the calamitous defender on Thursday night is surely enough to see either Serge Aurier or Japhet Tanganga utilised instead.

AND in other news, Levy must sanction Spurs move for £45m "warrior", he offers something Ndombele doesn't...