“Really poor” – Gary Neville slams Tottenham star’s “stupidity” after nightmare against Liverpool

Tottenham attacking midfielder Xavi Simons was singled out for criticism after a poor performance and a reckless challenge that led to his red card.

The Netherlands international was sent off for a strong and late tackle on Reds defender Virgil van Dijk, for which he could surely have no complaints.

Simons had also been pretty poor prior to that, with Neville not holding back with his comments in the video clip below.

Take a look for yourself as replays showed how bad Simons’ challenge was as Neville tore into him for the incident and for his lack of quality prior to that…

“He’s absolutely nowhere near that football!”

Xavi Simons is sent off for a reckless challenge on Virgil van Dijk ? pic.twitter.com/mt3B6SJR6z

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 20, 2025

“He’s absolutely nowhere near that football,” Neville said on commentary for Sky Sports.

“It’s just, I don’t know, malicious, nasty, reckless, whatever you want to call it, and he’s going to get a red card.

“Stupidity. And he’s been really poor on the ball, that’s been the worst thing.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tottenham have really suffered as they’ve had to take on Liverpool for so much of this game with only ten men.

Alexander Isak scored to give LFC the lead early in the second half, and at the time of writing, Hugo Ekitike has just headed in a second.

Arne Slot’s side have the clear advantage now and will surely be confident of taking all three points from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Had Simons played a bit better and kept his head then this game surely could have been a lot more of a close contest than it has proven to be.

Liverpool also haven’t been that solid defensively in recent times, having also lost a 2-0 lead to end up drawing away to Leeds United recently, though it looks like it would take something really special for Spurs to come back now.

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