{"id":1191102,"date":"2026-09-07T08:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1191102\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T08:52:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T08:52:20","slug":"an-england-legend-defends-marmoush-after-a-selfish-moment-that-sparked-controversy-in-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1191102\/","title":{"rendered":"An England legend defends Marmoush after a selfish moment that sparked controversy in London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tottenham fans have run out of patience early, and Egyptian star Omar Marmoush found himself at the centre of a storm of criticism. Then a heavyweight name in English football stepped in to defend him.<\/p>\n

Former England international Danny Murphy backed Marmoush after a disappointing display against Nottingham Forest, a match that ended goalless in the third round of the Premier League.<\/p>\n

A goalless start: an incident that raises questions<\/p>\n

Marmoush moved from Manchester City to Tottenham in the summer transfer window and started for the second match in a row with his new side. So far, he has failed to find the net.<\/p>\n

Against Forest on Saturday, the Egyptian looked far from his best. He managed just two shots, neither of them on target.<\/p>\n

The real flashpoint came in the second half. Marmoush broke away on a promising counter-attack, with Mohammed Kudus supporting him on the right wing, ten yards ahead of the last defender and in a perfect position to score from inside the penalty area.<\/p>\n

Rather than slide the ball across to Kudus for a golden one-on-one, Marmoush chose to shoot himself, ballooning it high over the crossbar as his Ghanaian teammate looked on in astonishment.<\/p>\n

Murphy: it’s the eagerness of stars, not selfishness<\/p>\n

Analysing the match on the famous programme “Match of the Day<\/a>“, Danny Murphy offered a completely different reading. He saw hunger, not selfishness.<\/p>\n

Murphy said: “I don’t think it will be a problem in the long run, because I see Marmoush as a special player, but it seems he is so eager to score goals and start strongly that he ignored Kudus.”<\/p>\n

The former Liverpool star added: “He sees him, and he knows where Andy Robertson is standing beside him, he’s a top-class player, but his intense eagerness to give his team the win made him make the wrong decision at the wrong time. He also missed a golden chance in the first half.”<\/p>\n

The mystery of Marmoush’s new position<\/p>\n

There was a tactical wrinkle that may explain Marmoush’s confusion. Murphy noted that the manager deployed him in an unusual position.<\/p>\n

He continued: “Omar Marmoush should have dropped back, Paul Merson played Marmoush as the most advanced midfielder in Tottenham’s line-up, while Conor Gallagher played behind him in the number 10 playmaker role.”<\/p>\n

That change came at the expense of striker Dominic Solanke, who stayed on the substitutes’ bench before being brought on later. It all confirms that Marmoush is still searching for his new identity within the Spurs system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tottenham fans have run out of patience early, and Egyptian star Omar Marmoush found himself at the centre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1191103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,178,321768,174284,101,201,2357,16,15],"class_list":["post-1191102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-nottingham-forest","tag-nottingham-forest-vs-tottenham-hotspur","tag-o-marmoush","tag-premier-league","tag-tottenham-hotspur","tag-transfers","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117228912462190610","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1191103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}