{"id":516636,"date":"2026-03-11T08:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/516636\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T08:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T08:01:08","slug":"igor-tudor-says-he-was-protecting-kinsky-with-spurs-substitution-at-atletico-tottenham-hotspur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/516636\/","title":{"rendered":"Igor Tudor says he was protecting Kinsky with Spurs substitution at Atl\u00e9tico | Tottenham Hotspur"},"content":{"rendered":"

Igor Tudor insisted that giving the 22-year-old Antonin Kinsky just his second start of the season and then taking him off<\/a> again in the 17th minute of Tottenham\u2019s humiliating 5-2 defeat at Atl\u00e9tico Madrid was the right decision, with the interim head coach saying he did so to protect the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

Kinsky, playing in place of Guglielmo Vicario, was withdrawn after two dreadful errors handed Atl\u00e9tico the first and third goals, with his teammates Connor Gallagher, Dominic Solanke and Jo\u00e3o Palhinha following up the tunnel to offer their support.<\/p>\n

Kinsky had slipped over for the first goal, handing Atl\u00e9tico the ball inside his own area, before Micky van de Ven slipped for the second. After Kinsky\u2019s second error, in which he had kicked the ball against his own leg leaving Juli\u00e1n Alvarez with an open goal to make it 3-0, Cristian Romero had appeared to be suggesting that Tudor make the change. The coach, though, described the early substitution as \u201cmy decision, of course\u201d.<\/p>\n

Tudor said: \u201cWhat happened is very rare. I\u2019ve been coaching for 15 years, I\u2019ve never done this. It was necessary to preserve the guy, preserve the team. Incredible situation, nothing to comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spurs have now lost six games in a row for the first time in their history and are one point above the Premier League relegation zone. Tudor explained Kinsky\u2019s selection in light of Tottenham\u2019s domestic plight, saying: \u201cIt was, before the game, the right choice to do in the moment like we are, with the pressure on Vicario, another competition. Tony is a very good goalkeeper. It was for me the right decision. After this, of course, it\u2019s easy to say that it was not the right decision. So I explained to Tony also, speaking after: he\u2019s the right guy and a good goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it happened in this big game, these mistakes. He was sorry. The team is with him, me too. I was speaking with him. He understands the moment, he understands why he goes out. As I said, he\u2019s a very good goalkeeper. We are with him, we are all together. It\u2019s never about one player. It\u2019s happened. It\u2019s the Champions League<\/a> again. We paid [for] this start of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was too much for us in this moment when we are fragile, when we are weak. I recognise what we are and which problems we have. I recognise that every game something happens. Sometimes it\u2019s very difficult to explain. When these things happen, in the moment where we are now, unfortunately, it\u2019s like that. Even these slippery things happen, it explains the moment [we are in].\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if Jo\u00e3o Paulinha and Romero would be available to face Liverpool on Sunday after clashing heads in the final minutes, Tudor replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know, we are going to see. It is also an example of the moment. It\u2019s incredible. Sometimes it\u2019s difficult to explain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Igor Tudor insisted that giving the 22-year-old Antonin Kinsky just his second start of the season and then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-516636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}