Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld were left out of Tottenham Hotspur’s squad for the Champions League trip to Serie A giants Inter Milan at San Siro.
For the first time in four years in North London, Mauricio Pochettino has lost three games in a row in charge of Tottenham Hotspur.
Successive 2-1 defeats against Watford and Liverpool preceded a narrow and perhaps undeserved loss against Inter Milan in Tuesday’s Champions League opener at the San Siro. Spurs were leading and comfortable until Mauro Icardi scored a stunning long-range volley out of nowhere, minutes before Matias Vecino snatched the three points in dramatic fashion.
And, to make things even more difficult for Pochettino, the Argentine tactician has been forced to field questions about why he left Kieran Trippier and Toby Alderweireld out of his squad for the trip to Italy.
Trippier and Alderweireld were both poor against Liverpool on Saturday and Pochettino claimed there were ‘technical reasons’ for the duo’s omission.
But Danny Murphy has his own theory and it all revolves around Harry Kane.
“I wonder if he was leaving out players who looked tired. But if he came out and said that the first thing people would have said is ‘what about Harry Kane, he needs a rest?’,” former Tottenham midfielder Murphy told Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT (19 September, 9:00am)
“But they’re not in a position to rest Harry Kane. (If Pochettino said Trippier and Alderweireld needed to be rested) then people would have said Kane is the one he should be giving a rest, too.”
Serge Aurier and Davinson Sanchez both came into the starting XI against Inter, two big-name international defenders that Tottenham paid a lot of money for.
Unfortunately, however, resting the talismanic Kane is far more difficult to justify with the ill-fitting Fernando Llorente in reserve.
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