Jose Mourinho admits substituting Eric Dier gave him ‘an awful feeling’

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Tottenham Hotspur beat Olympiacos 4-2 on Tuesday night.

Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho has told Football.London that he substituted Eric Dier to get more creativity in his side – and apologised to Dier.

Spurs took on Olympiacos in the Champions League last night, and went into the game in high spirits having beaten West Ham United 3-2 in Mourinho’s first game in charge on Saturday.

However, they made a dismal start against the Greek side, as Youssef Al Arabi and Ruben Semedo had Olympiacos 2-0 up inside 20 minutes, prompting Mourinho to make an early change.

Off came Dier, and on went Christian Eriksen. Spurs pulled one back before half time through Dele Alli, and then went on to record a superb 4-2 win with a great fightback.

Harry Kane’s brace and a Serge Aurier strike means Spurs are through to the knockout stages, and whilst that’s a cause for celebration, many have been discussing Dier’s withdrawal.

There was no injury, no illness, no risk of being sent off. It was merely a tactical change, and making those changes so early is often seen as an embarrassment for the player.

Dier had been touted as a player who would return to stardom under Mourinho, only for his substitution to lead fans to think he may not take any steps forward; now though, Mourinho has given his view.

Mourinho has admitted that he just wanted more creativity, and really wanted to apologise to Dier having had an ‘awful feeling’ when substituting the midfielder, but thinks fans understood that he did it for the benefit of the team.

“I thought I needed a second creative player who could play with Alli in that triangle, an open triangle as I used to call it, not a closed triangle like we were with Dier and Harry Winks,” said Mourinho. “So I had to do it for the team and I apologise to Eric despite him knowing that I did it for the team and not with any intention to hurt him. I think the fans also understood that. I did it for the team and in the end the team is the most important thing. Christian gave us what we needed at that time.”

“Apart from an awful feeling in relation to Eric, apart from that awful feeling everything was great for me and I think it was victory 80 for me in the Champions League. So let’s hope for victory 81,” he added.