Tottenham Hotspur boss Jose Mourinho has told the London Evening Standard that he substituted Giovani Lo Celso because he thought the Liverpool bench were trying to get him sent off.
Spurs headed to Anfield on Wednesday night for a top of the table clash with Jurgen Klopp’s side, and ended up losing 2-1 to a late Roberto Firmino header.
Son Heung-min had cancelled out Mohamed Salah’s deflected opener, but Tottenham squandered a number of second half chances.
Steven Bergwijn put one effort wide and hit the post with another, whilst Harry Kane headed a Son corner over the back from close range.
Tottenham will feel that they missed a big opportunity to claim all three points at Anfield, and Mourinho has detailed a change he made at half time.
Mourinho moved Giovani Lo Celso from central midfield to the right of midfield, believing he could trigger more counter-attacks from that position – and he did.
Mourinho added that he substituted Lo Celso for Lucas Moura because the Argentinian was already on a yellow card, and feared he would get sent off.
The Spurs boss suggested that the Liverpool bench were putting ‘incredible pressure’ on the officials, and felt they would have got Lo Celso red carded if he stayed on.
“At half-time we moved a little bit the pieces to try and improve, which we did,” said Mourinho. “The tactical changes were to try to give Gio Lo Celso more space coming from the right to start having a little bit more of the ball and find counter-attack situations, which we did immediately in the first 10 minutes.”
“With this yellow card and the behaviour of these guys they have on the touchline, putting incredible pressure on referees I feared for a possible second yellow card. And Gio was playing exactly in front of their bench in an area that very dangerous. So I was afraid of the yellow card and I had to take him off,” he added.
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