Tottenham Hotspur will take on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
BBC Sport pundit Paul Ince has claimed that Kieran Trippier is being used as a ‘scapegoat’ for his recent performances in a Tottenham Hotspur shirt.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side recorded a 1-1 draw with rivals Arsenal on Saturday following defeats at Chelsea and Burnley before the north London encounter.
Trippier played in their previous two matches, but as reported by Football.London, he has been left at home for their trip to Germany where they will take on Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Former Manchester United and Liverpool midfielder Ince claimed that only British or English players are ‘scapegoats’ in the Premier League and not the foreign stars.
“There is always a scapegoat,” Ince told BBC 606. “When teams like Tottenham have done so well this season, it was only three or four weeks ago we were talking about them still being in the title race.
“All of a sudden, they have had a terrible, terrible week and the fans always seem to look at the scapegoat and it always seems to be the English or British player. It does. I remember Barkley at Everton, exactly the same thing.
“It’s never the foreign players who are getting dug out. He [Trippier] has been outstanding this season.”
Over the course of the season, Trippier has been a key member of Pochettino’s squad at right-back, but it seems he has been coming under stick for recent performances.
Last summer, he was part of the England squad that reached the semi-finals of the World Cup. Many would agree that he played an instrumental part in Gareth Southgate’s side going so deep in the tournament.
As mentioned above, Trippier will not take to the field as Tottenham aim to hold their three-goal advantage against Dortmund in the second leg of their last-16 Champions League encounter.
Pochettino will be well aware that his team can’t afford to concede an early goal or the pressure will be right on his players from the get-go.
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