Peter Schmeichel has accused Igor Tudor of ‘killing’ Antonin Kinsky’s profession after Tottenham’s 5-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid within the Champions League.
Atletico were three ahead after just quarter-hour in the primary leg of their last-16 tie in Madrid with Kinsky answerable for two of the goals.
Kinsky, who had not made an appearance for Spurs since October, was then substituted by Igor Tudor within the seventeenth minute with Guglielmo Vicario replacing him goal for the rest of the match.
The 22-year-old, who joined Spurs in a £12.5 million deal from Slavia Prague 14 months ago, was also blanked by Tudor on the touchline before he headed straight down the tunnel.
‘I feel really, really sorry for him,’ Schmeichel told CBS Sports when asked concerning the decision to substitute Kinsky.
‘You make mistakes, you already know, he’s put him in goal. Obviously, he’s costing the team the chance to win. Not that Tottenham have any opportunity to win. I mean, it was a terrible performance.
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‘But when this happened, once you take a look at the clock there, 14:55, what does Igor Tudor then? Well, he substitutes him.
‘That’s going to have ramifications for the remainder of his profession. This can be a moment that everyone in football will at all times remember each time they see and listen to his name.
‘You make your selection as a coach and yes, it wasn’t going your way and also you’re 3-0 down, there’s no way that this team would ever come back from that. You’ve got to stick to him and no less than stick until half-time.
‘What he’s done there, I for me, he’s absolutely killed his profession. That’s going to take something to recover from that.’
Meanwhile, Tudor insists Kinsky ‘understands’ the choice to substitute him so early in the sport.
‘What happened could be very rare. I’ve been coaching for 15 years, I’ve never done this. It was obligatory to preserve the guy, preserve the team. Incredible situation, nothing to comment,’ Tudor said.
‘It was, before the sport, the suitable selection to do within the moment like we’re, with the pressure on Vicario, one other competition. Toni is a superb goalkeeper. It was for me the suitable decision. After this, after all, it’s easy to say that it was not the suitable decision. So I explained to Toni also, speaking after: he’s the suitable guy and goalkeeper.
‘Unfortunately, it happened on this big game, these mistakes. He was sorry. The team is with him, me too. I used to be speaking with him. He understands the moment, he understands why he goes out. As I said, he’s a superb goalkeeper. We’re with him, we’re all together. It’s never about one player. It’s happened. It’s the Champions League again. We paid [for] this start of the sport.
‘It was an excessive amount of for us on this moment once we are fragile, once we are weak. I recognise what we’re and which problems we’ve got. I recognise that each game something happens. Sometimes it’s very difficult to elucidate. When these items occur, within the moment where we at the moment are, unfortunately, it’s like that. Even these slippery things occur, it explains the moment [we are in].’
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