OPINION
Mauricio Pochettino might have made a big mistake by leaving Serge Aurier at home as Tottenham prepare to face Ajax in the second-leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday night.
Spurs need to go to the Johan Cruyff Arena and win if they want to stand a chance of facing Liverpool in the final next month, but they have travelled to Amsterdam short of a few key players and Aurier, 26, has been one of them.
The Ivory Coast international has not played a lot of football lately due to a hamstring injury but Pochettino has confirmed that he is back to fitness ahead of the clash against Ajax.
However the Spurs boss has also revealed that the former Paris Saint-Germain right-back has not travelled with the rest of the squad this week
“Serge is ok, but he’s not here,” said Pochettino, as quoted by football.london.
If Aurier is fit then he should be in the squad because at the moment, Kieran Trippier’s form has been woeful and Pochettino needs to switch up his right-back options if he wants to improve Tottenham’s chances of beating Ajax on Wednesday.
Aurier is not the best defensively, but when in full-flight, the Ivorian right-back can cause opposition defences all kinds of problems.
You only have to look back to Spurs’ wins against Borussia Dortmund earlier in the Champions League to see how effective the £70,000-a-week [Spotrac] player can be against teams who like to play a stylish brand of football.
Ajax’s style is not too dissimilar that Dortmund play and Aurier’s performance over to legs against the Germans in February and March proves that he should have been on the plane to the Netherlands this week.
Hopefully leaving Aurier behind at home does not have too much of an impact on the result on Wednesday night.