Adrian Durham has questioned Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to bring Eric Dier on in the second half of the Champions League final on Saturday.
Having gone a goal down with Mo Salah’s second-minute penalty, the Argentine brought Dier in for Moussa Sissoko after 74 minutes, but the England international failed to have an impact on the game.
Divock Origi’s strike 13 minutes later got Liverpool over the line, and, speaking on talkSPORT‘s Drive programme [Monday, 16:20], Durham said that Pochettino’s response to the deficit was “questionable”,
“It’s a great point on Dier,” the talkSPORT host said. “I was thinking ‘hang on a minute’, he was chasing the game and he brought on Dier? What kind of management is that?
“You’ve got to look at [Pochettino’s] selection, first of all. He was always going to to pick [Kane], but to pick Winks as well, to pick Trippier as well, when there were fitness doubts about him too.
“And then to bring on Dier when you’re 1-0 down, a like-for-like swap, there’s no imagination from Pochettino whatsoever, his selection was questionable and his subs were questionable.
“Technically, you’ve got to ask the questions haven’t you? You can’t let Poch off I’m afraid. Lamela stayed on the bench, his substitutions were Dier – like-for-like – there’s no inspiration there whatsoever – and the big man [Fernando] Llorente.
“This is poor, poor management.”
OPINION
Durham is exactly right. While Lucas Moura did eventually come on having had his place in the team taken away by Harry Kane, and Fernando Llorente was also brought on, Pochettino should have added Erik Lamela to the game. Dier is not the kind of player you want to bring on when you are chasing a game, not least because he is a defensive midfielder. It was a very strange decision from Pochettino and Durham is right to question it. After all, this was the Champions League final, not a league game which has less influence on your overall season. If there is one time where Spurs needed to throw their usual plan out of the window and stick three attacking substitutes on, this was it. But Pochettino did not do that. Had Lamela come on, it would have put more pressure on the Liverpool defence with his runs and pace. Dier, meanwhile, clearly offers neither of these things and hence he was a detriment to the team overall.