Mauricio Pochettino sorry for Spurs tackles in Manchester United friendly
Mauricio Pochettino apologised on Thursday to Manchester United for some overzealous Tottenham challenges during the Shanghai friendly that at times was anything but.
Dele Alli and Moussa Sissoko were guilty of particularly poor challenges in the first half, as was the United midfielder Andreas Pereira. Nobody was hurt in those tackles, although United’s Eric Bailly sustained a knee injury in a separate incident, but Pochettino felt the need to apologise.
“I was a little bit annoyed about some situations, I was not happy,” the Tottenham head coach said after his team’s 2-1 defeat. “It was a friendly game and in some situations of course when you are tired, when it’s so hot you are not right with the tempo to arrive at the actions, sometimes you arrive late, and something can happen.
“I apologise on behalf of our players to Manchester United. It’s football. It wasn’t their intention … In this period of preparation, sometimes you need to be aggressive and you need to play with passion, but sometimes the focus is to build your fitness and develop the way you want to play. Of course, I was worried. Bailly got injured and I am sorry for that, but he was alone.”
Bailly, who was injured 11 minutes after his half-time introduction, will have the knee assessed. The centreback, who missed the end of last season with medial ligament damage, left the field on a stretcher and looked in some distress. “We’re not sure how bad it is so, of course, we need to get back to Manchester and do the scans,” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said. “Let’s just hope for the best.”
United’s manager said he had no issue with Tottenham’s approach. “I thought it was a very good preparation for getting ready for the league. No tippy-toey football. You went in to tackle when you’re supposed to tackle, so I have no qualms about some of the tackles. Yeah, you’re worried but there’s no injuries … we also gave, we didn’t just receive.”
Sissoko’s challenge on Daniel James looked particularly bad and led to a melee. “Of course, we want them to be looked after but it’s also a man’s sport,” Solskjaer said. “We can’t lose tackling in football. As long as you tackle fairly.
“Dan is so quick and it’s not easy to time tackles and challenges against him, so I can understand why players mistime their tackles. He’s a brave little boy and he jumps. He’s taken a few knocks over the tour but as an old man I like to see tackles in the game.”
Anthony Martial’s first-half opener was cancelled out by Spurs’ Lucas Moura before Angel Gomes sealed victory for United.