Tottenham: Igor Tudor issues goalkeeper verdict after Antonin Kinsky nightmare

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·14 de marzo de 2026

Tottenham: Igor Tudor issues goalkeeper verdict after Antonin Kinsky nightmare

Stand-in shot-stopper was subbed after just 17 minutes after two glaring errors

Devastated: Antonin Kinsky

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Igor Tudor has said he did not drop first-choice goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario for Tottenham’s 5-2 defeat to Atletico Madrid.

Tudor’s decision to hand Antonin Kinsky his Champions League debut against Atletico backfired spectacularly, with the Czech keeper making two huge errors as Spurs found themselves 3-0 down inside the opening quarter of an hour at the Estadio Metropolitano.

The interim head coach has made a habit of making bold selection calls during his tenure, but naming Vicario on the bench for Tuesday’s Champions League last 16 game was arguably his biggest decision yet, and one that did not pay off, with the Italian international brought on for Kinsky after just 17 minutes.

Ahead of Sunday’s trip to Liverpool, Tudor confirmed that Vicario would be restored in goal.

However, he refused to admit that he had dropped Vicario against Atletico when asked if the 29-year-old’s confidence had been damaged after being left out of the starting lineup for the first time since October.

“He is good [mentally],” Tudor said.

“He wasn’t dropped. Never. Why has he been dropped? It was Toni in the goal for that game, normal situation.

Tudor faced criticism after seeming to blank Kinsky as he made his way off the pitch against Atletico, with former goalkeepers Peter Schmeichel and Joe Hart among those to speak out in support of the 22-year-old.

In response to the backlash, Tudor had said he was only trying to protect Kinsky, and he followed that up by insisting he was in a lose-lose scenario regardless of whether he had taken Kinsky off or left him on the pitch.

“When you make this decision to change, you always lose,” he continued.

“When you do that substitution after 15 minutes, the coach loses in both cases. First case, because you put him in so everyone says ‘why are you doing this? You killed the guy’.

“If you don’t, you are taking risk to concede one or two more goals, so I took the decision after thinking, and if I needed to, I would do the same again. It was an act of helping to preserve the guy and to preserve the team.”

On the supposed snub, Tudor sought to clarify the situation by admitting that he wanted to avoid making the situation worse by potentially provoking Kinsky and added that he had given the keeper a hug at half time instead.

“Why didn’t I go to give him hug? Because maybe he was angry.

“Maybe coaches do the things to avoid this scene and to get a situation worse than it was.

“Sometimes it is better to stay there and we hug each other at half-time. At half-time we speak and nothing (more), the situation happened there. It finished there.”