Pochettino explains why he subbed Spurs pair in Bournemouth defeat

Mauricio Pochettino has explained why he took the decision to haul off Eric Dier and Toby Alderweireld at the half time break during the 1-0 loss to Bournemouth.

The Tottenham Hotspur boss revealed that after the pair had both received yellow cards in the opening 45 minutes, they were considered as too much of a risk of a red card.

Dier can consider himself lucky to not have received a second yellow card when he went through the back of Joshua King, only for referee Craig Pawson to decide that it was a fair challenge.

Ironically, Spurs were reduced to ten men just moments later when Heung-min Son pushed over Jefferson Lerma in the 44th minute and was dismissed.

Unfortunately for Pochettino, his precautionary measure of bringing on Juan Foyth for Alderweireld backfired when the Argentine was also given his marching orders just 2 minutes and 13 seconds into his appearance.

Spurs defended resolutely but were unable to hold out when Nathan Ake headed in an injury-time winner to the frustration of lilywhites fans.

When asked if he took Dier off because he thought he was going to get a red card, Pochettino told Football.London: “Both and Toby too, because the action in the first half that he got a yellow card and then the action which was nearly a penalty with Hugo Lloris. There was a lot of risk, with Sonny out we needed to provide the team with fresh legs and to try and avoid some more yellow cards. But afrer three minutes the plan didn’t work.”

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