Thibaut Courtois says the ‘problematic’ pitch at Atletico Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium may have had a large part to play in Antonin Kinsky’s wretched performance for Tottenham on Tuesday.
Kinsky was surprisingly given the nod over Spurs’ established number one Guglielmo Vicario for the Champions League last-16 first leg, but what could have been a dream night quickly descended into a nightmare for the 22-year-old.
Atleti found an early breakthrough after the rookie goalkeeper’s botched pass out from the back allowed Marcos Llorente to open the scoring in only the sixth minute.
Micky van de Ven was the guilty party as the hosts were gifted a second inside 14 minutes, with Antoine Griezmann racing through to score after the Tottenham centre-back had slipped on the turf.
But the dire situation went from bad to worse just moments later as Kinsky managed to kick the ball into his standing leg and directly into the path of Julian Alvarez, who made no mistake from close range.
Igor Tudor had seen enough by this stage and made the decision to haul Kinsky off in favour of Vicario, who failed to stop the rot as Robin Le Normand netted before Alvarez completed his brace.
And while Pedro Porro and Dominic Solanke both struck to make the scoreline look fractionally more respectable from Spurs’ perspective, Atleti take a 5-2 lead into second leg and are the overwhelming favourites to advance to the quarter-finals.
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The result meant Tudor became the first manager in Tottenham’s history to lose his first four matches in charge of the club. It is also the first time ever that the north London club have lost six games in succession.
Asked if he had made a mistake starting Kinsky, the Spurs head coach told TNT Sports: ‘After seeing what happened, for sure it was the wrong decision.
‘But it was, for me, the right decision to do, thinking before, because the team changed competition and it was, in the moment, right to do.
‘Unfortunately, what happened happened. I’ve never changed my goalkeeper after 14 minutes. It’s not easy, it happened.’
Asked why he had refused to acknowledge Kinsky as the shot-stopper made his way off the field, Tudor replied: ‘No, it’s moments like this we don’t need to comment. It’s not a moment to speak too much.
‘Strange game, very strange game. We gave them three goals afterwards we started good.
‘But then problems killed us in three situations. Very, very, very strange so it took our confidence.
‘Then we start, we made opportunities to make it 4-2 and then we conceded the goal for 5-2.’
In the intervening days, the goalkeepers’ union have reached out to Kinsky, with the likes of Joe Hart, Peter Schmeichel and David de Gea issuing messages of support.
The latter wrote on social media: ‘No one who hasn’t been a goalkeeper can understand how difficult it is to play in this position.
‘Keep your head up and you will go again.’
Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois has also backed Kinsky to recover if he is given support he may need from those around him.
‘I sent him a message on Instagram because it’s tough,’ Courtois revealed in the wake of Madrid’s 3-0 win over Manchester City on Wednesday.
‘In the end, it hasn’t happened to me as much as it has to him, but after the
Ajax match here at home, I also took quite a bit of flak.’
The former Atleti star pointed out that Kinsky was not alone in facing difficulties with the Metropolitano Stadium pitch.
‘It’s mentally tough to keep going, you need the support of your team, to feel good again in training and to play well,’ Courtois added.
‘Ultimately, I think the pitch is causing more problems, not just for
Tottenham or Atletico but for many teams that have played there.’
Courtois questioned Tudor’s decision to hook Kinsky after his second error, claiming the young ‘keeper may have been able to regain some of the confidence he had lost with a few ‘great saves’.
‘It can happen for many reasons, you miss the first one, you miss another pass and suddenly he does that,’ the Belgium international went on.
‘Then the manager decides what he wants to do.
‘Maybe he would have continued and made some great saves, but well, they make that decision and that’s what happens.’
Vicario will be expected to return to Tudor’s starting XI as Tottenham resume their desperate fight for Premier League survival with a daunting trip to Liverpool this weekend.
According to The Telegraph, Kinsky is keen to secure a loan move away from north London having been denied the opportunity in each of the last two transfer windows.
The report claims Spurs are ‘unlikely to stand in the way’ of the former Slavia Prague shot-stopper this time around.
Kinsky’s current contract at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium runs through to June 2029.
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