Jose Mourinho has insisted that Dele Alli’s angry reaction to being substituted against RB Leipzig was more to do with his own performance.
Spurs suffered a setback in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie on Wednesday night, as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at home to the Bundesliga outfit.
SEE MORE: Video: Spurs stars clear pitch of toilet paper after RB Leipzig fans’ protest
Timo Werner’s second half penalty secured the win for the visitors and an all-important away goal, and so now Tottenham will have it all to do in the return leg in three weeks time to advance.
As seen in the first video below, Alli looked far from happy about coming off in the 64th minute as he furiously threw his water bottle and looked annoyed as he took his seat.
However, Mourinho later told reporters that he believes the England international’s angry reaction was more to do with his frustration over his own performance rather than the decision to substitute him.
Spurs fans will hope that’s the case as they don’t need an unwanted distraction at this stage created by an unhappy player, as they’ll have to quickly move on from this defeat and prepare for a crunch clash with Chelsea this weekend in the Premier League.
#DeleAlli salió en el partido de la #ChampionsLeague con el resultado abajo 1-0 ante #Leipzig y se mostró estar en desacuerdo con la decisión. @tvmaxdeportes @tvnnoticias pic.twitter.com/INrGuKjpDs
— Salva Saldaña Solano (@salvasaldana7) February 20, 2020
Jose Mourinho's reaction to Dele Alli
?"I think he was angry with his performance not with me, I think he knows why I took him off and the team improved." pic.twitter.com/KBqXs9t10U
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) February 19, 2020