Tottenham players often do hard tackles, Pochettino apologizes to Man United

DBasia.news –  The matches of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in the International Champions Cup on Thursday (25/7) night Western Indonesian Time took place hard. Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs manager, apologized for the hard tackles his players often made to United players.

Another Premier League club duel at Hongkou Football Stadium was indeed fierce. Like competitive league matches, both teams insist on taking the ball to each other until the physical clash between players is unavoidable.

Moussa Sissoko dropped Daniel James hard, as did Dele Alli and Andreas Pereira who made hard tackles. In the second half, in a different incident, Eric Bailly, United defender, knee injury and predicted a long absence.

The final result of the match was won by United 2-1 through goals from Anthony Martial (21′) and Angel Gomes (80′), which was reduced by Lucas Moura’s goal in the 65th minute.

Pochettino said apologies to Man United. Although the tackles of his foster children did not hurt the Red Devils players, Pochettino realized that such intensity should not have happened in the preseason test match.

“I’m a little disturbed in some situations, I’m not happy. It was a friendly match and in some situations, of course when you are tired, when the weather is hot then you are not right at the end, sometimes you are late and things like that (tackles hard) can happen,” said Pochettino in the Guardian.

“I apologize for representing our players to Manchester United. This is football. It’s not their intention … in the preparation period, sometimes you have to be aggressive and you have to play with passion, but sometimes the focus is to build fitness levels and develop the way you play.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, United’s manager, is not too concerned about it. Tackles are things that can happen in the world of soccer.

“Of course, we want them (players) to be noticed, but this is also men’s sports. We cannot lose tackles in football as long as you do it right,” Solskjaer added.

“And it’s very fast and it’s not easy to do the tackles that are right for him, so I can understand why the players don’t do tackles properly. He’s a brave boy and he jumps. He got bruised a little in this tour but as a parent, I want to see tackles in the match,” he explained.