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Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino insists he wants to win trophies at the club after he was linked with the Real Madrid job.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino admits he is concerned by Mousa Dembele’s “very painful” ankle injury after losing another central midfielder.
Spurs were already missing Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama when they arrived to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, and Dembele then limped off in the opening moments of the 3-2 victory.
“We don’t know [how bad it is] but we are a little bit worried,” said Pochettino. “We’ll see. I don’t want to say anything because we need to assess him tomorrow and on Monday.
“It was a little bit of a shame, not only because we changed the plan after five minutes, but we feel sorry for him and hope it’s not a big issue. But it’s very painful now.
“The decision was to bring on Son [Heung-Min], but he played 90 minutes on Wednesday. The plan was to go for the game, to put Moussa Sissoko with Harry Winks like a midfielder — we knew we were going to take risks. The team adapted very well though and I think we played well.”
Tottenham seemed to be heading for a comfortable victory after going 3-0 up in the 61st minute.
But Kieran Trippier’s attempt to nutmeg an opponent just outside his own box resulted in a penalty, conceded by 20-year-old centre-back Juan Foyth on his Premier League debut — and Foyth then conceded another spot-kick as Wolves made it 3-2 and set up a nervy finish.
“In the first half it was under control and in the second half they pushed a lot and we conceded a few actions where Hugo [Lloris] was fantastic,” said Pochettino.
“Then when we scored the third goal, all our thoughts and those in the stadium was that it was 3-0 and it was all over.
“Then in that moment came the situation [where we conceded the first penalty] and we need to learn. We need to learn that to play seriously is to not make mistakes — don’t concede or give the opponents such a cheap or poor action that they can stay in the game.
“You know better than me that it is like this and that’s why I’m happy with the three points but disappointed because we are talking about experienced players, not younger ones that can learn.”
Pochettino defended Foyth, adding: “Of course it was his debut, but I think his performance was very good. I’m happy. Of course that situation happened and I think he’s clever and he’s going to learn. I’m happy, very happy. His performance was very good.”
Pochettino raised eyebrows when he substituted Son, who had been the early replacement for Dembele, after 59 minutes.
But the Argentinian explained that he wanted to protect the South Korea international from fatigue following his exertions during Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie at West Ham.
“It was like he started from the beginning of the game,” said Pochettino. “Then, after 60 minutes, I’m going to change a player who a few days ago played 90 minutes, because I thought other players were more fresh than Son.
“It’s not a problem. I think it’s common sense.”
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