The Telegraph
Serge Aurier left Tottenham’s stadium at half-time after being substituted
Serge Aurier left the Tottenham Hotspur stadium at half-time after being dragged off in the team’s defeat to Liverpool that saw Harry Kane injured. Kane was forced off with injuries to both of his ankles at the break, while Aurier did not reappear for the restart after being replaced by Harry Winks. It is understood the right-back left the ground in a move that will no doubt have angered head coach Jose Mourinho, who was forced to answer questions on whether or not there had been a half-time fall-out. Aurier suffered a nightmare opening 45 minutes and was one of the players at fault for the sloppy goal Spurs conceded seconds before the half-time whistle, with goalkeeper Hugo Lloris also blamed by television pundits. Asked what the mood of his players was like at the break, Mourinho said: “It’s the mood of a team that it was difficult to accept you are losing, difficult to accept the nature of the goal because the goal is in some aspects a replica of the chance they had in the first minute. “So it’s of course a mood where people are not happy – but then we have to move. Then Harry is injured and we need to try to do something. Unlucky that we started the second half conceding a goal.” Mourinho, who confirmed Kane will be out “for a few weeks”, left the dressing-room early at half-time and was livid with Tottenham’s defending in their defeat, in which Firmino, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Sadio Mane scored. “It’s a performance totally affected by defensive individual mistakes,” said Jose. “The team was very solid, the team was very confident and in the first half we made three defensive mistakes, individual, in the first minute almost a goal, in the middle of the half, a Mane shot on the inside that Hugo saved and in the last minute for the goal. “To go in losing 1-0 was very frustrating, especially the nature of the goal and at half-time to be losing 1-0 and to lose Harry was not easy. Even so the team comes to the second half with the intention to fight and the second goal, I don’t need to speak about it. Again, great reaction, great goal and another one, Firmino handball disallowed, but another one. And then the third goal, another one. “The third goal hurt me because the third goal was a mistake by a kid that played very, very well. Joe Rodon played very, very well so I feel very sorry for him, but I’m very happy with his performance.” On Kane’s injury, Mourinho said: “Two ankles, the first was a bad tackle, it was Thiago, the second one I didn’t know well. But two injuries in both ankles, the second one worse than the first one – a few weeks, I don’t know. There are some players you can’t replace. When it happens it happens but I believe we have to fight against it, we cannot do anything else.” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was delighted with his team’s first Premier League win in six games, but suggested injuries to Fabinho and Joel Matip, who suffered ankle ligament damage, could force him to look at the transfer market. “You can imagine we think about everything, of course,” said Klopp. “We thought about doing the right thing, but we need to find the right player.”
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