Igor Tudor explains why he ignored tearful Antonin Kinsky after shock 17th-minute substitution - with Tottenham boss adamant he would ‘do the same again’

The 23-year-old Czech goalkeeper endured a truly horrific evening in Madrid, committing catastrophic errors that allowed Atletico to race into a 3-0 lead within the opening quarter of an hour. Tudor reacted by hauling Kinsky off for Guglielmo Vicario before the 20-minute mark, but it was his refusal to acknowledge the weeping keeper as he left the pitch that sparked real outrage. Former Manchester City and England shot-stopper Joe Hart was left "flabbergasted" by the lack of man-management on display.

Addressing the incident, Tudor explained, as per Football London: "When you make this decision to change, you always lose. When you do that substitution after 15 minutes, the coach loses in both cases. First case, because you put him in so everyone says 'why are you doing this? You killed the guy'. If you don’t, you are taking risk to concede one or two more goals, so I took the decision after thinking and if I needed to, I would do the same again. It was an act of helping to preserve the guy and to preserve the team."

The Croatian tactician was adamant that his decision to keep his distance while Kinsky walked to the bench was a calculated attempt to prevent the situation from boiling over. Critics suggested the "cold" reaction further damaged the youngster's confidence, but Tudor claims the pair cleared the air behind closed doors during the interval once the initial emotions had settled.

"Why didn't I go to give him hug? Because maybe he was angry," Tudor added. "Maybe coaches do things to avoid this scene and make a situation worse than it was. Sometimes it is better to stay there and we hugged each other at half-time. At half-time we spoke and nothing [more], the situation happened there. It finished there."

The fallout from the Madrid defeat has been compounded by a massive availability crisis ahead of the trip to Anfield on Sunday, with Tottenham potentially without 13 senior players for the Liverpool clash. Despite the mounting absentee list, the interim boss is urging his depleted squad to remain defiant, concluding: "The message is how I want to see this game at Liverpool - as a challenge and an opportunity rather than go there and be a victim because we are missing players."