The player in question had a night to forget against Atletico Madrid.
Antonin Kinsky just had a disastrous night in the Champions League yesterday against Atletico Madrid, but he will face a difficult road back at Tottenham Hotspur after the young goalkeeper was substituted at Wanda Metropolitano after only 16 minutes on the clock.
It was his costly mistakes that gifted the hosts a couple of goals as Tottenham went behind by three in only the opening fifteen minutes as Igor Tudor & Co. suffered a 5-2 thumping against Diego Simeone’s side.
The first error from the Czech international came inside five minutes when he slipped as he was attempting to clear the ball, which gave Atletico that opening goal. But the situation worsened for him not long after when he miss-hit a backpass as he left Julian Alvarez with a simple finish.
This set of mistakes had alarm bells ringing in Tudor’s head as the head coach reacted immediately after that third goal to take the 22-year-old off.
Ideally Tudor took a big gamble when he started with Kinsky ahead of Guglielmo Vicario. It was quite down to the criticism that Vicario has faced for his recent performances, but that decision quickly backfired.
Fletcher sympathized with Kinsky
Commentating on the game, Darren Fletcher went on to suggest how this moment can have long-term consequences for Kinksy in terms of his future at Hotspur Way.
“He’s going to take him off after 16 minutes,” Fletcher said during the broadcast on TNT Sports (via. Tottenham News).
“You are finished as a goalkeeper at the club. You can’t come back from this if you are Kinsky.”
Going into the game, Kinsky would have hoped that this opportunity in the Champions League would be the base of helping him stake a claim for that number one spot at Tottenham. And with Vicario linked with a Spurs exit, he could have taken that #1 spot for the long term.
But the night turned into a damaging setback for him. And that was clearly seen as the Czech goalkeeper immediately went down the tunnel after his substitution.
Author Opinion
His performance was quite a depiction of the 1/10 rating that we gave him.
But the fact that he was subbed off and made those mistakes will quite carry into his career.
We will see where this goes from here, but as Fletcher rightly said, this can have massive impact in terms of his future at the club. But for now, it is about him recovering from this mentally and starting to put in his potential, first in training at Hotspur Way and then in games, be it at Tottenham or away from N17.