Jose Mourinho comments on substituting Jan Vertonghen against Southampton

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Jose Mourinho has offered his thoughts on substituting Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen early during the second half of the 3-2 win over Southampton last night.

As per the Evening Standard, Mourinho admitted taking off the Belgium defender after 54 minutes on a night where Spurs set up a fifth round clash with Norwich.

He said: “”No injury, it was my decision. It’s normal that he’s sad. No player likes to come out. I decided to sacrifice Jan, so sad yes and with a reason to be sad, but happy now because he won.

“I don’t need to speak to him because he’s an intelligent guy. He’s very professional and it’s obvious that I did it not to punish because he was playing exactly the same as the others.”

TBR’s View – Mourinho has never been shy about decisive substitutions

Back during his first spell as Chelsea manager, Mourinho made two first half changes to try and turn around a game away at Fulham.

That set the tone for a managerial career where he has never shied away from early or decisive substitutions and he made another with Vertonghen last night.

As Mourinho said, Vertonghen is experienced and professional enough to understand why the change was made.

He did the same with Eric Dier in the first half against Olympiacos during one of his first games in charge and Mourinho won’t be concerned about Vertonghen’s reaction.