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London - Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino should not have handed starting berths to Harry Kane and Harry Winks for the Champions League final, according to Alan Shearer.
The English duo started in Madrid on Saturday - despite missing a lot of football recently - as Liverpool beat Spurs 2-0 to win their sixth European Cup.
"I'm sure Pochettino agonised over whether to start Harry Kane but he got that one wrong," Shearer said in The Sun.
"Kane didn't look fit at all and didn't turn up in Madrid - he was nowhere near as sharp as he could and should have been.
"I imagine Harry was in Pochettino's ear all week and he has had a week to judge it based on seeing him in training. I've been in the same situation myself.
"He may never feature in a European Cup final again so he would have been desperate to play. But you have to judge him on his performance and he simply wasn't 100% fit.
"Harry Winks was exactly the same - he hadn't played for over two months yet he was risked to start in such a huge game for the club.
"To play one was a gamble, to play two who haven't played for that long was a huge risk and it didn't pay off.
"I'm sure Pochettino will be thinking 'If only'. If only he had done something different. Lucas Moura could have offered them an alternative way of playing.
"The big difference was Klopp had the same decision to make with Roberto Firmino, who started the game despite clearly not being fit.
"After 55 minutes, Firmino made one bad pass too many and Klopp dragged him off and put Divock Origi on, while Kane was left on all night and offered hardly anything."
