Spurs are on the rise– Pochettino
MAURICIO POCHETTINO spoke after Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-0 defeat at Manchester United on Saturday not like a man resigned to another Premier League title near-miss, but like one who knew his side are onto something.
The Spurs manager, for all his plaudits, holds a horrendous away record when his side face other teams in the ‘Big Six’, winning just once in 16 matches – at Manchester City in February 2016.
Yet this latest setback, which came via an Anthony Martial winner that leaves Spurs eight points off Pep Guardiola’s side and only a point from dropping out of the top four, did not have Pochettino speaking in the same manner as that of the last two seasons when his title ambitions have died.
That’s because the Argentinian knows he is building something for the future, a team that will repeatedly challenge for the title, and if the triumph doesn’t come this season, you feel that it won’t be long until Pochettino does have silverware to his name.
Saturday’s defeat was of course only a blip, with Premier League top scorer Harry Kane absent through injury and impressive results of a 1-1 draw at Real Madrid and a 4-0 demolition of Liverpool still fresh in the memory.
It’s for that reason that Pochettino will not over-react given the task does not get easier this week as he prepares his side for the visit of Madrid to Wembley.
“I think before playing Real Madrid it was a statement, before Liverpool it was a statement, West Ham. Now it looks like always it is a statement for Tottenham, whether they want to fight, want to win the Premier League, it is always so hard to win,” Pochettino said.
“We want to be competitive, we want to be there. In the last two seasons we were fighting but it wasn’t enough to win the league… we are trying to arrive one day to be in the position to win everything.”
That last point has been somewhat lost on Spurs in recent weeks, given that they rid themselves of their Wembley hoodoo when they opened the Champions League campaign with a brilliant 3-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund. But no matter how settled they are at the 90,000-seat stadium, it will never match what White Hart Lane means to the club.
With a state-of-the-art ground well on the horizon and some of the best-performing young players in the league in Kane, Dele Alli and Harry Winks to name but a few, Spurs certainly look like a team that is setting itself up for future glory.
“New stadium, new hotel in the training ground, many things are happening in the club,” added Pochettino.
“The process is to finish the stadium next season and to be ready for next season to be there, and the team is young, and we are trying to put the team in a position that they can be contenders to win the big trophies every season.”
The Argentinian will not rush Kane in his return from injury, and with the international break due in a fortnight, he could choose to give the striker a mini-rest that would involve leaving him out for the visit of Real on Wednesday, given that the pressure has been lifted somewhat by Dortmund’s disastrous start to the European campaign.
With basement side Crystal Palace up next in the league, Pochettino could leave Kane out to help him recover fully from his hamstring injury, and ensure he returns for the north London derby against Arsenal on November 18 in top condition.
“It’s always with the doctors and the player to make the best decision for everyone,” Pochettino said. “It’s not the last game, it’s not a final and after that it is holidays.
“We must analyse and assess tomorrow and then take a decision. My feeling is good. But it’s not my feeling, it’s his feeling.” (© Independent News Service)