Pochettino vows to turn up volume if Spurs topple City
MAURICIO POCHETTINO says the music will blare out from the away dressing room at the Etihad Stadium if Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester City and bring to an end their record-breaking run of 15 victories.
The Spurs manager added that he had no problem with City’s post-match celebrations, which so angered Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho last weekend, and explained that it was normal practice to play loud music and his players would do so if they “kill” Pep Guardiola’s side.
“I am never going to complain if another team celebrate, because sometimes it’s good, when you lose, and you hear all that happens in another changing room, it’s good to feel the pain,” Pochettino said.
“With respect of course, because it’s always about respect, but sometimes it’s good to listen. If we run more, and we play better and we care more. Maybe we need to translate that feeling to the opposite changing room.”
Pochettino (right) added: “When we won our games, like at Huddersfield, or like at Wembley against Stoke, the players put on music and it’s so loud.
“If you lose the game, you are not going to put on music. But they are winning, winning, winning, it’s normal they put music on in the changing room.”
The music was loud again at the Liberty Stadium in midweek when City brushed aside Swansea City 4-0.
It is becoming a feature of City’s season, with Pochettino accepting there is an “aura” about them.
“I agree with you in terms of the aura,” he said. “For us, we felt the same last season at White Hart Lane – that something special happened around the team. I think it was a player a week or two ago that said, ‘Wow, I remember last season, we always start 1-0 up at White Hart Lane because something special was happening’. It was tough to play against us. But now City are doing fantastic. But we’re going there to fight, to kill them and try to win.”
Spurs, in fourth place, trail City by 18 points. Pochettino said it was difficult to compete because his club were “in a completely different way”, with the focus on building the new stadium. After they move in, they could be judged and “blamed” if they did not win trophies.
Right now, Pochettino said, it is about trying “to be competitive, to try to play Champions League, to try to fight with the big-spending sides like City and United”.
“But, for us, it’s completely different and I think it’s not fair to compare. Maybe in a few years is the moment to say, ‘Aye, come on, the club now need to win and need to compete and with the same tools as another big club’.
“That is the moment to say ‘compare’, ‘compare with another club’, but today it’s completely unfair that the people, the media, is going to compare Tottenham with a type of club like City, United or Chelsea.”
The problem for Spurs is to convince players to stay until they are on a more level playing field – with Kyle Walker, for one, having left already and joined City.
“Perhaps some players are not agreed with this strategy, and, of course, they are right to complain, to talk and in the end to move or have another challenge for different reasons, because we are all different and we all have different challenges, motivations, roles in our life. That is normal.’’
Pochettino revealed that there have been “some conversations with people from the coaching staff” at City following his angry response to Guardiola’s description, back in October, of Spurs as “the Harry Kane team”.
“It was a thing that happened in that moment,” Pochettino said. “I admire Pep. My idea as a manager... I think he is one of the managers I am more close to in football.” (© Daily Telegraph, London) Manchester City v Tottenham, Live, BT Sport 1, 5.30