Pochettino knows there’s no such thing as a weakened Barcelona
The first time Mauricio Pochettino took a team to Camp Nou as a manager, he had one or two reasons for the kind of optimism an away fixture against Barcelona usually suppresses. He felt fairly sure Barca would not be lining up their best XI.
The occasion was a local derby. It was only Pochettino’s third match as a senior coach.
He had just taken over Espanyol, and was in the very infancy of a stellar career in management. Plunged into the job in mid-season, mid-crisis, he had started well, by holding Barcelona to a goalless draw in the first leg of a Copa del Rey quarter-final. This was the decider.
The ominous news, as he arrived at Camp Nou that January evening in 2009, was that Lionel Messi was in the team.
The better news was that Messi’s partners in attack were not Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o. Instead, Eidur Gudjohnsen, strictly a reserve, and Bojan Krkic, 18, gave company.
Barca’s back-up goalkeeper Pinto was in goal. The left flank was manned by fringe players Sylvinho and Alex Hleb.
The bad news for Espanyol that night? Bojan scored twice within the first 48 minutes and this supposedly weakened Barcelona had a 3-0 lead before Pochettino’s side found their gears to reply, pluckily with two goals of their own.
There are lessons in all that for tonight, when Pochettino returns to the city where he spent many formative years as an Espanyol player and then manager in charge of a fired-up Tottenham Hotspur.
He will know that however many players Barcelona choose to rest, in a Uefa Champions League group game as inconsequential for the home side’s uncatchable position atop the mini-league as it is critical for
Pochettino’s Spurs, there is no accurate gauge about what constitutes a “weakened” Barca.
His Espanyol learned that less a month after they had been knocked out of the Copa del Rey by their apparently second-string neighbours in 2009.
Pochettino went back to Camp Nou for a Liga derby three-and-half weeks later. Confronted with Henry, Eto’o and Messi, they won 2-1 against the odds.
Almost 10 years on, Pochettino can expect Barca to dilute their most potent mix of talents, because, with top of Group B already theirs, they can. Ernesto Valverde, their manager, insists he will “honour the integrity of the competition,” mindful that Tottenham and Inter Milan – who host PSV Eindhoven – are joined on points in the battle for second place in Group B. There will certainly be some fresher faces involved, though.
The danger for Spurs is that among them are young men such as midfielder Carles Alena – promoted to the first-team squad last week – who are keen to challenge the idea that Barca’s academy is not quite the rich resource it was a decade ago. Pochettino worked then in Spain where homegrown excellence was considered an envyof-the-world Catalan speciality.
Alena looks highly promising, as does Riqui Puig, 19.
Tottenham, with just one point after Matchday 3, have made a rousing comeback to stand a chance, but may still be obliged to confront hard truths about the relative strength in depth of heavyweights, such as Barcelona.
If Barca rest their No 1 keeper, Marc-Andre ter Stegen, they can call on the first-choice gloveman for the Netherlands, Jasper Cillessen. Centre-half Samuel Umtiti is injured which will mean Valverde making a choice between the €35 million (Dh147m) summer signing Clement Lenglet or Thomas Vermaelen, who has more than 70 caps for Belgium.
Spurs also have an injured centre-half – Davinson Sanchez – which means Pochettino is keeping his fingers crossed that nothing hampers Toby Alderweireld or Jan Vertonghen, given that the youthful Juan Foyth is not registered for the Champions League to cover.
Pochettino will have his best attacking weapons available, however. Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane were rested with this trip in mind for all but the last quarter of the victory over Leicester City on Saturday, and Son Heung-min is running into form.
“We are in good condition for a massive game for us,” said Pochettino, “but we won’t get any presents from Barcelona.” This manager knows that from experience.