Poch: I know if we’ll flop in 50 seconds

MaUrICIO POCHettInO knew within 50 seconds that tottenham were going to fluff their lines against Gent last thursday. He expects to know just as quickly tonight if their europa league campaign is heading for the rocks. Spurs need to overcome a one-goal deficit if they are to progress to the last 16, which on the surface should not be too daunting, except there is a real mystery as to which version of this team will turn up. In the past seven weeks they have veered so dramatically between excellent and awful, with a defining win against Chelsea in January balanced by a desperately poor loss at liverpool 12 days ago. that defeat was followed by the poor showing in Gent and a feeling that the Fa Cup might soon be their best shot at a trophy this season. Pochettino was rather prickly when Spurs’ inconsistencies were flagged up yesterday, but he also admitted: ‘When we start a game, if you only watch 50 seconds, you don’t have to be a genius to see if we may struggle and have some problems in that game. ‘In that moment it can be too difficult to change. against Gent, we changed formation at halftime to try to lift them, but it was impossible. ‘the problem is, when you start not in a good way, it’s too difficult to change that perception and then you give a very good signal to the opponent that you are not focused on the game. You need to change that mentality. You can detect it.’ the argentine is likely to name a strong line-up tonight, as he did in the first leg, though his exceptional left back danny rose, who has not played since January 31, is still ‘a number of weeks’ away from recovering from a knee injury. a further challenge is Wembley, which has proved an uncomfortable home for tottenham in european fixtures this season. Spurs lost two of their three Champions league group games this season at the national stadium, but striker Harry Kane insisted yesterday: ‘White Hart lane is obviously a lot smaller and the crowd are on top of you. We have a great atmosphere there. ‘But at Wembley it is even better, to be honest with you. even though the fans are not as close to the pitch, having 90,000 there is incredible.’