POCH: WE ARE ON SHAKY GROUND
Spurs boss hopes favourite Netflix drama can inspire win
MAURICIO POCHETTINO admits a Champions League exit for Spurs tonight would be a huge blow after all the hype ahead of this season.
Defeat to PSV at Wembley would see them
IF timing is everything then the new series of House of Cards has come at just the right time for Mauricio Pochettino.
Tottenham’s Champions League hopes are on a knife edge going into tonight’s showdown against PSV, with the Spurs boss desperately trying to stop his own pack being blown over.
With skipper Hugo Lloris suspended, Mousa Dembele, Eric Dier, Jan Vertonghen, Victor Wanyama and Danny Rose all injured, and fans unhappy over the new stadium delays, these are tough times.
Only last week Pochettino admitted he had never felt so low during his four-and-ahalf years in charge. For now though, he is remaining optimistic and wants to take inspiration from his favourite show on Netflix.
“How I feel?” he smiled. “It’s a weird time but I look so happy now because I start the new season of House of Cards and yesterday I watched three episodes.
“I learn a lot from this series. I recommend it. Life is similar, eh?
“I think it represents very well sometimes how we are. Sometimes football is so political and it’s going in this direction.”
Asked which character he would be in the smash-hit, Machiavellian political drama, Pochettino reined himself in. “I don’t know. It’s dangerous to say this or that one. It’s fiction but you can translate it in many businesses – things that happen.”
The equation for him and his own president, Daniel Levy, is simple: Beat PSV tonight or prepare for a return to the Europa League midway through a season that once promised so much.
A chastening loss to Barcelona, sandwiched between defeat to Inter Milan and a draw against PSV, has left Spurs with no room for manoeuvre. Pochettino said: “I don’t have too many players to select. Now we are only 18 or 19. “There’s a small chance to get through to the next stage – that’s the reality. We know very well that we need to win this.” Dele Alli is back in the squad after missing last weekend’s 3-2 win at Wolves as a precaution. But Dembele has had a scan after injuring his ankle at Molineux.
Erik Lamela is set to start on the bench despite hitting his sixth goal of the season against Wanderers.
And Pochettino has challenged his fellow Argentine to maintain his consistency for the rest of the season. He added: “He’s more mature now. It’s been tough for him from the day that he arrived here.
“This is his sixth season. It was tough at the beginning but now, after I think 12 games, he has scored eight goals (taking in the final game of last term at Leicester).
“Everything now is going well. I hope it continues and he is consistent during the whole season, and we can talk at the end and say Lamela made a fantastic season.”