Brainless!
POCHETTINO WANTS SPURS STARS TO SWITCH ON AND STOP SLIDE
ToTTEnhAM boss Mauricio Pochettino has ordered his players to reconnect the cables to their brains and arrest the slump which has turned their title challenge into an anxious scramble for the top four.
Spurs have taken only one point from the last four Premier League games and are 15 points adrift of leaders Liverpool ahead of their clash at Anfield tomorrow.
Form has tanked since a 10-day break last month which was followed by defeats at Burnley and Chelsea, a draw against Arsenal and another defeat at Southampton on their last outing.
Fail to win at Liverpool and Arsenal have the chance to move
past them into third place when they take on newcastle on Monday night.
‘ Before the Burnley game we were playing every two or three days and it was a week where we didn’t play and it was like we disconnected,’ said Pochettino. ‘ Everyone believed we needed to breathe and rest but I think it affected us a lot in our brain.
‘It is not about energy or legs, it is about the mental connection in the team. Maybe we were affected by that disconnection, and now it is more difficult to connect again the cables and perform in the way we want to perform.’
Pochettino addressed the issue during Tottenham’s warm-weather training break in Barcelona before his players dispersed for international fixtures.
‘We were talking a lot in Barcelona to try to change that,’ added the Spurs boss, who will serve the second of his two-match touchline ban at Anfield.
‘We have good players but the problem is if we are not playing like a team.
‘At Southampton was the perfect example. The first-half performance was good but in the second half we played 11 different games. That’s what worried me. We need to recover our memories, and we need to fight together like a team. We need to feel the victory again.’
Spurs can take encouragement from 13 goals plundered on two trips to Merseyside this season — six at Everton and seven at Tranmere in the FA Cup — although it is eight years since they won at Anfield.
Jurgen Klopp’s team are unbeaten at home in the Premier League this season, conceding only nine goals, and Virgil van Dijk’s presence in defence has made the Dutch defender a serious contender for the individual prizes.
‘If he is not the best then he is one of the best centre backs in the world,’ said Pochettino, who played in the same position for Argentina. ‘People said it was crazy to pay £70million for a centre back but they picked Van Dijk because they believed he was the best in England and could make them better and they were right.
‘If you are going to sign the player who is going to improve your team then it is not a lot of money.’