POCH: IT’S TOUGH AT THE TOTT PSV EINDHOVEN v SPURS
Dier: Real got out of our tough group.. we must try to do the same
MAURICIO POCHETTINO admits he is finding this season harder than he expected at ‘homeless’ Tottenham.
The Spurs boss said: “It’s true that it’s difficult to always feel like you’re playing away from home. We’re managing things so that we’re sure in the future it will be completely different.
“When I signed my new contract we expected a tough period, but it is tougher than we believed.”
Pochettino penned his deal at the end of last season and was looking forward to moving into a new stadium at White Hart Lane. But Spurs are still in their rented ‘home’ at Wembley and do not have a date to move into their £850million ground.
Tottenham are also the first Premier League team to go through a summer transfer window without making a signing.
ERIC DIER has told Tottenham to use Real Madrid as their inspiration – and fight their way out of their tightest Champions League corner yet.
Spurs face PSV Eindhoven here at the Philips Stadion tonight knowing that anything but victory will almost certainly mean the end of their hopes in this competition this season.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side have lost their opening two Group B games, to Inter Milan and Barcelona.
And defeat against in-form Dutch league leaders PSV would leave them teetering on the edge of dropping into the Europa League. Only Newcastle, in 2002, have progressed from their group after losing their first three games.
Last season though, Real and manager Zinedine Zidane were under real pressure halfway through their group stage after dropping four points to Spurs.
But they recovered to win their final two games – and then went on to win the competition, knocking out Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Bayern Munich, before beating Liverpool in the final in Kiev.
Dier said: “We can learn from what happened with Real last season in our group.
“I’m not saying we’re going to get out of the group and win the Champions League. Or that we are Real Madrid.
“But Real, they had a very difficult time to get out of our group last year. And then they ended up going on to win it.
“The most important thing for us is to stay calm, to keep believing that it’s possible, and go into every game and try to win.
“We can’t change what’s already happened. We just need to stay calm and do our best.”
Tottenham go into tonight’s game against the Dutch champions – who under new coach Mark Van Bommel have won all nine league games this season with a goal difference of +33, also on good form – having won their last four Premier League
‘We must stay calm, to keep believing that it is possible and go into every game to win it’
matches. However, for PSV it is also do or die, and with the Dutch side also on zero points.
Dier added: “Our league form has been good, but playing in Europe is completely different.
“But that’s no excuse for what’s happened to us so far this season in the Champions League.
“We have to win every game. That’s the mentality now. We are in a position where our backs are up against the wall.
“We are going to have to try to get ourselves out of it.
“The only way to do that is to really try and win every game.”
Dier though insists that the problems Spurs have had this season, with the new stadium delays, no new signings in the summer, injuries to key players and virtually no pre-season for many players who were at the World Cup, have in fact pulled the squad together.
He said: “You can either let these things knock you, and take them in a negative way, or you can put them behind you and use them as something to push you forward.
“That’s what we’ve done so far and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”