Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Christian Eriksen says there are positives and negatives to Mauricio Pochettino’s fitness regime.
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Christian Eriksen has explained in London24, there are upsides and downsides to the physical strain Mauricio Pochettino has placed over his squad.
Eriksen says he thinks the side are mobbing forward, after Pochettino made improving the fitness of his squad a key feature of the team earlier in the season.
“It’s a plus and it’s a minus. If you run a lot you’re maybe running too much, if you run too little it’s maybe too little. It always needs to be a balance and I think we’re trying to find it,” said the Dane.
“It [that balance] is difficult to find. For the manager it’s the first season so first we have to learn what he wants, and he has to learn what we do.”
Improving the fitness of the squad was vital for Pochettino because it allows the team to fight late into matches.
The benefits have been seen in matches such as the draw against West Ham, where Harry Kane scored a late equaliser, with the Hammers tiring.
Pochettino needs to know when to step in and urge his players to take their foot off the gas slightly, dropping deeper, which decreases the strain on them to fall back and recover if they are caught higher up the pitch.
The worry for the boss is the possibility of injury, which could develop over the rest of the season, with the final few games coming up.
Any injuries picked up now could affect players at the start of pre-season, setting them back and reducing the chance they could have an impact at the start of the 2015/2016 campaign.
Pochettino seems to have judged things fairly well so far and he should be trusted to get the balance, which Eriksen talks about spot on.
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