The Tottenham Hotspur manager seemed in confident mood in his press conference ahead of the match with West Brom, while also displaying sensible words of caution and motivation.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino vs Man City
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino’s words at his press conference today, as quoted by the London Evening Standard, indicate that the staff and players at White Hart Lane have already built on the progress of last season.
About to face West Brom this weekend, the side who surprisingly got in the way of their promotion challenge during a 1-1 draw in North London in April, Pochettino told the press what he will have surely been hammering home to his squad – play smart, focused and to the best of your ability in every game if you want to be successful.
“We need to understand that it will be very tough against West Brom, perhaps more difficult than against City,” Pochettino is reported as saying by the Standard. “If we are not focused, and we do not show passion and intensity, we will suffer a lot against a very strong, physical team.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino watches training
“In the Premier League you cannot play at 70 or 80 per cent of your capacity. You always need to be at 100 per cent. We know the qualities they have.
“If you want to fight for big things and lift trophies, you need to adapt your game. We need to know how to play teams who play in different ways.
“We are a young team but we still have some experienced players. We have to be realistic and understand that the win over City was worth only three points. It was a good game, we played well and it was exciting – but we must be clever.”
Tottenham’s achievements last year were in the shadows of the astonishing Leicester City story, until the final couple of months of the campaign when only a few points separated the two teams. The young Spurs side were then unable to keep their head in those last few matches, and while the Foxes powered home to complete the most unpredictable of title wins, Tottenham seemed to be licking their wounds, as they limped over the finish line with a desperately poor loss to Newcastle to wrap up the season.
Tottenham’s Jan Vertonghen and Harry Kane celebrate after West Brom’s Craig Dawson (not pictured) scores an own goal and Tottenham’s first
Plenty of football fans had perceived that regardless of what happened in the last few months of that campaign, Spurs were the real emergent force to make the rest of the Premier League sit up and take notice. And so it appears, as Pochettino’s side quickly found their strong defensive form this season and added a number of strong additions to make the squad significantly better. Having already suffered injuries to Harry Kane, Mousa Dembele and Danny Rose – three of last year’s best performers – Tottenham have brought in replacements and pushed on impressively.
Spurs will have banked the mental lessons from the heartache this spring, and the squad will be able to see the sense in their manager’s comments regarding the challenges from clubs like West Brom.
Having beaten Manchester City before the international break, there is no doubt that Spurs are looking like genuine challengers once more, despite Pochettino’s determination to play that down – reading the confidence and desire for focus in his words proves that.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino
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