Former Tottenham boss praises Pochettino’s attitude.
Former Tottenham Hotspur head coach Tim Sherwood has praised current boss Mauricio Pochettino for his reaction to Spurs’ draw with West Ham.
Tottenham had two late penalty calls turned down, but Pochettino did not focus on this when quizzed after the game.
Pochettino said he was frustrated, but with his own team rather than the referee, adding: “I didn’t see any penalty shouts from my position. I am not going to say anything about the referee, I trust in them.” [via Teamtalk]
Sherwood, working in a pundit role for SkySports, praised Pochettino, arguing that this type of reaction is what makes him stand out from other managers.
He said: “I liked that from Mauricio. He’s not coming out looking for excuses, he says we were not clinical enough and that’s right.
“We’re fed up of managers looking for excuses and talking about referees. He says not gone against us and we look at ourselves.”
Pochettino’s stance differs strongly from Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, who is facing an FA charge for criticising referees twice in the last week.
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho is notorious for putting pressure on officials, while Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp lost his cool last month after a penalty call in the Merseyside derby.
Perhaps Pochettino was so annoyed with his own players to waste any energy on the officials, and certainly if Spurs had been handed a late penalty, it would have got them off the hook for their poor finishing and inability to make possession count.
The draw was a missed opportunity for Spurs to close the gap on fourth place Liverpool to just one point, instead they are three points behind.
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