Alvin Martin Likes How Mauricio Pochettino Coaches Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur manager, Mauricio Pochettino, has been praised for his coaching tactics with individual players, states former West Ham United defender Alvin Martin.
During Tottenham Hotspur’s run last season where they finished fifth in the Premier League, Harry Kane seemingly burst onto scene out of nowhere to produce one of the finest seasons as a Tottenham player. A good portion of Kane’s success was due to him taking advantage of the opportunities given to him by Mauricio Pochettino.
The other reason why Harry Kane, and now other players like Ryan Mason, Érik Lamela, Nacer Chadli and Eric Dier (just to name a few) this season, have all gotten better is because of Mauricio Pochettino’s individual coaching sessions.
For a very busy man who has plenty of responsibilities on a daily basis the Argentine coach is able to spend a portion of his day with players one-on-one to help them improve on certain aspects of their game through the use of game film, DVDs in this case.
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Speaking on talkSPORT, former West Ham United defender Alvin Martin went into more detail. Sidenote: HITC transcribed Martin’s quote.
“You hear little things and start to form opinions about a manager. I heard [Ryan] Mason talking about Pochettino as a manager. He said he’d come in on certain days and just spend an hour with that individual going through the DVD of his game, saying you need to improve this. It’s fantastic that somebody’s got the time, along with all the other areas of the squad, to deal with the players as individuals.”
This doesn’t mean that other managers don’t do what Mauricio Pochettino does for their own players. But looking at how Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Érik Lamela, Nacer Chadli and Ryan Mason have performed this season, it speaks volumes that working with someone — even for an hour — to go over film and fine tune their games really helps them.
In Ryan Mason’s case, he is staying back more centrally and only goes higher up the pitch when there’s an opening. When compared to last season, Mason had a tendency to move up when he was given an opportunity but left Nabil Bentaleb alone to patrol the entire midfield if opponents were able to hit Tottenham on a counterattack.
This season that has cleaned up a lot. Ryan Mason has taken these one-on-one coaching film sessions into his game and there are few mistakes happening.
Other players who have improved from a year ago are Érik Lamela and Nacer Chadli. Both wingers were content to move around the edge of the 18-yard-box and then cut inside too early without stretching the defense out enough before sending in a cross. This meant Lamela or Chadli would run into traffic as they would carry their defender into the middle with a center-back and defensive midfielder joining in.
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It’s different now. Both Érik Lamela and Nacer Chadli are dragging the full backs away from the center-backs which gives Harry Kane and any trailing player more room to navigate through open space as they enter the penalty box before receiving a cross from the flanks.
Lastly, Eric Dier has been able to make the transition from center-back and back to defensive midfielder, a position that he used to play with Sporting Lisbon before joining Tottenham in 2014.
The concern for this season was a lack of defensive midfielders on the squad. With an entire pre-season to settle into his new role, and the help of Mauricio Pochettino, Eric Dier has made the transition seamlessly due to coaching and his own abilities.
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There are other players who have benefited from these coaching sessions this season. But right now Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Érik Lamela, Nacer Chadli and Ryan Mason are the first players that come to mind when looking at which ones have improved from last season to now. This has helped Tottenham get within a point from reaching the top four in the Premier League, in November with 11 games played.