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Tottenham Hotspur Links: Mauricio Pochettino Plays Down Spurs’ Top-four Spot

By Alexander Balano

Jul 27, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Tottenham Hotspur head coach Mauricio Pochettino speaks during an All-Star press conference at Grand Hyatt. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports
Jul 27, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Tottenham Hotspur head coach Mauricio Pochettino speaks during an All-Star press conference at Grand Hyatt. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s time for today’s Tottenham Hotspur Links.

Today’s Tottenham Hotspur Links is a recap of what happened following Spurs’ 2-0 win over Southampton. First up, Mauricio Pochettino plays down Tottenham’s fourth place position after today’s win. Next, Southampton manager, Ronald Koeman discusses how his defense were the main culprits for their loss. And finally, Crystal Palace and Manchester United are level on points with Tottenham. Meaning that the fight for fourth place will only get more heated throughout the new year. To the links.

RELATED: Tottenham Links: Away Teams are Successful this Season

This isn’t a slight that earning a top four finish isn’t worth it, because it clearly is. But instead, Mauricio Pochettino is focusing on the bigger picture — the end result in May and where the team will be at position-wise and if they’re a contender for the 2016-17 Premier League season.

Besides, this is standard sports talk. No one ever hangs their heads on a previous game’s results and their current spot in the league table. It’s all about moving forward and this is what Pochettino is doing right now after Tottenham recorded their seventh league win in the Premiership this term.

"“It’s not important today – the table,” declared Mauricio Pochettino. “The most important thing is to arrive at the end of the league in a position that we want to stay in.”“It’s true that we need to enjoy but we need to keep working. The Premier League is very hard – the rest of the results we can see now shows that the Premier League is very tough.”"

Ronald Koeman is not happy with his team’s defensive effort, which isn’t surprising. They did just concede two goals in two different ways that ended up scratching your head as a Southampton supporter.

Here’s Ronald Koeman talking about his team’s defensive effort on the day.

“We made some unbelievable mistakes,” Koeman said. “If you watch the first goal, what happened, it’s like amateurs because it’s a situation because we lost the ball in midfield, but still enough defenders behind.”

“But too naive, three against one, three defenders of Southampton against Kane and still it’s one against one with the goalkeeper and that’s unbelievable because these are details who decide a final result because in three minutes it was over.”

For Tottenham’s first goal, Harry Kane knifed through two to three defenders who made half-effort tackles to try and dislodge the ball from Kane’s feet. The save attempt by goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga was another half-effort. It looked like Southampton players  were expecting the referee to call the play back because of the Saints’ foul on Dele Alli. Instead play continued and a goal was scored by Spurs.

The second goal wasn’t as bad, but it still was shocking to see no attempt made to clear the ball to safety. Let alone mark Dele Alli. Southampton’s backline all decided to watch the ball move past them and into the net. Two goals in less than three minutes will always hurt a team’s chances of trying to win a game even though it could have been 2-2 if it wasn’t for two clutch saves by Hugo Lloris.

“It’s a misunderstanding and maybe that misunderstanding came out of the first goal and of course Ryan Bertrand like to press on the midfield. He lost the battle, but we’re looking at losing too many battles.”

Despite Southampton’s quick start, a 2-0 deficit at half-time doomed the Saints.

“But it starts by the 1-0 because that makes the difference. Of course by 1-0 down maybe in the second half you can do more or maybe you have more belief to come back in the game. 2-0 down at half-time it was so difficult.”

More from Hotspur HQ

Following Christmas and playing on Boxing Day, Tottenham will have their work cut out for them with both Manchester United and Crystal Palace level with Spurs on points (29) before the New Year.

This should add extra motivation for Tottenham to keep ahead of both clubs and push for more wins. Once the winter transfer window opens, if Spurs could sign any extra reinforcements then they should do so.

Because as is, Tottenham are good enough to get to fourth place. They just proved it today with a 2-0 win over Southampton. But if Spurs want to maintain their top four spot, a couple of depth players must be addressed to help rotate the squad as well as continue the competition during training sessions.

Next: Back to Winning Ways for Tottenham as They Sit in Fourth

Other than that, Tottenham got to their league objective early heading into Christmas. There are multiple reasons as to why Spurs are where they are right now — fourth place. But a big part of that, was the club’s play during the months of September (4W-0D-1L) and November (4W-2D-0L) in all competitions.