Mauricio Pochettino Rates His Tottenham Squad Highly
Tottenham doesn’t spend money around aimlessly, and despite two signings so far, Mauricio Pochettino prefers his squad over others.
After opening the summer transfer window with two key signings in Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen, Tottenham added solid depth at the defensive midfield and striker positions respectively.
Calling them just bench options though is only half right. Both Janssen and Wanyama will earn plenty of playing time based on their quality as well as how much they cost (£28 million combined).
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Something that Spurs needed this summer was depth, but that term can be very vague at times. Because every single Premier League team has depth. How can they not have any?
What many teams don’t have though are quality players on the bench. The ones who could actually start but can’t because the starting XI is already strong.
And Tottenham is one such example where they needed a couple of additions to strengthen their side to compete in the Champions League and make another run for the league title.
Could Vincent Janssen start over Harry Kane? He can, but Kane is still the focal point of Pochettino’s offense. Janssen can however start alongside the Englishman should a change in formation be possible.
Could Victor Wanyama start over Eric Dier or Mousa Dembélé? Definitely, Wanyama’s a starter on another team in the Premier League, but Dier and Dembélé have created a good partnership last season that Pochettino should continue with it.
For the first four games, the Kenyan international could start while Mousa Dembélé continues to serve the rest of his suspension.
While other teams are spending money left and right Tottenham made a couple of signings only, but Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t seem bothered by this at all.
In fact, he prefers his squad right now over others despite only signing two players.
“I am not worried about that,” the Argentine manager said (via Daily Star). “It shows when you spend a lot of money you are not happy with your squad or your players and you are desperate to improve your squad.”
“I am very happy with my players and I think it is very difficult to find players better than we have.”
“For that I am very happy – I am very relaxed and quiet.”
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Spurs still need one to two more additions, but they’ll be better off than others when the 2016-17 season begins because they don’t need much adjustments.
This is something that might go unnoticed to many people but chemistry is huge. And after watching last season, Tottenham had plenty of chemistry — it helps having a young squad where most players are within the same age range.
“Maybe yes we are open to add one or two players or maybe no one,” Mauricio Pochettino added.
“For us it is very important to respect our process and if we have the possibility to sign someone who can improve us we are very open.”
“But it is difficult to find someone with this profile because we have a very good squad, very good players and the way that we work and with our philosophy it is a very difficult market for us.”
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The two Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Chelsea all spent a lot of money to add good players. But they will take time to adjust to a new manager and gel together with new teammates. This doesn’t happen overnight and pre-season isn’t enough.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Tottenham got off to a good start while other top-four hopefuls start slowly due to the amount of reinforcements that were brought in and now are being placed in the starting XI, hoping to make an immediate impact.