Mauricio Pochettino Happy with Tottenham’s Performance
Tottenham remains undefeated in the Premier League after picking up a 1-0 win against Sunderland.
A 1-0 win by Tottenham against a winless Sunderland team sitting in the relegation zone suggests a struggle for 90 minutes.
And truth be told, outside of the statistics and the eye test where Spurs were the dominant team, David Moyes’ side had a moral victory at the end of the game.
They didn’t concede more than one goal which was a tap-in by Harry Kane just before the hour-mark caused by Papy Djilobodji’s error when he couldn’t clear the ball away.
Still, moral victories don’t win you trophies and Sunderland remain in 19th place after five league matches. On the other hand, a slim victory isn’t exactly bad in Mauricio Pochettino’s eyes even though it should have been a rout by half-time.
The Black Cat’s young goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, who was making his fifth Premier League appearance had a game to remember, stopping Spurs multiple times, especially in the first half.
After a 2-1 defeat to AS Monaco in the Champions League, Pochettino was looking for a better result from his players performances and he got just that.
Thirty-one shots, nine which were on target, showed that Spurs were aggressive in putting a bad first half against Monaco behind them.
“This is the way we want to see the team play,” Mauricio Pochettino said (via Spurs’ official site).
“It’s not always about the result, it’s about showing energy, performance, trying to win, to battle, to fight in every action and for that, I’m very happy.”
“After that, it’s true we created a lot of chances to score and only scored once, but it’s three points and important to be in the top four.”
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Spurs’ fast start on Sunday afternoon was deliberate after the team knew that they didn’t put in their best effort in their Champions League return.
So to make up for it, a fire was lit, and the opening 20 minutes against Sunderland saw Tottenham shoot 10 times. Six shots were on target which Jordan Pickford had to make one amazing save after another to keep the game level.
“The players were all agreed after Wembley that we needed to show another way, to be more aggressive and show more passion. We were fantastic,” Pochettino added.
“In the end, it was only 1-0 after we created a lot of chances but I’m happy with the three points and now we look forward to the next game against Gillingham in the [EFL] Cup [on Wednesday].”
The only concerning issue besides not being able to break through a stubborn Sunderland defense and score more goals was having three players leave the match injured.
Mousa Dembélé and Eric Dier suffered hamstring injuries, while Harry Kane picked up a sprained ankle. Pochettino has the depth to rotate his players this Wednesday against Gillingham and isn’t too worried about his central midfield pair.
But Kane’s injury might take a while depending on the severity of his ankle sprain.
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“It’s always to provide the team with more energy,” Mauricio Pochettino said after rotating his starting XI yesterday.
“The squad is most important and look today at the problems with Mousa [Dembélé], Eric Dier and Harry Kane. Now, in a difficult period and a lot of games, you need all the squad.”
“It’s tough sometimes when you start the season because only 11 players can play but to share the minutes is important, that’s why we have 25 players.”
“I don’t think Mousa and Eric will be a big issue, not big problems, I think they will be available for Middlesbrough [next Saturday] but Harry Kane, we need to assess him tomorrow, it was a tough twist of his ankle and we’ll have a scan and see.”