Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham Fully Deserved to Win
Mauricio Pochettino spoke of how his players wanted to turn things around, and that is exactly what Tottenham did against Swansea City.
When yesterday’s match kicked off, Bob Bradley’s plan was apparent. He spoke of marking Harry Kane in his pre-match press conference but also coached his side to sit back and prevent Tottenham from having any goalscoring opportunities.
It’s a plan that has usually denied Spurs from beating opponents who are content to defend rather than attack. For 38 minutes Swansea City’s bend but don’t break defense worked.
And then a penalty was given. The match would quickly shift further into Spurs’ favor even though the Swans kept them in check for nearly the entire first half.
When Kane buried his shot from 12 yards out and Son Heung-Min doubled Tottenham’s lead on the stroke of half-time, it was a game that Spurs deserved. They had worked hard to take an early lead only for Łukasz Fabiański to stop them time and time again.
Mauricio Pochettino was of course, pleased with the result. A dominating win at home.
“We were excellent and I’m pleased, very happy with the performance and the three points to be close to the top is very important for us,” Mauricio Pochettino said on Spurs’ official website. “We needed to feel victory again after Monaco and Chelsea. We fully deserved it.”
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What was the cause for such a good performance that saw Spurs erupt for five goals with Harry Kane and Christian Eriksen both picking up a brace?
Pochettino mentioned that his players felt good during the week leading up to the match. And while that definitely showed, there was something else.
Maybe it was due to a full week with no other distractions? No midweek fixture, plenty of time to rest and recover and train. After all this hasn’t happened since August. It’s now December. Five months since the season started.
“I said to you on Thursday that you can feel when the players want to change their levels and it was a fantastic week, good for us to recover the energy and the feeling. It was a great victory for us.” Pochettino said.
Yesterday’s match was so good that there was nothing the 44-year-old manager didn’t like. Everything was great to him. Tottenham played like themselves once again. And to pick up a win after a loss to Chelsea reconfirmed that this Spurs team is still good despite what their form was like these past two months.
“All of it. How we played, our concentration and determination to win the game. We were aggressive with and without the ball, always tried to play and today looks like Tottenham again.” Pochettino said.
“Yes, we played very well against Chelsea but today we confirmed that we’ve started to recover our feeling as a team.”
Next: Kane, Son, Eriksen on Tottenham's Win
Swansea City were never going to be a threat against Spurs but to play like they did without Érik Lamela and Toby Alderweireld was good to see. Eventually, both players will be healthy. When that happens no one truly knows. But once they return, a run in December will be even more likely.
“We have a lot of important games ahead and we’re in a good position.” Pochettino added. “We’re out of the Champions League, unlucky, it was a very tough period last month, but I’m happy we’ve recovered our feeling and now we have to keep going.”