Mauricio Pochettino's Press Conference: Man United vs Tottenham

Tottenham head into Sunday’s match with a lot of confidence after winning two straight games. Even with a lack of rest, Spurs are prepared to continue their good form at Old Trafford.

To begin his press conference, Mauricio Pochettino went over his injury report and had some good news to share. First, Ben Davies is healthy once again after he has missed the entire month of November with an ankle injury.

The bad news is that Érik Lamela is still dealing with a family issue and Vincent Janssen remains sidelined with an ankle injury. Then again, with only two players being out, Tottenham are close to having their entire squad back.

“Érik Lamela and Vincent Janssen are still out, Ben Davies will be available again and then, no news.” Pochettino told the media (via Spurs’ official website). “After that, the players who were involved against CSKA [Moscow] at Wembley are available to be selected.”

“He’s [Janssen] had an injection in his ankle but now he’s in a process to recover from his injury and we’ll see – maybe in 10 days, two weeks, he can be available again.”

With regards to Toby Alderweireld’s status for tomorrow and whether he starts or not, that is going to be a game-time decision it seems. Mauricio Pochettino is unsure how he wants to approach this situation.

The Argentine manager is aware that there are a lot of games left to be played but he wants to make sure that Alderweireld is fit enough to play 90 minutes or not, after missing two months of action.

“That is a good point. We need to decide to tomorrow if he is in good form to play 90 minutes but we are happy that after two months out he is back.” Mauricio Pochettino said.

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“It was good for him to feel competition again against CSKA for 25 minutes, it was fantastic for him and we’ll see.”

“We have a lot of games ahead, a very busy period, we need all players fit so we will see if we decide to start him from the beginning of the game or if he is on the bench again.”

Switching things up and away from tomorrow’s match-up, one question focused on Spurs’ season as a whole. Such as, how would Pochettino see his team’s performance after four months of football?

At the moment, it feels like Tottenham’s season has been more bad than good, especially with the north London club getting eliminated from the Champions League but Pochettino is proud of how his squad has responded to adversity lately since October. Overall though, he’s happy with the team’s progress through a difficult year.

“This week it’s not too easy to explain my feelings because we are out of the Champions League and we’ve just played our last game in the Champions League at Wembley but if we compare with last season, we have two points more in the Premier League and we are in the same position because we have got qualification for the next round of the Europa League.” Mauricio Pochettino explained.

“We are in a similar position to last season but better because we have two points more. It’s too difficult to say if we’ve improved from last season, this Premier League is more competitive, it’s a different Premier League than last season but we are happy with the way we are playing after the problems that we’ve had over the last month-and-a-half.”

“We’ve had a lot of problems and injuries that last season we didn’t have so for that reason, when we assess from the beginning of the season how the team is, we need to be pleased with the performance and the way that we are playing.”

Next: Lack of Rest Won't Stop Tottenham Against Manchester United

Mauricio Pochettino does make a great point. While Spurs had to play roughly two months of football without Harry Kane and Toby Alderweireld, they managed to keep pace with the top four in the Premier League.

Getting knocked out of the Champions League after only five games is a disappointment sure, but Tottenham qualified into Europe’s elite club competition a year or two earlier than everyone expected. So with that said, it wasn’t surprising to see Spurs get overwhelmed from the get-go.

The only blemish in Spurs’ season thus far has been October through November. Other than that, the rest of the season has been fine, all things considered with injuries and players’ form.

Mauricio Pochettino’s Press Conference: Man United vs Tottenham

By Alexander Balano | Dec 9, 2016

Tottenham head into Sunday’s match with a lot of confidence after winning two straight games. Even with a lack of rest, Spurs are prepared to continue their good form at Old Trafford.