Mauricio Pochettino: Tottenham Put on a Fantastic Performance

Tottenham had to come back after trailing early but left with a comfortable and convincing 4-1 win over Southampton yesterday.

After any win, Mauricio Pochettino is always pleased with his team’s performance. But more so when his side comes back to win after conceding an early goal as bad as they did.

Going down early helped Tottenham wake up to get back into the game much faster than they typically do. While the slow build-up play was still visible, Spurs would attack Southampton more directly just to get the equalizer.

Following Dele Alli’s 19th minute goal, Spurs maintained possession of the ball deep in the Saints’ own half and continuing with a flurry of chances — bad crosses, some bad giveaways, etc included — to pin Claude Puel’s men back preventing them from going on the counter.

That kind of display is what really pleased Pochettino during his post-match comments.

“We were disappointed with the start,” Mauricio Pochettino began (via Spurs’ official website). “It’s true, we can’t concede a goal how we conceded, it’s important to be more aggressive and focused. We only touched the ball when we went into the net to recover the goal.”

More from Match Reports

“After 10, 15 minutes we started to dominate and handle the game and then the performance was fantastic.”

“It was important to equalise in the first half and in the second half we increased the tempo of the game to move the ball quicker and we fully deserved it in the end.”

“It’s always difficult to come here, Southampton are a very good team but we showed our character and personality.”

Speaking about other aspects on the game and the year that Spurs have had (dating back to January 2016), Pochettino had some interesting comments.

The Argentine manager briefly spoke about all four goals that his side scored, but again, was very pleased with his players scoring the chances that were presented to them.

“Yes, important for him, Harry [Kane] as well and Son [Heung-Min], a great impact from the bench.” Pochettino said on Dele Alli’s brace against the Saints. “There are a lot of positives, not only the three points but we feel very pleased with the performance.”

Spurs are hitting their stride with five wins out of six matches in the month of December. A terrible stretch from October through November appears to be behind them and this is something that could definitely give Tottenham a major confidence boost as they head into 2017.

But for this entire year? How has Pochettino assessed the team’s 2016 since January including this season? Nothing but positives despite a missed opportunity to win the Premier League title.

“We’ve 71 points [in the calendar year] and that’s fantastic for us.” Mauricio Pochettino added

“Our mentality is to always try to win and try to improve. We’re in a good position and now we look forward to the next game against Watford.”

Next: Kane on Tottenham's Win, Wanyama on His Return

While counting the points from last season on top of this year’s tally after five months of football seems kind of pointless, it does help illustrate an interesting talking point.

That being, Tottenham have been winning a majority of their games. Now again, last season has no bearing on this season whatsoever and Spurs failed to close out the 2015-16 Premier League season on a high note, but Mauricio Pochettino brings up a great point that his side always tries to improve and win.

Winning is what they accomplished a lot in 37 matches they played in 2016 as the 71 points he mentioned indicates. For those wondering, Spurs’ record this year alone from January to December is quite impressive: a 20W-11D-6L record.

Here’s hoping that 2017 brings Spurs some more good fortune once again.