This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
Mauricio Pochettino came out with a bizarre statement following Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.
Asked about the impact of Tanguy Ndombele, the French midfielder who came on as a substitute and impressed, providing two key passes throughout his short cameo, Pochettino offered a puzzling answer.
He said: “A big difference? Doing what?”
The quote was quickly plastered across Twitter, going viral, leading to howls of derision from Spurs fans who felt this would knock Ndombele’s confidence.
The full quote, which must be examined, is not much better. After the reporter said, “his passes”, Pochettino replied: “Yes but in this time the game was different no? I think be careful how we assess. I was talking to some of your colleagues before the game.
“With 29 players in the squad, it’s so important to rotate and keep them all motivated to play. He played on Tuesday in the Champions League and I think Harry Winks was fresh to play.”
This smacks of trying to cover his team selection – Ndombele, of course, was on the bench – but it also speaks to a broken line of communication.
Pochettino has appeared to master English during his time managing in the Premier League but still we find these odd little idiosyncrasies.
In this case, he hasn’t thrown the player under the bus, but it speaks to a wider issue; what is the message at Spurs at this point?
In the summer, before the transfer window opened, Pochettino spoke of a need to undergo a “painful” rebuild. In the months following, of the first-team, only Kieran Trippier and Fernando Llorente left the club. Ndombele was one of a number of players brought in – Giovani Lo Celso, Ryan Sessegnon and Jack Clarke also came through the door – but there was no right-back bought to cover Trippier’s absence, while a striker was not recruited to fill the void left by Llorente.
That isn’t so much a rebuild as a lack of planning.
Danny Rose and Christian Eriksen could both have left, of course, with Rose close to a move to Watford and the Dane fluttering his eyelashes at Real Madrid and Barcelona but since then, they have both been reintegrated into the first-team, even despite some execrable form.
Following that, Pochettino told Spurs to change his job title from manager to head coach, while insisting he is not in charge of transfers. The 47-year-old, when he signed his new contract in 2018, had his title changed, or upgraded, from the latter to the former.
This Ndombele quote, then, is the problem in a microcosm. Fans are unsure what to expect from their manager at this point and it must be difficult for the players too.
Imagine how the club’s record signing would have felt seeing that quote plastered all over social media on Sunday night, having been one of Spurs’ best players at Anfield.
It is bizarre at best and genuinely worrying at worst; one thing is for sure though, and that is the fact that Pochettino needs to find some consistency in his message, otherwise everyone – those on the pitch and those in the stands alike – will be left wondering what he will come out with next.