The pull of Mauricio Pochettino is stronger than ever for Spurs

Where Conte had a strategy, he left a straitjacket: Spurs seemed flat in his 3-4-3 formation in his final games. They did again in the first match after his departure. The football in the Pochettino era was often enterprising and entertaining, more fluent and free-flowing. A shortcoming of Conte’s system is a shortage of players in the centre of midfield and, whatever the shape, Pochettino was rarely outnumbered there, lending Spurs more control and a more proactive, progressive feel. Tottenham may be in the hunt for a second successive top-four finish but the last three-and-a-half years feel like a failure to build on his achievements.

Lucas Moura’s red card at Goodison Park stopped Spurs starting Cristian Stellini’s interim tenure with a win

There was a sad postscript to the Pochettino era. Everton are now the parent club of one of his success stories: Dele Alli is now loaned out to Besiktas and out of their squad. He was the seeming £100m player Spurs ended up giving away. Four years ago, Alli got two assists in Pochettino’s greatest night at Tottenham. Both were for the same player. Four years after his Champions League semi-final hat-trick against Ajax, Lucas Moura has not scored this season. He came off the bench on Merseyside and was sent off six minutes later for a desperate lunge. The man who sparked celebrations that made Pochettino cry in Amsterdam exited Goodison with his shirt pulled over his head in disappointment. He is leaving in the summer, his Spurs career ending in anti-climax.

It will be another reminder that the glory days under Pochettino are increasingly distant. Only Hugo Lloris and Son Heung-Min started both the Ajax game and Stellini’s draw on Merseyside. Yet with Tottenham’s 2023 short of highlights, with a team lacking the inspiration, energy and creativity Pochettino’s both sides possessed, it is tempting to hark back to the past.

Pochettino has a symbolic value. The reality may be different; returns are usually less successful and his final few months were fraught. He would have to confront the question of how to work with Levy again. He would inherit a squad that has been ‘Contefied’ and a host of signings who bear the look of misfits. Bringing back Pochettino is no guarantee it would restore the Tottenham their supporters loved. But, with magic in short supply in the modern-day Spurs, it is easy to see why the idea of Pochettino is so seductive.

Source: Read Full Article