Mauricio Pochettino questioned the togetherness of his Tottenham Hotspur squad following their Carabao Cup defeat to Colchester United.
Spurs crashed out of the third round of the Carabao Cup on penalties after a 0 – 0 draw with Colchester. They dominated the game, and finished with some of their best players on the pitch.
Tottenham had 19 shots in the game compared to Colchester’s four. As well as that, they had 75% possession in the game.
In spite of that, they couldn’t find a breakthrough. Mauricio Pochettino, speaking after the game, acknowledged the problems at Spurs. There has been a toxic atmosphere building there for quite some time.
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Having lost the Champions League final and missed his opportunity to get a bigger job, Pochettino’s frustration has been brewing. The Christian Eriksen transfer saga over the summer clearly irked him, and he now says the team needs time to ‘build togetherness’.
“We lost the game on penalties and we’re disappointed because today was about to win,” said Mauricio Pochettino.
“When you play at this stage and in this competition it’s only about to win, not only your performance. If you cannot score in 90 minutes that can happen on penalties.
“They were tough, they defended well. Of course the difference of the level is there and if you analyse the circumstances yes we need to create more and be more aggressive in the final third. We did nearly everything good until the last third. Sometimes you score, sometimes you don’t.
“Today I think we feel disappointed because we dominated the 90 minutes but were not aggressive in the last third in the way you expect. It’s about doing your job and this lack of aggression in the last third make the reality and that’s why we feel disappointed. We had a very good team out on the pitch. We finish with maybe our best attacking players on the pitch but didn’t find a way to score. That was the problem.”
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“I think we talked a lot in pre-season. We have experience in football and it’s so important the feelings were how I explained in pre-season but now it’s not about what I said in pre-season. it’s about that we knew or I knew it would be a tough situation.
“When you have an unsettled squad always it’s difficult and you lose time and then you need time to recover the time you lose. That’s where we are. Maybe our performances are good but you need this extra, which is mental, connection, it’s energy to be all together, not to have different agendas in the squad. We need time again to build that togetherness that you need when you are competing at this level.”
Pochettino is now the fourth favourite Premier League manager to leave his job at 9/1. He is behind Nuno Espirto Santo, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Marco Silva.
