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Pochettino: Festive fixture schedule will help signings fight for places
Mauricio Pochettino hopes the competition for places will soon increase at Tottenham, and he believes Spurs’ festive fixture schedule will help him to get more out of his summer signings.
The Argentinian stated during the summer that he wants top men such as Harry Kane to feel pressure from rivals within the squad.
He concedes that has not necessarily been the case so far this term, due to injuries and the late arrivals of recruits such as Fernando Llorente.
But Pochettino is hoping to have more selection dilemmas in the new year – and he is pleased that the arrangement of Spurs’ matches in the second half of this month will allow him to spend more time with his players on the training pitch.
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After Saturday’s trip to Manchester City, the Lilywhites have a full week off before they travel to Burnley. And, while they then host Southampton three days later on Boxing Day, that is followed by another empty week before the visit to Swansea on January 2.
“It’s true that for different reasons, like injuries or other things, we’ve missed this feeling [of competition],” said Pochettino.
“In the second part of the season, if we can recover everyone – now [Erik] Lamela is nearly 100 per cent, or Victor Wanyama, and Toby [Alderweireld] later – it’s very good news for the team, to have everyone at a very good level.
“For the new players that arrived, to be more comfortable here, to know everything and adapt their quality to the team, the first six months is always difficult because we don’t have much time to work.
“It’s so difficult. Sometimes we work only through the video because we can’t do anything on the pitch, and it’s not the same.
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“Just today we were talking about next week. It will be key for us to work with the new players, introduce different concepts that we need to improve on the team – and of course I hope that in the second half of the season, with all the squad fit and all together, we will be more competitive.
“We are going to have the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League and we need to be competitive and strong.”
The week-long gap between the matches against Southampton and Swansea has arisen because Tottenham’s home game against West Ham, which was scheduled for New Year’s Eve, has now been moved to January 4.
“In the end you need to play it,” said Pochettino. “But it’s good for us to have these two periods to work in.”
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