Team Focus: Spurs Not Playing Pochettino Way in Season Opener

After Mauricio Pochettino had celebrated his first three points as Tottenham Hotspur manager, there was one word he mentioned more than any other in his post-match press conference: “philosophy”.

“This is our philosophy,” the Argentinean beamed. “To believe, always, 90-95 minutes in winning the game. This is our philosophy.”

Pochettino was of course referring to the admirable resilience Spurs displayed in beating West Ham United with a stoppage-time goal, despite having first gone down to 10 men so early on. It was also widely stated that the response marked such a conspicuous difference for the White Hart Lane side, especially given the amount of times they collapsed last season. You only had to look at the corresponding fixture.

Spurs went down to 10 and then lost 2-0.

If Pochettino can begin to change that supposedly typical Tottenham mentality, he will already have made a mark.

Yet, in the long term, that “mentality” should really just be a consequence of doing everything else right in the team’s general play. In that regard, Pochettino’s own deeper “philosophy” couldn’t be clearer. The pillars are now well known: possession and pressing, with opposition sides pushed well back.

In the short term, however there wasn’t too much evidence of any of that against West Ham. Tottenham didn’t really show any of Pochettino’s most pronounced qualities, other than an admirable refusal to go defensive when Kyle Naughton was sent off after 28 minutes. Even before that, though, it wasn’t Spurs doing the pressing. It was the opposition, and that of a West Ham side renowned for a more reductive approach.

That is not to portray any of this is as a negative for Spurs. It would obviously be foolish to read too much into a new manager’s first two months, let alone his first game. That’s especially the case with Pochettino’s team, given that he hasn’t yet enjoyed the benefit of many reinforcements and his defence in particular looks a little short on quality.

The real question here regards how quickly the Argentine can have that influence, and how long it is until we see Pochettino’s real Spurs team. For that, it’s some way revealing to compare the stats of his opening games for both Tottenham and Southampton, and also put them against the general trends of his time at St Mary’s.

Any fair observer would say the 2013/14 season saw Pochettino’s Southampton team at close to optimum - as evidenced by the fact they recorded their highest ever Premier League points haul. By that point, he had the end of 2012/13 to adapt, and a close season to condition the side to his norms.

Below are the averages from last season. Alongside them are the corresponding stats for his first game at Southampton - a 0-0 stalemate with Everton - and then the figures for his opening fixture with Spurs, at the weekend.

The core qualities can be seen. In 2013/14, Southampton had the highest rate of possession in the Premier League at 58.6%, while playing the second highest number of long balls at 70, and all while keeping the ball away from their third - 26% of play there - fewer than all but five other teams.

Pochettino evidently got to his team.

They tended to play a huge number of passes - 552 per game - to work themselves towards the opposition box, with arched balls over the top accentuating the extent of their pressing.

What is striking here is that, on looking at the stats, his first game with Southampton seemed closer to the Pochettino ideal than Saturday’s game against West Ham United - and that despite facing a side with European aspirations with a notionally inferior team, rather than a lower mid-table side with a potential top-four outfit.

It cannot be discounted that Spurs had a numerical disadvantage for all of 35 minutes, until James Collins was also sent off, but Pochettino himself rhapsodised about how it didn’t cause them to change approach. Similarly, the trends of the game were set before Naughton was red-carded.

Spurs only had 53% of the ball against West Ham - who themselves had the second lowest possession in 2013/14 at 42.6% - which was equal to that in his first match at St. Mary's. They also had Everton on the backfoot, mustering 16 shots to the Toffees' 9. At Upton Park, unusually for a Pochettino team, Spurs conceded considerably more shots (18) than they had at goal themselves (10).

The reasons for this are probably nothing more than the fact a nascent Southampton side at that level were more malleable, and thereby easier to reshape.

With Spurs, there is more restructuring to be done, as well as a side recovering from so many of the ructions from the last few years. They could also do with two or three more players who suit the Pochettino philosophy.

The opening game didn’t see so much of it. That just means there’s so much more to come.

How long will it take for Pochettino's philosophy to rub off on Tottenham? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below