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da bwin： Mauricio Pochettino motivates his Tottenham Hotspur players by “touching our minds”, according to Lucas Moura, per Goal.
What’s the word?
Pochettino has taken his Spurs side to third in the Premier League, while they are also playing in the Champions League semi-finals against Ajax. A 1-0 first leg defeat means they will have to win in Amsterdam to qualify for the final.
And Lucas has revealed that, while Pochettino was angry at half-time of the first leg encounter, he attempted to turn the tide with a team talk that did not involve the hairdryer treatment.
The Brazilian said: “You know Mauricio. He loves to touch our minds and to motivate. That’s why we changed in the second half and played much, much better.”
Spurs were, indeed, the better team in the second half but were unable to find a way through Ajax’s imposing defence, led by superb skipper Matthijs De Ligt.
A peek into Sissoko’s transformation
Moussa Sissoko was a key part of Spurs’ excellent second half and has been indispensable to Pochettino this season.
When signed in 2016, he endured a rocky start to his White Hart Lane career, playing 90 minutes in the Premier League just twice and generally turning in a number of appalling performances.
This season, however, he has been reborn, providing an invaluable outlet on the counter-attack and emerging as the club’s best midfielder player.
That simply has to be down to Pochettino and his motivational techniques, with the Argentine perhaps “touching his mind” and providing him with the tools he needed to overcome his own limitations.
After all, Sissoko’s confidence must have been left in tatters after his initial struggle in north London, one which earned him scathing criticism from fans on the terraces on social media.
Memories of a bygone reputation make his current popularity all the more staggering.
As the fans regularly sing, perhaps Pochettino really is “magic” after all.