Since the manager’s arrival players such as Dele Alli and Harry Winks, who looked shot, suddenly look like footballers again
At which point, before anybody gets too excited, it probably is worth remembering where Spurs were at Christmas last year. Then, too, Tottenham had just reached the League Cup semi-finals and although they were sixth in the league, a place better off than this season, they were only six points behind the leaders, Liverpool, and two points off second, rather than 18 points behind the leaders, Manchester City, and 15 off second as they are now .
Taking over mid-season should make it difficult for a coach who specialises in pressing. Really, he needs a full pre-season to get the players fit enough and to instil those patterns. At Tottenham, there had been a sense, under Mourinho and then Nuno Espírito Santo, that fitness levels had dropped from where they were under Pochettino: his pressing demanded it; their more reactive approach did not.
Whether that improvement is sustainable is another issue. Jürgen Klopp took over at Liverpool in October 2015 and, after an initial uplift, results were patchier towards the end of that season as injuries and fatigue took their toll. But that the possibility of tiredness is even an issue is a marked improvement; it’s only a month ago that this was a squad that looked in need of wholesale replacement.
Suddenly it’s not just about Son Heung-min and Harry Kane. The monster, this ungainly hybrid squad cobbled together from previous visions of the club, has awoken again.
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