Guillem Balague shared after Tottenham drew with Barcelona on Tuesday that it was mystifying how Spurs were still improving despite signing no one in the summer.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side earned a 1-1 draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp in order to continue their journey in the Champions League and Balague suggested that the Spurs manager had changed tact to keep his squad improving.
The Spanish journalist questioned how Spurs were able to keep making progress as a club as it went against the history of football in someways but alluded that the continued improvement was down to Pochettino.
“Pochettino said yesterday in the press conference that it’s something to study that Spurs didn’t bring any players and didn’t get rid of any either,” said Balague on BBC Football Daily’s podcast, which can be heard at 13:22.
“And they are improving, at least they equal what they did in the Champions League last season for those that only look at stats, and they’re getting record points in the Champions League, so they are improving.
“And it’s based of course on the history of football in a way, as how the hell can that happen? But also on the fact what he is doing is a process, he’s continuing his work, he realised no new players were coming and turned to the coaching staff and asked what can we do with this.
“And basically, lets offer something new to the players, lets challenge them in different ways for those who haven’t reached the level, like Sissoko quite clearly, let’s make sure we don’t get the injuries.”
OPINION
Balague clearly is impressed by Tottenham being able to move forward as a club despite no new faces arriving in the summer. It’s clear Pochettino has done well to keep his side charging ahead as when no signings were made, fans were no doubt feeling pessimistic. Yet with a lot of Spurs players at an age where they should be playing the best football of their careers, it’s easy to see why a talented manager like Pochettino has been able to cope with out fresh faces to liven up his line-up. Spurs went close to going out of the Champions League but at the end day they successfully got through and battled their way to a memorable point against Barcelona on Tuesday. Hopefully Pochettino can keep the goods time going at the club but you feel that he will need some help in the January transfer market. While Spurs don’t have to go crazy, they could do with a couple of new players in order to keep them going strong in the second-half as well as allow them to be able to cope with competing in multiple competitions.