Frank Lampard has revealed he is a huge admirer of Mauricio Pochettino and rates him one of the three best managers in the Premier League.
The Derby County manager hailed the Tottenham boss and claims he is “fascinated” by the tactical mastery of the Argentine and grouped him with the Liverpool and Manchester City bosses as the best in the land.
“The managers in the Premier League that I’m fascinated by are Pep Guardiola, Jürgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino,” Lampard told the Times. “That’s not to speak lightly of any of the others but I love their passion and work ethic. I watched Man City for a couple of days last season and Pep was so passionate, so open and if I could read anything on the three of them then I would.
“I read Pochettino’s book with Guillem [Balagué]. I read the Klopp book, Bring The Noise [by Raphael Honigstein] and that was interesting as well. All three of those managers can be more confident that they can change from a diamond to a 4-3-3 and — bang — it works, whereas I’m in the process of working on that.
“All three had difficult first seasons. Pep did, we know that, Klopp did when he first came and Pochettino did in terms of having to change a lot at Spurs.”
OPINION
You can bet your life Spurs fans will be lapping up the adoration for their manager from Lampard. Lilywhites loved to hate the former Chelsea midfielder when he was hoovering up trophies in west London, and causing their own side such misery. But they respected him enormously, too, for making the most of his talent and for a work ethic that has also stood him in good stead as he makes the first steps in his management career. No Tottenham follower is in any doubt as to the qualities of Pochettino, who has had such a dramatic effect on the team’s fortunes since joining from Southampton in the summer of 2014. As Lampard points out, it was far from plain sailing in the Argentine’s debut season, but the subsequent consistency of the team’s performances is the barometer of the manager’s skill in working with a budget dwarfed by those of rival clubs, particularly the Manchester giants and Chelsea.