Former Tottenham Hotspur man and BT Sport pundit Jermaine Jenas has suggested that Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino should have rested some key players this season.
In the space of three days Pochettino’s team have exited two cup competitions, as defeat to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup on Thursday was followed up by a dismal FA Cup exit at Crystal Palace on Sunday.
Jenas has had his say: “From Mauricio’s point of view, he must be sat there thinking ‘I’m doing every thing I possibly can here,” he told BT Sport. “Then he loses his star striker, and it’s been a downward slide from that moment really.
“Unfortunately it’s come at a time – the weeks that define a season. They’re going out of competitions now. There might even be a part of him that’s thinking ‘maybe I should have rested a few’. They are suffering at the minute.”
'They are suffering at the moment..'
Jermaine Jenas backs Mauricio Pochettino to rebuild the morale of his Spurs side after crashing out of both cups in a week. pic.twitter.com/7w2msBmiGg
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 27, 2019
OPINION
Jenas is correct that Tottenham are suffering at the moment. Their season is kind of crumbling away before their eyes at this moment in time. They’re out of two cups nows, with their best player injured, and they’re heading into a Champions League clash with one of the most in-form teams in Europe. It’s difficult to see where the club are going to find success this season. Perhaps Jenas is saying that Pochettino may have inadvertently caused these key injuries to players like Harry Kane and Dele Alli because he’s played them so much this campaign. Pochettino’s teams always play an extremely intense style of football as it is, and that must be gruelling week in week out for the players. It’s been several years now of Tottenham playing in that style and perhaps it’s catching up to them now at a very inopportune time. As Jenas says, maybe if Pochettino had rested Kane a bit earlier in the season he wouldn’t have picked up this latest injury.