The Tottenham dressing room has been left “furious” with manager Mauricio Pochettino following the midweek loss to Colchester United in the Carabao Cup, according to The Sun.
Spurs crashed out to the League Two side on penalties, leading to the Argentine suggesting that some of his players were operating under “different agendas”.
But a club source has claimed that his allegations have left players angry.
As quoted by The Sun, they said: “They feel Poch is the one with an agenda.
“They are not impressed with him at all and what he said has not helped at all.”
Were Pochettino’s allegations fair?
First and foremost, nobody knows the inner workings of a dressing room better than a manager, and you would like to think that Pochettino is level-headed enough to not make baseless claims against his own players.
That being said, it feels as if there has been something of a sea change in the way that certain members of his squad are being treated this term.
Take, for example, Christian Eriksen.
The Dane has been a key player for the Argentine throughout his tenure, in terms of number of appearances, and the quality of his output.
At no point has Eriksen dropped beneath 2.1 key passes per game in the Premier League prior to this season, as per Whoscored.
As a point of reference, Kevin De Bruyne only managed 1.9 key passes per game for Manchester City last season, as per Whoscored, while Mo Salah has never exceed 1.8 per game in a full season for Liverpool [Whoscored].
And yet, Eriksen has only started three out of Tottenham’s opening six Premier League matches.
What is more, Eriksen hasn’t dipped notably in form.
So far this season, the Dane has averaged a dribble success rate of 60%, with 1.8 progressive runs, as per Wyscout. Both of those figures are marked improvements on last term, when he managed 44.2% and 1.31 in those areas respectively.
Similarly, his pass accuracy has risen from 81.2% to 82.6%, and he is making a greater proportion of accurate passes forward [Wyscout].
On paper, therefore, it makes very little sense not to be playing him.
In fact, the only logical reason as to why he has been used to sparingly thus far is that he was rumoured to be on his way out over the summer. Moreover, according to the Daily Mail, the fact that he stayed in north London actually annoyed Pochettino, who doesn’t want to lose him for nothing next summer.
As such, refusing to play your best players on principle, even when your side have started the season at a much slower pace than you would expect, sounds an awful lot like having an agenda, and as upsetting as it may be to admit, Pochettino is probably in the wrong here.