3 things Mauricio Pochettino has to change at Tottenham Hotspur

#1 Mental toughness and the need for a leader

Tot — Spurs need to show more character under pressure

When Manchester United fell behind to Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, nobody really expected them to come out all guns blazing and prove a point to the rest of England. They did so thanks to the big personalities they have in the team.

Players like Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, and Chris Smalling have come to the fore and chipped in with goals and impressive performances to rally them on to season-defining wins.

It is this exact thing that Tottenham lack. They seem to lack a leader who can scream and harry them forward in the face of adversity. Tottenham had almost sealed the tie against Juventus before a lack of cohesiveness ensured they slipped up to gift the tie to Massimiliano Allegri's men.

Even in the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United, Spurs had taken the lead and from there on, they slipped into their ill-fitting robes of complacency and let the Red Devils take the game away from them.

Mousa Dembele had an absolute shocker and Spurs just seemed to lack the mental toughness that's needed on days like those that can propel them to becoming a title-winning side.

Be it Harry Kane or Christian Eriksen or Dembele, somebody needs to take charge on the field. Otherwise, they are staring at a long, winding and unrewarding road that stretches on for, maybe, all of eternity.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Anirudh Menon