5 Disciples of Marcelo Bielsa and his tactics

#2 Mauricio Pochettino

Pochettino has turned things around at Tottenham

Since entering the English scene, Pochettino has barely put a foot wrong. Initially, despite success with Espanyol, the now 44-year-old’s appointment as manager of Southampton was heavily lambasted.

Pochettino quickly left his critics with egg on their face. His focus on direct, attacking football improved the Saints’ performances ten-fold while his desire to utilise the youth available lead to rapid development within the club’s younger personnel.

All of these qualities transpired from his time around Bielsa in his time with, you guessed it, Newell’s Old Boys. Upon his move to Tottenham in 2014, the Argentinian retained his focus on bringing through young talent, a prominent ideology of Bielsa, but also employed a not dissimilar tactical manifesto to him.

Like with Bielsa, the holding midfielder is vital for Pochettino. By ensuring one middle-man keeps disciplined and anchors down a position through the middle, the centre-backs can split and merge forwards to bolster the numbers in attack. While the defenders aid the attack, the forwards do the reverse, contributing to a philosophy of Bielsa that everyone works to win the ball back as quickly as possible.

Bielsa adored the un enganche y tres punta (one playmaker and three forwards) set-up which Pochettino has also employed, with the in-form Dele Alli occupying the former and the trio of Kane, Eriksen and Lamela forming the latter.