Jose Mourinho explains why Mauricio Pochettino's job as Tottenham manager is easy
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho believes Mauricio Pochettino’s job as Spurs manager is very easy when compared to the other top-four challengers in the Premier League, The Telegraph reports. The Portuguese, though, is happy with the amount of effort Pochettino has put into the team over the years, the results of which are now there for everyone to see.
The North Londoners have been considered as genuine contenders for a top-four finish with their form this season. Mourinho thinks that Spurs’ top-four rivals are comparatively under more pressure than themselves as no-one thinks of Tottenham as ‘title-contenders’.
“The team is really good, they keep the players they want to keep and I think they bring the right players in,” said Mourinho.
“No pressure on them, like it is in the other four or five top teams to reach important positions. So they have great conditions to do the magnificent work they are doing.
“Nobody speaks about them as title contenders like they speak about (Manchester) City, (Manchester) United, this and that. They lose a couple of matches and nothing happens. They are in the Europa League, in the group phase, and no one cares about that at this stage,” he added.
Spurs have a great manager in Pochettino: Mourinho
Mourinho feels that the Argentine is the perfect manager for a club like Tottenham who want to invest their faith in the youngsters and being away from the limelight has helped both the manager and his players. The Chelsea boss even termed his counterpart as a “great manager”.
“They go smoothly step by step, build a team, new players and give conditions for the young players to develop. They have good conditions to do a very good work.
“When the club is powerful to decide they don't sell and to decide they can invest and bring in this or that, they have good conditions and no pressure to do magnificent work.
“They need a great manager, which they have. And good players, which they have and the conditions too. When I was in a team whose objectives were not to be relegated, in December we were third and it was fantastic,” said Mourinho about his managerial stint with Portuguese club Uniao de Leiria.
“You could go into every match after that knowing you can lose. You can bring in young players without problems, even if they're not ready. You play the top teams and if you win you're a hero. If not, it's something very natural. I enjoyed it.”
Chelsea visit White Hart Lane in a crunch match on Sunday with Tottenham unbeaten in the Premier League since their opening day loss to Manchester United. The North-Londoners currently lie in fifth place, just two points behind fourth-placed Arsenal.
On the other hand, the defending champions languish in the bottom half of the table in 15th รข??place, but will take heart from their recent wins over Norwich City and Maccabi Tel-Aviv. On their last visit to the White Hart Lane on New Year’s day, the Blues were thrashed by Tottenham 5-3.