Former Southampton and Liverpool striker Rickie Lambert has spoken of Mauricio Pochettino’s hardline brutal side and how our manager pushed Lambert and his then Southampton teammates to new limits during his (Pochettino’s) short reign at the club.
Lambert, speaking with Radio Solent,told of how Pochettino introduced very rigorous Monday morning training sessions that pushed the players to their physical limits almost immediately after he took over at St Mary’s Stadium back in January 2013.
The Argentinian transformed Southampton from relegation candidates and established them in the Premier League during his 18-month spell, culminating in an eighth place finish in his only full season before leaving to join Spurs in the summer of 2014.
Lambert recalled that it was not all plain sailing during the early days of the Pochettino regime:
“I just couldn’t cope,” said Lambert with his new coaches strenuous Monday morning drills. Lambert continued “We would come in on Monday after 90 minutes on the Saturday and do 12 horseshoe runs [of the training pitch].
Lambert added “I had the bottle to go into his room, pull him to one side very respectfully and I said, “Mauricio, listen, we understand what you’re trying to do, but you’re pushing us too much on a Monday, you just need to calm it down, we’re not used to it’.
“Mauricio was dead polite, said ‘yes, that’s fine, I understand’, we shook hands and went back to the lads, made up, thinking, just sorted it for you boys.
“Next Monday, we came in and not only did we do 12, we did 24 runs. I was running around laughing, almost crying. I knew what he was doing, he was trying to break me and he did, he broke me.”
A fascinating listen, an insight to how Poch both runs things and is not to be messed with. His methods might be tough but they get results. What do you think about Pochettino’s tough regime? Is he right to push the players to the limit like he does or would he be better off toning it down a bit. Let us know your thoughts
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