Mauricio Pochettino labelled Mousa Dembele a “genius” on more than one occasion and the midfield powerhouse is smart enough not to let his manager’s praise get to his head.
Pochettino compared the Belgian midfielder to Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho last month, ranking Dembele among the best players he has ever worked with and Dembele has gone some way to justifying those comparisons in recent months, most notably in a dominant display against Juventus in the Champions League round of 16.
“I’m very happy about this compliment,”:Dembele said.
“It’s a bit difficult to focus too much on that, because after all you have to perform every week and you need to be focused for the next game and if I will always think about this compliment it’s not always good.But obviously it’s a big compliment.”
Dembele will face Saudi Arabia in a friendly for his country and he will be joined by Jan Vertonghen and his contract rebel team-mate Toby Alderweireld.
Dembele was unsurprisingly reluctant to discuss his team-mate’s future. He added: “I think he’s fit but for details I think it’s better he speaks with you because it’s difficult to talk about other players,Obviously he’s a very good player, a very important player. Here in the national team we have a lot of good players and at Tottenham as well we have a lot of good players, so it’s always difficult to talk about.”
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