“Liked” Moura adapting well at Spurs

Lucas Moura is settling in well at Tottenham and is liked by his new team-mates, according to manager Mauricio Pochettino.

The Brazilian winger joined us in a £25million deal from Paris Saint-Germain in January and he impressed on his full debut at Rochdale in the FA Cup, in which he scored the first Spurs goal in a 2-2 draw.

And this week Mauricio did not rule out the 25-year-old Brazil international making his first Premier League start in the visit to Crystal Palace on Sunday

Pochettino said: “We need to assess him because he played 70 minutes after a long spell out. Tomorrow we have another training session, we have 24 players in position to be selected. We need to assess everyone.

He added: “I was happy with his performance (against Rochdale), and his attitude and capacity to adapt to group and team. It is not easy for a player who doesn’t play for seven months and comes to a new team and everything is new.

“I am so happy, the player is so happy, and his team-mates are so happy with him. He is so humble and works hard every day to improve. And then he is a quality player and we hope he can show his real quality with us.”

We travel to Selhurst Park to begin a busy period of four games within 10 days, following an intense spell of fixtures that included wins over Manchester United and Arsenal and draws away to Liverpool and Juventus in the Champions League.

Pochettino added: “I think the team is ready, and the advantage is all the players are fit to play. I think we are happy to cope with the busy fixtures and there is nothing to complain about that.For me it will be a big battle. (Palace boss) Roy Hodgson and his staff are doing a fantastic job. We need to match them in the areas of motivation, be ready to fight, and then try to deliver our way and our game.

“But of course it will be very tough. We need to win three points to be fighting for the top-four. The idea is to fight, be ready and win. The three points are massive for us.”

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