Tottenham Hotspur will open the doors to their new stadium tomorrow night for the first ever senior competitive match.
This puts manager Pochettino in a unique position, as he has the unusual chance to draw on lessons from his under 18s side in order to improve his senior squad.
The under 18s were the first to take to the new pitch just over a week ago, as they played against Southampton U18s and won 3-1.
The youth side dominated the first half from the get go and ran the Saints off the pitch, energised by the atmosphere of the occasion.
However, it was noticeable that coming into the second 45, the Spurs boys looked tired, as if they had used up all their energy in the first half to impress the fans.
Pochettino has stated that Crystal Palace will be a tough opponent, and that he is focused on achieving the first three points at the stadium and avoiding the under 18s mistake.
He said (Football London): “When you watch Crystal Palace they have very good players and confident when they play against big sides. We can watch games when they struggle when they need to be protagonists, but when they play counter attack and when they are narrow and deeper they have capacity to go forward with very good players up front, Andros, Zaha and Batshuayi. It is going to be a very, very tough game. You cannot stop the atmosphere that feeling that everyone who comes here tomorrow is ready for a party. At the same time it’s so dangerous. We need to deal with this excitement and energy. We need to spend that energy in the 90 minutes.
“I saw our U18s who they were so excited to play, expended so much energy first half and the second half a bit tired. It’s impossible to not think you’re coming here for a party because it’s an open day, but we need to be focused, to create that atmosphere. The most important thing for the history of the club is to open the stadium but the three points are in the same level, important too. For us we must be focused on three points and Crystal Palace because it’s going to be tough game.”
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
