Domestic cup success means nothing says Pochettino

Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino has challenged popular thought that his side need to win a trophy soon, with the Argentine insisting that winning one of the domestic cups would change nothing at the club.

Star man Harry Kane recently says there will always be doubts about Pochettino’s Tottenham until we win something and many in the football world have argued that he needs a smaller piece of silverware, like the Carabao Cup, to have something to show for the club’s progress and prepare the players for bigger prizes.

However Pochettino, who also recently said Spurs are too big a club to focus on winning the domestic cups,and winning the Carabao Cup or FA Cup this season will not change anything,even if he would like to do so.

Poch is likely to rotate his squad for tonight’s Carabao Cup fourth-round match against West Ham, and he said: “Our objective is to win the Premier League and our objective is to try to win the Champions League — for me, the two real trophies. And then the FA Cup, of course, I would like to win it, and I would like to win the Carabao Cup.

“But if you want to be a big team, if you want to fight for big things, I think it’s impossible if you don’t use all the squad and rotate in England. It’s impossible.

“You [the media] can criticise me, and people can criticise our performance, but the manager always wants to win. And of course, to win the Carabao Cup will not change the life of Tottenham.

“To win the FA Cup is fantastic — I would love to win the oldest competition in the world — but it really changes your life if you win the Premier League or Champions League. That is the truth. And after, if someone wants to manipulate my words, OK, go on, but that is the truth.”

Fringe player Juan Foyth, the 19-year-old centre-back signed from Estudiantes in the summer, is likely to start. The young Argentinian’s only appearance for the first team was in the third-round against Barnsley.

Harry Winks’ first start of the season also came against Barnsley but a week ago he held his own against Real Madrid and could get a rest , however Pochettino urged Foyth to prove that he too is ready to challenge for his place in the first team.

“Juan is the same height as Toby [Alderweireld], Jan [Vertonghen] and Davinson [Sanchez],” Pochettino said. “I played when I was 17 or 18 against a massive striker and I’m smaller than Juan. Come on! You need to show! He’s at Tottenham, he’s a Tottenham player. He needs to fight and prove himself that he can compete in this type of game.”

Pochettino, added that he preferred to play against big strikers because small ones were “difficult to catch,” He continued: “A month-and-a-half ago, no one would have believed me if I told you that we’re going to play at the Santiago Bernabeu with [Moussa] Sissoko, Harry Winks and Christian Eriksen in midfield.

You’d say, ‘The gaffer will be crazy!’ Because we are going to play against [Toni] Kroos, [Luka] Modric, Casemiro, Isco.
“Foyth is young but he needs to show why he is here. You will only know if he is ready to play if he plays. Maybe in the future, some players are suspended or maybe we have some injuries, and we’ll play with him, and maybe he will be decisive.

So are we with Poch on this? That the likes of the League Cup and FA Cup are more of a hindrance than anything else, he’d like to win them  but that they don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Do you agree or are you in the camp of winning trophies breeds success. Let us have your thoughts.

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