A defender, but he dramatically improves strikers

Mauricio Pochettino was a defender as a player, a centre-back at Newell's Old Boys, Espanyol, PSG, Bordeau and represented his country 20 times.



It is somewhat surprising therefore that he seems to have a dramatic effect on strikers rather than defenders. Danny Rose has improved significantly to the point where you wouldn't consider playing Ben Davies ahead of him, but apart from him, none of the others thus far, have improved significantly. His purchase of Fazio, at the moment, seems to have provided us with a taller Michael Dawson.

If you compare the Premier League statistics of the two then there is little difference in performance. Dawson is too slow was the main reason, is Fazio any quicker? Kyle Walker was injured most of the season, Eric Dier filled in well at right-back, but we need him learning the centre-back role, Vlad Chiriches had to be kept away from the centre of defence leaving Jan Vertonghen as a near ever present.

With a season under his belt to work with the players and with his signings last summer, hopefully, the defence will be a little tighter this coming season. He is once again trying to strengthen the defensive midfield area where Benjamin Stambouli will be expected to step up on his first season performances.

In attack, he made a huge difference at Southampton and took a relegation struggling side to eighth in the table. Ricky Lambert was scoring goals and was capped by England he even went to the World Cup. It was Pochettino he praised to the media as the coach who taught him to play the lone striker role.

"Everything went my way at Southampton and each manager that came in improved me massively and especially Mauricio. He taught me how to be a different kind of player and I think that’s helping now. 
“I never really got taught to be a striker in the first place and then I never got taught how to be a lone striker. He taught me how to be the lone striker and the thing that I was doing wrong most was the fact I thought I had to show for everyone on the pitch. 
“Whoever had the ball, I felt I had to run over and show for the ball, get on the ball. He was saying ‘take your time’ and ‘wait until the right people have got on to the ball’ like Adam Lallana and others further up the pitch. After that, I had an understanding of how to play that position a lot better.”

Nacer Chadli made giant strides forward and gave us a goal threat from the left-hand side while Harry Kane, speaking to Goal, praises the work the Argentinian is doing with him and we have seen a dramatic season from Kane that surprised everyone. John Terry claimed recently that Kane was the best striker he faced last season by a mile and he had all the UEFA Champions League strikers as well as the Premier League strikers to deal with.

“The manager has been great. He’s worked a lot on me physically and individually. He’s done a lot of extra sessions to help me with my movement and my finishing and things like that. We will continue to do that so I can hopefully get better.”

As a defender Pochettino sure knows a lot about attacking and that hopefully we help Harry Kane have an equally successful season next season.

Further Reading
The Lloris and Kane rubbish
Has fatigue been Paulinho's problem?
Galatasaray look to Llorente instead of Soldado
State aid to Madrid, Barcelona issue sorted soon