What makes a good manager?
Winning matches? Titles? Philosophy of football?
While all these are features of a good football manager, the one absolutely crucial thing a good manager must know how to do is to make his team perform better than what they are capable of.
Mauricio Pochettino is a living example of what to do as a manager to take your team to the next level. Tottenham Hotspur have always been competitive in the English league. They, however, were never really considered one of the big boys in England. In came Pochettino in 2014 and roughly 200 matches later Tottenham have faced Real Madrid twice in Europe and come out on top.
Pochettino came in with great promise in 2014 from Southampton after guiding the Saints to an eighth-place finish, their highest position since 2002-03 while also recording their highest points tally in the Premier League era. However, for Tottenham, he was the tenth man to take over the hot seat in twelve years. The club chairman Daniel Levy has never been shy of pulling the trigger. Pochettino buckled down and got to work.
He quickly involved the players from the youth academy, including braving the induction of a young Harry Kane at the expense of the expensive Roberto Soldado, a move which gained him popularity amongst the local fans. He developed these players and his focus on youth has seen players like Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Danny Rose, Kieran Trippier and Harry Winks into fine first team players for not just Tottenham but also England. His Tottenham team comprises a majority of the England National set-up, a contribution greatly appraised by national team manager Gareth Southgate.
Pochettino has developed the young Tottenham team into pacey, aggressive, determined players with great physical stamina and a love to move the ball fast and into the goal. The team has finished in the top three in the league for two years running now and Pochettino has converted Tottenham from a decent club with good ambitions to serious title contenders.
In latest reports, it has been stated that Pochettino could be on the radar of German giants Bayern Munich. Levy should do everything in his power to stop it from happening as his Argentine manager is the one who has taken Spurs to a different level and is just the man to lead them into the next step of their evolution.
