Mauricio Pochettino Faces Balancing Act with Tottenham Hotspur’s New Resources

Take a look at the backs of Premier League matchday programmes over the years. It is not an exact science, but you will likely find the squad lists for the teams involved are rather larger than 20 years ago, and at least a little bigger since the last decade.

Tottenham Hotspur’s is more sizable than most. Since laws limiting the main size of the group to 25 were introduced in 2010 (eight of whom must be homegrown), they have embraced the allowance of no limits on under-21 players.

Yet, even as he has made the club’s youngsters an increasing part of his own set up, manager Mauricio Pochettino has also bucked a trend of recent years. Last season was the first time in the current decade that Tottenham did not use 30 or more players.

Looking back at the numbers (see above), it is maybe a little surprising Tottenham did not dip below that mark before 2015-16. That is testament to just how loose a structure that 25-man squad limit is.

It does not extend to cup competitions. UEFA has their own squad regulations for the Europa League and Champions League, too.

The make-up of a club’s playing staff also naturally influences things.

Last week’s confirmation of their registered league players for the year showed Spurs are again utilising an overlap with the under-21 section.

In recent campaigns, players such as Harry Kane and Andros Townsend were categorised there despite being first-team men. England international midfielder Dele Alli and regularly involved back-up players Josh Onomah and Harry Winks are included here this time around.

That Pochettino made more of less last season is a credit to good planning and a clarity of vision that was at times lacking from the Argentinian’s predecessors.

Spurs’ third-place finish was achieved by a group streamlined and shaped for their manager’s preferred style.

Depending on how far they had progressed in other competitions, and who they faced, the number of 26 players the boss used might have gone in a different direction. It is unlikely it would have been more than one or two either way, though.

The 31 names Pochettino called upon in his first season was very much a result of him needing to get to know what was at his disposal.

It was a process that was necessarily complicated by his own initial assessment, leading to signings such as Ben Davies, Eric Dier and Federico Fazio. Over the course of the campaign, others were handed chances, analysed and then either deemed valuable or surplus to requirements for the longer-term.

You had someone like Younes Kaboul, initially named captain and a regular starter at centre-back before a trial-and-mostly-error process saw him moved down the pecking order. The Frenchman at least had a chance—Pochettino knew straight away some like Michael Dawson and Gylfi Sigurdsson were not part of his plans.

Elsewhere, Aaron Lennon worked his way back into contention briefly before the manager headed in another direction in his attacking-midfield position. Others such as Vlad Chiriches and Paulinho were frequently called upon for more of the year out of necessity of keeping first-choice guys fresh. While doing some good work, it became apparent soon enough their future did not coalesce with Spurs’.

A football squad is an ever-mutating entity (the process is too flawed and subject to regression to be categorised so positively as “evolving”). Even having put together a group more suitable to his philosophy, Pochettino was still adjusting and learning via form and fortune.

Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason began 2015-16 with midfield places their’s to …

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