'Tottenham are more tactical under Mourinho than Pochettino' - Spurs now 'have a plan for each game', says Davies

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The defender has outlined the key differences between the two managers in the wake of an encouraging north London derby victory

Tottenham are "more tactical" under Jose Mourinho than they were when Mauricio Pochettino was in charge, according to Ben Davies.

Pochettino's five-year reign at Spurs came to an end back in November, following a disastrous start to the 2019-20 campaign.

Club chairman Daniel Levy decided that a change was needed after seeing the team drop into the bottom half of the table, and Mourinho was swiftly drafted in as the Argentine's successor.

Tottenham became regulars in the top four and Champions League finalists while Pochettino was at the wheel, but he was unable to deliver any tangible success in the form of trophies.

Mourinho was seen as the ideal man to finally bring the club's long wait for silverware to a close, due to his glittering CV which includes three Premier League titles and two European Cups.

However, the Portuguese has only managed to oversee 11 wins from his first 23 Premier League games, and Spurs have also exited the FA Cup and Champions League in the first few months of his tenure.

Results have been mixed since the resumption of the season on June 17, with a 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United marking arguably the lowest point of Tottenham's entire campaign to date.

Pressure has been building on Mourinho in recent weeks, but a 2-1 north London derby victory over Arsenal on Sunday helped to silence critics and keep his team in the hunt for a top-seven finish.

Davies, who has taken in 19 appearances for the Lilywhites across all competitions this term, says the players are now better prepared for each fixture than they were when Pochettino led the squad.

The Spurs defender told Talksport: “Under Poch, we very much had our style of play and it was just the high press, high intensity…

“Now I think we’re a bit more tactical, we’re a bit more aware of what we’re coming up against.

“We have a game plan for each game.”

Davies went on to express his belief that Mourinho is the right man to take Tottenham forward in the coming years, adding: “In some games, it hasn’t been what we’ve wanted but everyone’s buying into the skill set that Mourinho has and we all know that he’s a top, top manager.

“He’s won everything there is to win so us as players have got to put our trust into him and the results will follow.

“We know it [results this season] hasn’t been what we want, it has been stop-start but we can’t use that as an excuse.

“We’ve got to be better than that away from home and we know that.

“We’ll go away in the summer and I’m sure we’ll do a lot of work in pre-season, get ready for it and next year has to be a different story.”

2020-07-14 10:00:04

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