Pochettino dishing out player assessments

The more we hear about Mauricio Pochettino and his methods the more you begin to understand how players improve under his guidance.

Pochettino dishing out player assessments


Ryan Fredericks went off on loan to work on his defensive positional play while Jan Vertonghen has videos of his performances that he goes through with areas highlighted to work on.

Now Nabil Bentaleb has revealed he has been given areas of his game to work on. Perhaps that will keep those quiet who think a 19-year-old is a finished article and don't actually take account of improvement and development when assessing a player. If a manager did that there would never be any new players.

Now none of this is new, none of this is startling but equally we rarely hear about the individual one-on-one stuff between player and manager, it's usually hidden in meaningless PR speak. It's always good to hear exactly how an individual operates, it's another piece to add to the jigsaw.

Nabil Bentaleb has revealed the areas Pochettino has highlighted that he needs to work on and none come as a surprise. At 19 the Algerian World Cup player hasn't grown into his body yet so the physicality of a Dembele isn't going to be there.

“The manager speaks to you all the time, he tells you what you do that’s wrong and right. He takes you into his office and shows you what mistakes you made at the weekend and gives you something to work on, with your weaker points. 
"I have to improve my passing, improve physically and get more mature on the pitch."

Bentaleb was discarded by his club in France and no other club would take him on, Tim Sherwood though saw something in him and the little lad deemed too small has rewarded that faith.

This season he will be seen mainly in the Europa League you would have thought and the cup games once Benjamin Stambouli finds his feet. He put in a promising performance against Partizan Belgrade but when it came to domestic opposition he didn't fare s well and was substituted against Nottingham Forest in the League Cup.

The pair have already formed a friendship, both having come from France as Bentaleb points out.

“Benjamin is a great man. As soon as he came we spoke together because we’re both French. We got on well together and now we’re playing together in the centre. 
“I always come to training to improve and give everything when I step onto the training pitch. It’s still the same mentality as when I was in the academy."

Thursday sees the next game in the UEFA Europa League group stages against Besiktas which won't be easy given our second XI are out of form and the Turkish side have Champions League experience to their name. It will be important for Bentaleb, Stambouli, Davies, Fazio and co to face some decent opposition that will test them.