Nine days must yield positive outcome - Mauricio

Mauricio Pochettino says the players’ performances at Old Trafford will determine how useful the nine-day gap between matches has been for us.

By the time we kick-off against Manchester United on Monday night, it will be nearly a week-and-a-half since we triumphed 3-1 over Fulham at Wembley in our last outing, having won 2-1 at Newcastle in the season opener seven days previously.

With many of our players having gone head-on into the season following a busy summer of graft at the World Cup, the period between the Fulham and United games has allowed everyone to take stock and prepare for what promises to be another intense period of action.

For Mauricio, however, it will count for little if we don’t pick up positive results on the field in the next few weeks, starting against Jose Mourinho’s men.

“After the game I will answer that, whether the break has helped us or not,” he told Spurs TV. “People will measure the performance and the improvements.

“If you lose, for sure there are going to be negatives because football is always about the result. If you win, it is very positive because you have had the time to work and improve. If you only watch one result, however, that is more about perception than reality.

“In the reality, the break will be so useful because in this long, long season, we need to be ready for every game. The players can use it to build their fitness and build on different aspects of their game.”

Much has been said and written in the media about United over the summer, but Mauricio is only interested in what happens on the field on Monday evening.

“I don’t care about what they are doing, I don’t care what’s going on in the media concerning Manchester United or even a different club,” he confirmed. “I am so focused and we are so focused on what is happening here at Tottenham Hotspur.

“We have an amazing job ahead to get the players as fit as possible in the way that we need them to be but, of course, football is football. We are going to compete against Manchester United in whatever circumstances they find themselves in and what circumstances we are in.

“We need to stay away from this and we just need to be ready to compete when we kick-off on Monday night.”