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Pochettino out to prove Tottenham can win trophies with young squad

Tottenham head coach Mauricio Pochettino is out to disprove the theory that titles cannot be won with kids.

The Spurs boss has combined youth and experience to create a squad that stand five points off the top of the Premier League with 15 games to play and reached the fifth round of the FA Cup following Saturday's 4-1 win at Colchester.

"It is a topic in football. We need to try to demonstrate that it is not true,'' said Pochettino, whose side are also in the Europa League knockout stages.

"We have signed young players but we have very experienced players [too]. I think the balance that we have is very good.

"It is true that we started to build a team from one year ago, or six months ago, and that the team have started to play how we want in the last six, seven months.

"This is a new project, a different project and there are a lot of examples with maybe a more experienced team in the Premier League.

"[But] the most important thing is to balance the younger [players] with the experience players to create the winning mentality and to have hunger to win titles.''

Pochettino pointed to experienced players like France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, Belgian pair Moussa Dembele and Jan Vertonghen and those in their early twenties, including the likes of Danny Rose, Kyle Walker and Nacer Chadli, who scored twice on Saturday.

"It is true that we have a lot of younger players but [they are] the right 'younger' as they have a very strong mentality and they are hungry,'' Pochettino added.

"Sometimes you have a lot of older experienced players who have won a lot of titles without hunger.

"It is always important, the balance. We need to have senior players who are hungry and young ones that push a lot and want to win the title.''

Tottenham are unbeaten in 10 away games ahead of Tuesday's Premier League trip to Norwich and Eric Dier believes Spurs' youth and exuberance is a major positive.

Dier told Spurs TV: "There's pressure for every game, but us being up there, fighting for everything, that's going to be added pressure.

"But I think the whole team are just really enjoying themselves at the moment.

"I don't think we play with pressure. We enjoy ourselves, we play freely. We're a young team.

"I think that shows. We express ourselves and hopefully we can keep doing that.''

Spurs' most recent losses were to Newcastle and Leicester at White Hart Lane, defeats which Dier believes inspired them to improve.

"Home and away we're very confident at the moment,'' he added.

"We've had a couple of losses -- Newcastle and Leicester at home -- but overall those losses have helped us, because every time we've reacted and gone on a good run.

"Now it's up to us to keep up with this run home and away.''

The win at Colchester was partly overshadowed by a sickening clash of heads between the home side's Alex Wynter and Tom Eastman in the second minute.

Wynter had to go to hospital after losing consciousness in the collision, but Colchester reported on Saturday night that a scan was normal.