Football
Dan Kilpatrick, Tottenham Correspondent 8y

Tottenham, Liverpool playing styles 'very different' - Mauricio Pochettino

LONDON -- Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino has rejected comparisons between his side and Saturday's opponents Liverpool, insisting the two teams are "very different" in style.

Pochettino and Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp have helped to popularise a high-pressing tactical approach, based on pushing up the pitch and coordinated hunts for possession, while both demand high levels of fitness, honed in intense double training sessions. But Pochettino feels his possession-focussed approach is vastly different from Klopp's speedy counter-attacking game.

On Thursday, Pochettino told a news conference: "They like to play on the counter-attack. They are fast, quick, they have good organisation. They are different to us, we like to manage ball, play in possession, play in opposition half -- we are a different team with a different philosophy."

Speaking later at a separate briefing, the manager continued: "As I explained before, they are a team that likes to play on the counter-attack.

"They're very comfortable playing deeper and running fast. You could see in their [friendly] game against Barcelona at Wembley -- 4-0 to them -- that they wait and when they recover the ball, players like [Adam] Lallana, [Divock] Origi, [Phillipe] Coutinho, [Georginio] Wijnaldum, [Sadio] Mane are very fast.

"They like to play in this style. I think we are very different but I don't know. Maybe in the end we are the same!"

Klopp drew 0-0 at White Hart Lane in October 2015, his first match in English football, before Spurs recovered from a goal down to draw 1-1 at Anfield in April.

"Liverpool have signed a lot of players and I'm sure it will be a different team to last season," Pochettino added. "We will analyse and try to find the information to beat them."

While Tottenham return to the Champions League for the first time since 2010-11, Liverpool face a campaign without European football, leaving Klopp with a free week to prepare for the majority of Premier League matches.

The last time the Reds were not in Europe, they finished second under Brendan Rodgers in 2013-14, while Leicester won the title last season after playing just 42 matches in total.

Pochettino, however, is unsure if it will be a positive for Klopp's side, saying: "I think sometimes the competition helps you, sometimes it doesn't help you. They can be very focused more on the Premier League, but you never know and we'll see what will happen."

The Spurs boss has previously said that the season should have started later to give the players more time to recover from this summer's international tournaments, and that next week's international break has come too soon after the start of the season.

He reiterated that Spurs are behind in their "development" and says he hopes the situation will improve after Liverpool's visit.

"We have a lot of players involved in the Euros and we are in the process of trying to build their fitness and how we can adapt their situation to the team. We are not in a period to work on small details," Pochettino said.

"We are very focused to try to give the team more quality in fitness and consistency. It's impossible after the Euros with a very short break to recover to start again. To start the Premier League after two weeks' training, to start international competition, it's very tough for the players.

"We want to create the possibility for our players to be fit for the whole season. We are a little bit late in our development for this new season. After the international break we can start to work on small details and develop different possibilities to play linked with our work on the pitch."

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