Mauricio Pochettino calls on Premier League to address ‘massive disadvantage’ English sides face in Europe

Tottenham Hotspur play Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night in their Champions League last-16 game, with just two days off after their derby against Arsenal on Saturday

Mauricio Pochettino demanded English football do more to address the “massive disadvantage” teams face in preparation time for big European ties.

Tottenham Hotspur play Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night in their Champions League last-16 game, with just two days off after their derby against Arsenal on Saturday. Dortmund had one extra rest day, having played Augsburg in the Bundesliga on Friday night.

Speaking at his press conference at Signal Iduna Park on Monday evening, Pochettino insisted this was “not fair” because of the physical benefits from one extra rest day. He pointed to the fact that before the first leg last month, Spurs only had two rest days but Dortmund had three. Spurs won the first leg 3-0, a game that Pochettino repeatedly insisted they should keep out of their heads tonight, but he called for official intervention to level the playing field.

“If you play on Saturday [and Tuesday], how do you prepare?” Pochettino said, echoing an old complaint of Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger from recent years. “The only way we can prepare is talking, not training. Dortmund, for the first leg, they had more time to prepare the game. Now it is the same. They played on Friday, we played on Saturday. To arrive in the same situation, both teams should play Saturday, or both teams play Friday. It is not the same to have 24 hours more or less to prepare the game.”

It has been a difficult year for Spurs to arrange fixtures given the long-running confusion about their stadium. They have still not moved into the new White Hart Lane, have had to play ‘home’ game at Wembley with one at Milton Keynes, and that has impacted their already-busy calendar. On the eve of their biggest game of the season, Pochettino pointed to how difficult it has been.

“We played a lot of game with a lot of disadvantages,” he said. “Remember quickly, we played Manchester City on a Monday [29 October] and we played Carabao Cup on Wednesday [31 October] against West Ham. When West Ham had played on Saturday and then had three or four days to prepare the game against us. How do you prepare in 48 hours. It is always so difficult when you are tired. You have no time to recover, you start the game so difficult, after 15, 20, 25 minutes start to feel better.”

“We need help from the FA. We need help from the Premier League. Before the first leg [Wednesday 13 Februrary], Dortmund played on Friday, we played on Sunday. Then, [for the second leg], we played on Saturday when Dortmund played on Friday. I don’t know who is to blame, FA, Premier League or Tottenham, if it is impossible we cannot change the games, or still have not delivered the new stadium. Or if it is the TV who want us to play live on the Saturday or Sunday.”

Premier League managers feel that foreign leagues are more helpful than English football. And Pochettino pointed to the example of French club Rennes, who had a Ligue 1 game against Nimes postponed by the LFP so that they would have more time to prepare for their Europa League last-16 tie against Arsenal. “Look at what happened with Rennes in the Europa League, they cancelled their weekend game to help them to play against Arsenal. I think in Europe the people are more sensitive to help their teams compete in the best way in Europe. That is my point.”

“Of course it’s not fair for the players or the team to compete. It’s a massive disadvantage to have 24 or 48 hours less. I don’t say I am complaining about something, but I would like to play always in the same situation as the opponent. The same time to prepare the game. If not, we need to find a different way to prepare the game. Tomorrow we are going to run the same or more as Dortmund. That is the problem, in future we need to change to help English clubs in Europe.”

Spurs won the first leg at Wembley 3-0 (Rex)

But ultimately Pochettino tried to remain upbeat about Spurs’ season and about Tuesday’s game. And how Spurs are on the brink of the quarter-finals despite everything that has made this season so difficult. “We have warriors and players who are heroes in the way that they fight and perform, with all the circumstances,” he said. “Only we are here because of that. Our mentality is a Champions League mentality, a World Cup winner mentality. But I think in different aspects maybe we need to improve more to fight more and win big things at the end. But the capacity to make the effort, I think, in my last five years the improvement is massive. We have more room to improve, but in this area the improvement is massive.”