The Burnley Burn

With 9 days rest it was tactics and not fatigue that had Tottenham stumped today.  It started with Mauricio Pochettino calling the Burnley game " A Cup Final".  There is no better way to add tension to a team then telling them to imagine the game as a Cup Final.  The expectation of players winning "12" Cup Final's in a row is a bit much, considering this squad has not managed to win a single trophy, or at least Mauricio Pochettino as a manager must have an empty trophy cupboard stored in an attic somewhere, waiting for a moment that will deliver him some kid.

Burnely simply jammed up the middle of the ground and so did not give Spurs the space they do have the ability to exploit. After a fantastic first leg victory to take a 3-0 lead back to Borussia Dortmund in Germany.  To be fair, Burnley do make it tough for even the biggest sides in the league to get anything from their Turf Moor ground and the Burnley manager has done a great job to keep such a small side such as Burnley continue to kick and grow as a team in the Premier League.

The loss against Burnley know leaves an interesting dilemma.   Do Spurs fans support Manchester United to beat Liverpool or do they support Liverpool to beat Manchester United.  If Mauricio Pochettino has given up the ghost on the title with this loss, then a Liverpool win would be better for Spurs.  It better to be 8pts behind Liverpool and 9pts ahead of Manchester United, than 5pts behind Liverpool and then only 6pts ahead of Manchester United.  If Spurs can make up 5pts on Liverpool, Manchester United equally should be able to make up 6pts on Spurs.  That then would leave the coveted fourth place position contested by Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea, and here things get extra wonky because if Arsenal or Chelsea win the Europa League, 4th place strips Tottenham off a Champions League berth. 

The only thing more damaging than this result would be for Dortmund to score 5 unanswered goals in the return game in the Champions League.  Spurs can afford to lose 4-1 and still go through on the Away Goals rule, so it is tough to see them not be positioned in the quarter final draw.  So should Spurs start to wobble and miss out on a Champions League spot, they would have to win the Champions League to retain interest next year in that competition.  Millions of dollars are at stake.  Missing out of the Champions League is like buying a $100 million superstar and watch him lose all interest in being a professional footballer.   Spurs unlike some of the other big boys are not sponsored by a country, so what they are achieving is above and beyond what they have invested in adding strength to the squad.

What was strange about today's game was Mauricio Pochettino's angry exchange at the referee about awarding a corner that led to the Burnley goal.  It was an uncharacteristic melt down and does not bode well if he chose Manchester United as his next gig because the United job is a pressure pot, a cauldron of expectations that have hampered some of the best managers seen in the Premier League. 

A win against Liverpool would underscore that revvival of the "Manchester United Way".  At Tottenham, the "Totteham Way" has mostly amounted to playing highly attractive football, though that attractive football costs them in the league.  The antithesis of that philosophy for attractive football  is the winning mentality of Jose Mourinho.  He could have melted his ego at Manchester United and adapted his management style to consider what fans of United want.  United have had their share of defeats against so called "minnows" over the last few years, but that was down to managers bringing their own style to Old Trafford, rather than relying on the "Manchester United Way", that has won them so many titles. 

The other way to look at the Burnley defeat is that very few teams win 14 or 15 games in a row. So now for Tottenham to land the title, they need to absolutely perfect over the next 11 games.  Eleven wins and the title is back in their hands again and that mentality is not about trying to play like its a cup final, it is like a team that has the absolute confidence that it WILL win 11 games in a row.  What have Spurs got to lose when 3rd spot is where every pundit has positioned them, unless the manager and players of Tottenham breath in the pressure of trying to "win every game".  Manchester City has an extraordinary string of victories in order pip Manchester United for the title on the last day, and there have been great escapes from relegation such as former Premier League Champions Leicester City.   Leicester started a winning run to confound the odds of them being relegated and then continued that great form in their Premier League champions year.