Tottenham's Mauricio Pochettino faces toughest test in duel of wits with Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri

Tom Collomosse13 February 2018

Mauricio Pochettino has found a way to defeat all the top managers in England but repeating the trick against his adversary on Tuesday might be his most difficult task yet.

Massimiliano Allegri, the Juventus coach, could have been in the Premier League by now. There was strong interest from Chelsea in the second half of the 2015-16 season, following the sacking of Jose Mourinho, but Antonio Conte was brought to Stamford Bridge instead.

Given Conte’s running battle with his employers this season, Roman Abramovich might wonder whether he should have moved for the calmer, more methodical Allegri when he had the chance.

Pochettino becomes prickly when asked to consider comparisons between Tottenham and other clubs, or between himself and other coaches.

Yet the work of Allegri should inspire him. Even if his team could beat Juventus over two legs and advance to the Champions League quarter-finals, there is much Pochettino can learn from the Italian.

Among Allegri’s many strengths, his adaptability is probably the most significant. At AC Milan, where Allegri won the title in his first season, he preferred a four-man defence yet when he succeeded Conte at Juventus in 2014, he inherited a squad who had swept all before them in Italy by playing 3-5-2.

Allegri was clever enough to stick to what had worked, moving gradually towards 4-3-1-2 only as the season progressed. By maintaining Conte’s good work and adding his own ingredients subtly, Allegri ensured Juventus retained the Serie A title and also reached the Champions League Final – something Conte has never come close to achieving.

The added benefit for Allegri was that he developed more malleable players who were capable of adjusting during matches. “I don’t think of myself as a manager,” Allegri told The Players’ Tribune website in a recent interview. “I think of myself as a youth coach.

In Pictures | Juventus train ahead of Tottenham tie | 12/02/2018

1/26

“I do this job because I love teaching. It is truly the joy of my life. I like making players better and smarter. When I first arrived at Juventus, I didn’t change much as the club had a lot of success under Mr Conte.

“But slowly, as new players arrived, I moved things around, building the team as I saw it – areas where players could work together, how we could be stronger in attack, how we could be tactically flexible.”

Though Pochettino has shown more versatility this season and last than in his first two campaigns at Spurs, it would be intriguing to see how well he coped with losing a key player – Christian Eriksen, say, or even, one day, Harry Kane – to another elite club. Pochettino has been able to hang on to all the players he has wanted to at Tottenham; at Juventus and Milan, Allegri has not.

Allegri says it is the 'the joy of my life' to teach players to be better and smarter
REUTERS

At Milan, Zlatan Ibrahmovic and Thiago Silva – the team’s brightest stars – were sold to Paris St Germain in summer 2012. Allegri picked up the pieces to ensure Milan qualified for the Champions League by finishing third in Serie A that campaign. Even though he was sacked the following season, Milan’s decline has continued, suggesting they should have shown more patience with him.

On his watch, Juve lost Carlos Tevez, Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba, as well as Leonardo Bonucci last summer although in the latter case, Allegri was prepared to let the Italy defender leave as their relationship had deteriorated.

Claudio Marchisio is diminished by injuries yet even without these pillars of his early sides, Allegri has had success with the replacements and won the title in every season, as well as making another Champions League Final last season.

Nobody could describe Allegri as a poor relation. He is, after all, coach of the richest club in Italy, whose wealth is far greater than any of their domestic rivals’. Whatever the circumstances, though, he finds a way to make it work.

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Arsenal north London derby | 10/02/2018

1/64

Pochettino has done much the same at Spurs, who challenged for the Premier League title in each of the last two campaigns and have done far better in their second season of Champions League football than their first.

The difference – at this stage – is that Allegri knows how to handle matches like these and to get over the line. It was noticeable in Monday’s press conferences that Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini was already talking about the Final in Kiev, even though his team must negotiate six more matches to get there. As part of a defence that has conceded only one goal in 16 games, his confidence was understandable.

“I know we can heal the scars of last season’s final in Cardiff (when Madrid beat Juve 4-1),” said Allegri. “I know we can have a great Champions League campaign.”

These players and this coach are used to this environment while Tottenham, for all their good work in the group stages against Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, remain novices. They are learning quickly, though, and if Pochettino can outwit Allegri here and at Wembley in three weeks, it would be his finest hour.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in