Tottenham face Barcelona in the Champions League this week and Pochettino has urged his players to enjoy playing against Lionel Messi.
When asked about his plans to stop the Argentine superstar, the Tottenham boss explained that it is impossible to stop Messi.
He said: “I am not going to try to find a solution. I am going to say to the players, ‘Enjoy playing against Messi’. You are going to have the opportunity to play against one of the best players in the history of football and more than worrying you, that needs to excite you to play. So you can say — like you say to me — “Oh, I played against Messi” or “I played against [Diego] Maradona” or “I played against Ronaldo”. This is the type of player that you are going to remember. It’s difficult to find solutions to try to stop him, I promise you. I think it’s impossible.”
Pochettino’s honest admission will certainly worry the Tottenham faithful. There is no doubt that Messi is the best player of his generation and stopping him will be very hard. However, Spurs have a quality defence and the fans would have expected Pochettino to come up with a more encouraging plan.
The Londoners were beaten by Inter Milan in their group opener and it will be interesting to see how they perform here. Spurs have had a mixed start to their season so far and they will need to be at their best to get something here.
Having said that, Barcelona have been quite poor in their last few games and they are there for the taking. Spurs must do everything they can to trouble the Spaniards.
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