Mauricio Pochettino reveals how he beat Pep Guardiola in his first game in management

MAURICIO POCHETTINO took just two training sessions to work out how to stop Pep Guardiola’s greatest team.

Posted Saturday, October 01, 2016 by Express.co.uk

Which is why, seven years later, the Tottenham manager will tell his players to go into Sunday’s clash with Manchester City to press high and have no fear.

After several clashes as players in La Liga, Pochettino’s first game as a manager was against Barcelona with Espanyol in the Copa del Rey.

Guardiola had spent the previous six months honing a team starring Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and Yaya Toure, while the Argentine had just completed a stint working till 10pm at night with Espanyol’s part-time ladies team while putting the finishing touches on his coaching badges.

"It was a big impact because my first training session was Tuesday then we played Wednesday,” Pochettino recalled. "We trained in the afternoon and then in the morning to prepare for the game. Two training sessions in less than 12 hours.

"The players looked at me wide-eyed when I said to them we need to play a high-pressing game and one-on-one at the back. They thought it was impossible against Barcelona, but I said, ‘No, it is not impossible. We need to play like this and we need to be ready’.

"It was good because we drew 0-0 against Barcelona which was a fantastic result.

"How did I come up with the plan? It is about your personality, how you are, your character. If you are brave in your life, you cannot behave in a different way on the pitch.

"I don’t understand how to play in a different way. Always be brave, I like to be brave.”

That same spirit earned Pochettino his first victory a month later, also against Guardiola, as Espanyol triumphed 2-0 at the Nou Camp – their first victory against their fierce rivals there for 27 years.

Since then, Guardiola has somewhat dominated the head-to-head, but Pochettino contends the City boss has had it easy over the years having players of the calibre of Lionel Messi to preach to. “If you have clever players it helps,” Pochettino says.

Mauricio Pochettino reveals how he beat Pep Guardiola in his first game in management
Mauricio Pochettino's first win as a manager came against Guardiola

That, he contends, is why Guardiola is feted as the man who successfully married the old romanticism of the game with modern science, while in fact others were leading that charge alongside him.

"It is Guardiola who has been portrayed as the face of the change, when you mix the romantic football with the new technology,” Pochettino said. “But it was not only Guardiola.

"I was involved, different managers like Luis Enrique or Diego Simeone. We are the same age at the same level.

"Guardiola was always the face because results always put you in the top. You can see what he is doing better when you have in your team Ronaldinho and Messi.”

For that reason those two results – particularly the second, which brought to an end Barcelona’s six-month unbeaten run in la Liga – remain a highlight in Pochettino’s mind. And, it can be revealed, in that of Guardiola himself.