Pochettino defends decision to make Adebayor Captain

Mauricio Pochettino defended the surprise decision to make Emmanuel Adebayor his captain after the striker was booed off at White Hart Lane on what his first Tottenham start for more than two months.


Adebayor has been unavailable following a combination of compassionate leave, injury and illness but, on what was arguably Tottenham’s most important game of the season so far, he was named captain.

Pochettino claimed that he made the decision purely because Younès Kaboul and Hugo Lloris were not in the team and Adebayor had been named one of his “three captains” at the start of the season.

Asked what leadership qualities he saw in Adebayor, Pochettino said: “A lot of things but I think it is not the moment to explain why. When I took a decision it was seven months ago. It is a long, long time ago.”

Pochettino also said that he had not heard the mixture of boos, jeers – and a small ripple of applause – when Adebayor was substituted after an ineffective 65 minutes.

Roberto Soldadao, by contrast, was loudly cheered but Pochettino stressed that he had been pleased with Adebayor’s performance even if he admitted that his team’s attacking shape was initially wrong.

“I think we were wrong in our offensive position in the first half – we play very slow and low tempo,” he said. “Always three, four, five touches and after pass the ball. This made it difficult to create chances. It was a team problem, not one player.”

Nigel Clough, the Sheffield United manager, revealed that the game had been delayed by 15 minutes after the team bus had taken two hours to get from their base in Islington. “It took us longer to do the five miles here than it took us to get to London from Sheffield,” he said.

“We are still in the game. You heard the noise 4,000 fans made here and there will be 24,000 of them next week. We have to make it as uncomfortable as we can for Spurs. It is going to be special.”

Clough added that Jay McEveley, who conceded the decisive penalty, was “devastated” by the handball that led to Andros Townsend’s winner.


By Jeremy Wilson, Telegraph