Pochettino resists remptation to rest stars

8:40am Tuesday 29th January 2013 in Saints News Photograph of the Author By Adam Leitch, Chief Sports Writer

Adam Lallana Adam Lallana

Mauricio Pochettino insists he will send out a full strength team to face Manchester United rather than rest players for the key relegation clash at Wigan on Saturday.

The Saints boss will tomorrow take charge of his second game since replacing Nigel Adkins, and it could scarcely be tougher as his side take on the might of the league leaders at Old Trafford.

In recent years there have been a number of teams who have opted to rest key players for away trips to the likes of United when there have been big games just round the corner.

Pochettino could justify such a decision, with only two clear days after the United game before an arguably even bigger clash in the context of Saints’ season at the DW Stadium.

But he insists he will put out his best team to try and get something from the United match and, as revealed by the Daily Echo yesterday, he may even throw Adam Lallana into the mix.

Pochettino said: “Lallana may play, he has been training well and looking okay so he may get some minutes against Manchester United so we will see how that develops.

“We're going to Manchester to win and that has to be our mentality and I'm going to choose the players that will do that for us and for the team.

“Every single game represents three points, whether you are playing against Manchester United, Wigan, Man City or Newcastle.”

He added: "Every game is important, every single match we play is important to us.

"No doubt they are going to be tough and complex games against Manchester City and Manchester United but all games are like that.

"All games are key and the glamour factor does not dictate how we play, the main thing is that we go out with a winning mentality and we want to win every single game, we always respect our rivals but our aim has to always be to get the three points."

Pochettino will still be without Jose Fonte whose knee problem is likely to sideline him for at least another few weeks while Guly do Prado will also be missing, possibly for a few matches, also with a knee injury.

Do Prado’s absence opens up a slot in the attacking left sided role and there will surely be a temptation to throw Lallana in – but only if he is ready.

Pochettino, whose team will travel to the north west today and remain there until after the Wigan game, has at least been able to assess his captain’s fitness during the five day trip to Barcelona the club embarked upon during over the past week.

"We are definitely happy with the break (between the Everton and Man United games) and the more time that passes the more we will be able to get the team playing how we want to play," he said.

"Even against Everton with just four sessions under our belts we saw positive aspects and we just want to keep adding more.

"We achieved everything we wanted out of the trip to Barcelona, the togetherness of the team was very important to us and the players got to know us (Pochettino and new coaching staff) and we got to know the players well.

"It is important that the players feel there is an entire solid team of people working with them at the football club and being together 24 hours of the day was important, not just three or four hours a day in a training session."

Last week's draw at Everton leaves the Saints four points clear of the Premier League relegation zone with 15 games of the season remaining for Pochettino to secure Saints’ top-flight status.

Comments(24)

OSPREYSAINT says...
8:45am Tue 29 Jan 13

MP is either on the same wavelength as the rest of us or maybe just stating the obvious!

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White and red till dead says...
8:57am Tue 29 Jan 13

He sounds a lot like Adkins but in Spanish...

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Alicesdad says...
9:08am Tue 29 Jan 13

It is not impossible for us to win at Man Utd. Ok it seems unlikely but it is possible. But we need our best team out there. What a feather in Pochettinos cap if his first win as our manager is against them.

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Dave Juson says...
9:14am Tue 29 Jan 13

I cannot resist the remptation to point out the obvious typo in the heading. No doubt the mistake will be rectafied rendering this post mystifying.

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St Retford says...
9:19am Tue 29 Jan 13

Just forget they're United. Play in their half and get after them, just like Spurs did earlier this year.

Teams only lose there because United have an 'aura' out of all proportion to their ability on the pitch so they end up sh1tting themselves after 70 minutes and going all backs-to-the-wall regardless of how well things are going. Forget the 'aura' - they're an average team and don't deserve our respect.

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St Retford says...
9:24am Tue 29 Jan 13

Dave Juson wrote:
I cannot resist the remptation to point out the obvious typo in the heading. No doubt the mistake will be rectafied rendering this post mystifying.
It's like they've deliberately chosen the world 'remptation' because they wanted to build an alliterative headline around it regardless of whether or not it's an actual world.

That is world class subbing.

(Seriously - and I can't stress this enough, Echo - I'm available for work on a freelance basis. Cheers.)

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St.Yorkie says...
9:26am Tue 29 Jan 13

I think we have already demonstrated we can give them a game. Still not convinced if Rickie and Adam had stayed on we would have scored again and wrapped the game up at 3-1! Still the game is all about opinions!
I have seen other teams go there without fear and beat United at OT...
Big 3-points depending on results tonight - but Wigan on Saturday is massive. We owe them too!

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OSPREYSAINT says...
9:35am Tue 29 Jan 13

Dave Juson wrote:
I cannot resist the remptation to point out the obvious typo in the heading. No doubt the mistake will be rectafied rendering this post mystifying.
I have lots of problems with my "r"s on this site, they keep disappearing after I have typed them, strange?

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St Retford says...
9:49am Tue 29 Jan 13

OSPREYSAINT wrote:
Dave Juson wrote:
I cannot resist the remptation to point out the obvious typo in the heading. No doubt the mistake will be rectafied rendering this post mystifying.
I have lots of problems with my "r"s on this site, they keep disappearing after I have typed them, strange?
There's a lot of that about. Jason Puncheon has also been having problems with his "r"s.

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SFCOLDBOY says...
9:52am Tue 29 Jan 13

OSPREYSAINT wrote:
Dave Juson wrote:
I cannot resist the remptation to point out the obvious typo in the heading. No doubt the mistake will be rectafied rendering this post mystifying.
I have lots of problems with my "r"s on this site, they keep disappearing after I have typed them, strange?
Perhaps you need some R sistence?
I like to be helpfull!

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bullsbags says...
9:53am Tue 29 Jan 13

They are pro footballers
They will have had a 9 day break
2 games in 4 days will hardly kill them
ANDY Murray just played 7 matches of tennis in 12 or 13 days!

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rednwhite72 says...
10:06am Tue 29 Jan 13

We seem to always perform against man U, hopefully that will be the case on we'd evening. The boys should be in good spirits after their trip. I watched the video of them in Spain and it looked as though they were allowed free time to bond and maybe take some inspiration from the nou camp. I think start lallana and see how long he fairs, and go from there, important thing I think is we need to keep focused in the important periods of the game when the likes of utd seem to score their goals, in the last 5 of the first half and the last 10/15 of the match.
If they put in a performance like they did against Everton i will be happy whatever the result, but a draw would be nice, a win would be fantastic. I reckon 3-2 in favour of the saints this time. COYS!

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rednwhite72 says...
10:18am Tue 29 Jan 13

St Retford wrote:
OSPREYSAINT wrote:
Dave Juson wrote:
I cannot resist the remptation to point out the obvious typo in the heading. No doubt the mistake will be rectafied rendering this post mystifying.
I have lots of problems with my "r"s on this site, they keep disappearing after I have typed them, strange?
There's a lot of that about. Jason Puncheon has also been having problems with his "r"s.
Funny I haven't had any p oblems with my " 's" but its the "a's" that seem to disappea on me all the time, st ange!

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EricMartin'sHat says...
10:20am Tue 29 Jan 13

St Retford wrote:
Dave Juson wrote:
I cannot resist the remptation to point out the obvious typo in the heading. No doubt the mistake will be rectafied rendering this post mystifying.
It's like they've deliberately chosen the world 'remptation' because they wanted to build an alliterative headline around it regardless of whether or not it's an actual world.

That is world class subbing.

(Seriously - and I can't stress this enough, Echo - I'm available for work on a freelance basis. Cheers.)
Yeah, but you'd have to get your "world" and "word" sorted out first :-)

Remptation - a good song though, by Heaven Sevenreen I believe?

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SaintMax says...
10:28am Tue 29 Jan 13

We all know what Man U's game plan is, so if MP has any sense (which he has) he will go after them in the first half, keep this momentum for as long as we can after the break, then line up the whole team except Rickie on the goal line for the last 5 mins (plus 10 mins of Fergit time) and jump up and down.

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jerseysaint says...
10:40am Tue 29 Jan 13

i have a problem with the F on my keyboard ucking thing.

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Norwegian Saint says...
10:41am Tue 29 Jan 13

I used to have pwobwems with pwonouncing my "l" and "r" wowds but i appeaw to be getting bettew now and (as in the immortaw onwy foows and howses episode) I can bwast out tunes wike the gween, gween gwass of home and pwease wewease me wet me go!

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Dave Juson says...
12:00pm Tue 29 Jan 13

As "remptation" has yet to be corrected I think it has to be accepted as a neologism in need of a definition.
How about: an irresistable urge to draw attention to tyographical errors?
Other suggestions welcome.

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milton road says...
1:11pm Tue 29 Jan 13

Whether Forren plays depends on how fit he is, he has not played a competitive game since december.
Van Persie worries me, he is the difference this year for united. They marmalised Fulham.
This guy though will have studied and studied them on video. He also has film taken of first halves and analyised in the dressing room at half time. Not sure how that works.
Any result there would be special,

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SaintPaul says...
1:28pm Tue 29 Jan 13

*Redemption?
*Reputation?

Rotal Rrubbish!

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Dave Juson says...
2:04pm Tue 29 Jan 13

SaintPaul wrote:
*Redemption?
*Reputation?

Rotal Rrubbish!
Shouldn't that be rotal tubbish?

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Stroppy_gramps says...
2:07pm Tue 29 Jan 13

I will not give in to remptation and join in with the word play on here today.

wait....

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OSPREYSAINT says...
2:46pm Tue 29 Jan 13

R mageddon soon for someone?

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Costa Baz says...
3:14pm Tue 29 Jan 13

I would love us to keep a clean sheet at Manure, for 3 reasons.

1. It means we've picked up at least 1 point.
2. It will have Fergie apoplectic with rage.
3. We won't have to listen to the United crowd give that derisory, half hearted, about time we scored, cheer that is so endemic to the so called big teams.

COYS

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