Tottenham battled their way to a fourth consecutive Premier League win thanks to a first-half Erik Lamela header at the London Stadium.
Tottenham battled their way to a fourth consecutive Premier League win thanks to a first-half Erik Lamela header at the London Stadium.
English Premier League: Erik Lamela (44′) West Ham 0-1 Tottenham
Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham Hotspur need to sign players and are aiming to do so in January, despite the club making their best ever start to a Premier League season without any new faces.
Spurs failed to add a single player to their squad during the summer transfer window — a first for a Premier League club — but they have gone to collect 21 points from their opening nine top-flight fixtures.
Nonetheless, Pochettino does not believe that a lack of recruitment is a recipe for success.
“I have to be honest, I don’t want to take advantage of that,” he said after Saturday’s 1-0 victory at West Ham. “In football you always need to think you can improve, and you need to try to improve your squad.
“I’ve tried to explain before what happened in the summer, the circumstances. But if you say to me ‘we were so clever and are geniuses’ because we didn’t sign [anyone], and now after nine games it’s the best ever start in the Premier League, I’m not going to be the kind of person to say ‘yes, we are geniuses.’
“We couldn’t sign for different circumstances, but we wanted to sign. I think it’s maybe a coincidence, or we worked a lot, or because we’re clever, but to be honest always you try to sign.
“Now January will come and we’re going to try to sign. I think it’s not only us — all the clubs and managers want to sign players, must refresh the squad.
“If you ask me, I’m happy, I’m happy with the result but I think you cannot play with the destiny and you need to do the things properly.
“I don’t want to say that it’s not doing things properly to not sign, but we need to try again in January or the summer if we want to move on the team and the club.”
Spurs’ decisive goal at West Ham came from a Moussa Sissoko cross as the Frenchman raced down the right-hand side, cut back and chipped the ball onto Erik Lamela’s head. Sissoko has been a largely unpopular figure among Spurs’ supporters since his £30 million arrival from Newcastle, but the away fans gave him a standing ovation and sang his name when he was substituted in the second half at the London Stadium.
“I think he’s a very honest, professional player,” said Pochettino. “You know what you’re going to receive from him. In a squad of 25 players, you always need different types of players and I think Moussa provides the team with a very good balance.
“I’m happy that the fans are starting to see him as a player who helps the team and helps the club, and recognise his value. “Of course we cannot ask him to do different things, or things we can ask of another player, but he’ll always give you all that he has inside.”
Lamela, who missed more than a year of action between October 2016 and November 2017 after having operations on both of his hips, has now scored five goals in seven games.
“The most important thing is when you feel the trust and confidence,” said Pochettino. “We believe in him, we trust in him.
“I think he’s more mature. That’s the key, and he’s more relaxed and calm in front of goal. Now he needs to be consistent and play at his best, and [we need] to manage him in the best way. We need to understand where he came from. It’s so important always to pay attention to that.
“He’s had a lot of injuries in his five and a half years here. The season before last was tough for him, but [you need to show] patience, belief, care about your player.”
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