SHARE

Tottenham aren’t having a bad start to the season. Currently in 5th place, they’ve played six Premier League matches and won four of them.

But it’s not a great start and the weight of added expectation means that Spurs not flying out of the blocks is taken notice of, whereas in previous years it wouldn’t really have been an issue.

Tottenham are not just expected to finish in the top four, but also to put up some sort of fight for the title and show their stuff in the Champions League.

The recent defeat to Inter Milan was painful and it’s obviously the view of Tottenham which most football followers in Italy get, and that’s probably why Marcelo Lippi believes Mauricio Pochettino has a problem with his Spurs squad right now.

Lippi has been speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport and the former Juventus, Inter, Napoli, Italy and current China manager believes Pochettino’s men aren’t coping so well with their World Cup hangover.

Praising Juve for not letting the competition impact their players, Lippi said: “Not everyone in Europe has managed so well the players coming from the World Cup: some have rested little for today’s football, and effects are seen. I think of Tottenham.”

Unlike Juventus, who signed players including Cristiano Ronaldo, Leonardo Bonucci and Emre Can this summer, Spurs didn’t strengthen their squad… that likely has something to do with it.