Champions League final 2019, Tottenham vs Liverpool: How Mauricio Pochettino revitalised Spurs’ squad through emotional flexibility instead of money

The Argentine has helped Danny Rose, Moussa Sissoko and Toby Alderweireld reignite their careers this season

If this year’s Liverpool team is a triumph of planning and analysis, of forensic targeted recruitment, filling every hole with the most perfectly-shaped peg that money can buy, then this Tottenham team has a different feel. Less expensive, for a start. Rougher around the edges, having been together for longer. And in dire need of a long-overdue refurb, after two consecutive windows of opportunity were missed.

But the frustrating time in the transfer market only makes the thrilling run to Madrid even more impressive. Not just because Mauricio Pochettino has been winning with a weak hand in every round. But because the players he has got the most out of this campaign - Danny Rose, Moussa Sissoko, Toby Alderweireld - are the players who were expected to leave last season. Some of the players Spurs needed to sell last summer to make money and room for new arrivals, to give the squad that refresh that it needed. Last year’s transfer list have become this year’s indispensables.

That is obviously of immense credit to those players. There have been huge contributions from Spurs’ less likely men: Fernando Llorente’s hip winner at Manchester City or his flick-ons in Amsterdam. Lucas Moura’s still-scarcely-believable weaker-footed second-half hat-trick at Ajax, one of the greatest individual displays at that stage of this competition. Even Victor Wanyama, after two years ruined with knee injuries, has done a job off the bench against City and Ajax.

But the common link between these stories is Pochettino. He is a man who wants to keep every single individual on board, and who hates the idea of a hierarchy among his squad. That is why he gets so angry when he is asked why he has not picked one particular man for a game, seeing it as a lack of respect for those who did play. It is why he will insist on having the whole squad photographed together before kick-off - not just the starting 11 - because he wants every player to feel involved. And with that warmth and openness, he has revived the Spurs careers of players who looked to be heading for the door.

Take the example of Danny Rose. He has been Spurs’ best player over the last few weeks of the season. He looks fitter and stronger than he has for years, and has supplanted Ben Davies at left-back. No more rotation between the two, Rose is now emphatically the first choice again. Before the dead Everton game on final day, Rose had started 10 of Spurs’ last 12 games, his best run since December 2016 and January 2017, before the knee injury that threatened to derail his whole Spurs career.

And to watch Rose over the last few weeks is to be reminded of the Rose from three years ago, before that injury, before the questions over his future. He has rediscovered some of that old explosiveness, as well as the other qualities of leadership, determination and relentless winning spirit. Pochettino relies on him more now than ever before. He even played on the left wing of a 4-4-2, or in one of those narrower roles in a midfield diamond. Anything to make sure he is always on the field.

No-one would have expected to be in Spurs in Madrid this weekend, but no-one would have expected Rose to be there either. Because more than once in the last few years, it has looked as if Rose’s Spurs career was over. There was the famous interview with The Sun in August 2017, the product of months of frustration with his treatment, the club’s restrictive wage structure and perceived lack of ambition. It was also an attempt to leave, and in the final days of the summer 2017 window he nearly got his wish of a £50m move to Chelsea.

But suddenly Rose’s position at Spurs looked different. In 2017-18 he lost his first-choice spot to Ben Davies and sometimes did not even make the bench. He felt victimised for speaking out and all the old warmth and trust with Pochettino had gone. Last summer Rose was lined up for a move again but not at the 2017 price. The closest he came was to a loan move to Schalke 04 at the end of the window but even that eventually fell through.

All of which helps to explain why this season is so remarkable. Because the Pochettino/Rose relationship has gone full circle and they are now as close as they ever have been. One source close to both men said he is shocked by how well they get on now, given everything that has happened in the past. And how that points to a striking emotional flexibility from Pochettino, an ability to repair relationships that looked ruptured. Everything good that Rose has done this year flows downstream from that.

Toby Alderweireld has had a renaissance of his own this season, after a 2017-18 in which he was even further out of the picture than Rose. One hamstring injury - as well as a well-known interest in a move away - saw him out on the fringes, only making five very occasional starts even when he got fit. But Manchester United and Spurs never agreed a deal - to Jose Mourinho’s frustration - and he stayed put. This season Pochettino gave Alderweireld the chance to start again with a blank slate. He has earned all that trust back and more, starting 48 games, anchoring the defence with Jan Vertonghen with all the confidence and reliability of old. As if the events of last year never happened.

Danny Rose has won his place back in Pochettino's best XI (Getty)

Or look at the example of Moussa Sissoko. Another man put up for sale last year, only to remain unsold, but who has responded to this with the season of his life. Of all the improved Spurs players this season Sissoko is the most surprising, the one with the biggest gap between what we expected and what he has produced.

There have been times in Sissoko’s Spurs career when he has looked out of place or even slightly unwanted and yet to speak to him about his remarkable turnaround is to learn of the importance of his relationship with Pochettino in reviving his fortunes. Pochettino never lost faith in Sissoko, never stopped encouraging him, never stopped trying to tease out the player locked somewhere deep inside him. And he was rewarded with consistently influential midfield displays, against Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax.

In an interview with The Independent at Spurs’ training ground last week, Sissoko explained how important Pochettino had been to him. “Because since I was here, he knew nothing was easy for me,” Sissoko said. “He kept believing in me. He told me to keep working, to never give up. He told me, he knew I could succeed here, just to be patient. And that is what I have done.”

Moussa Sissoko has become a key player for Spurs this year (Getty)

For a sensitive player, that backing meant the world. And it would be impossible to imagine Sissoko’s improvements this year without it. But Sissoko was keen to make clear there was nothing special about his circumstances. Pochettino has time for everyone. “It’s not even just me,” Sissoko generously said. “If you look at all the players since this gaffer came in, they’ve all improved. And we’ve improved as a team. So that means him and all the staff doing some great jobs. We all have to say thanks to him.”