Tottenham vs Swansea preview - Pochettino: Players need a lift

Posted Tuesday, March 03, 2015 by PA

Mauricio Pochettino concedes he needs to lift his Tottenham players after their double disappointment in the last week - starting with the visit of Swansea on Wednesday night.

Spurs crashed out of the Europa League following a 2-0 defeat to Fiorentina last Thursday before losing by the same scoreline to Chelsea in the Capital One Cup final just three days later.

That leaves the club with only a place in the Premier League top four to battle for over the remainder of the season but Pochettino will stress to his squad the need to look ahead rather than linger on their recent losses.

"The target is the next game," he said.

"I always told you about that. Now we have 12 games and we need to finish the season strongly. This is our objective and we need the three points against Swansea.

"We need to lift the players, we need to put an idea in the group that this is the most important game. It is difficult. Expectation was big but we need to forget that and we need to focus. Now we only have one competition and we need to win the three points."

The experience of playing a Wembley final will no doubt be of use to Tottenham's young squad in the coming years - with Pochettino admitting spirits were low amongst the players on Monday morning.

"It was difficult - that is the reality," he said.

"We are disappointed about the result. A difficult day after the final because we get two feelings, one a bad feeling but also you feel good because you did your best and performance was good.

"I spoke about the final to improve, this is a good game for growing, I think this is a very, very good opportunity to improve."

To start moving forward, Tottenham will want to take all three points against an improving Swansea outfit but, with the likes of former Spurs man Sigurdsson in their side, Pochettino acknowledged that Garry Monk's men could pose a threat at White Hart Lane.

"Swansea are a team who can play very good football, very good players and we know players like Sigurdsson," he said.

"It is an interesting game for us. It is a team which plays well, has a good philosophy, against Manchester United they were very good.

"It is important to get the three points. After Chelsea in the Capital One Cup final, we need to get some good feelings and this game is important."

The club have confirmed they will hold a minute's applause ahead of the fixture with Swansea after 1961 double-winner Dave Mackay passed away.

Black armbands being worn by the squad and a number of the club's highest-profile former players paying tribute to Mackay at half-time - with Pochettino describing the Scot as a Tottenham "legend".

Swansea could come up against former favourites Michel Vorm and Ben Davies at White Hart Lane, although neither player has been able to establish themselves at Spurs since summer moves.

Dutch goalkeeper Vorm has been very much Hugo Lloris' understudy while Wales defender Davies has made only seven league starts in being second-choice to Danny Rose for the left-back spot.

"This is the difficulty always when you go to the bigger clubs," said boss Monk, who is expected to start his Tottenham old boys Gylfi Sigurdsson and Kyle Naughton.

"They have bigger squads, the depth of quality and competition is a lot more and they're fighting for their places."