Mauricio Pochettino: Background, managerial record, style of play

Mauricio Pochettino, the former manager of Premier League clubs Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton, has reportedly accepted an offer to become the head coach of the United States Men's National Team.

The Argentine manager known as 'Poch' is highly respected in the global game and represents a new approach for US Soccer.

In the past, the federation had mostly focused on hiring American coaches, with the exception of legendary German striker Jurgen Klinsmann who coached the team from 2011 to 2016.

Pochettino will lead the USMNT in the 2026 World Cup, which takes place on home soil in the United States with some matches to be played in Mexico and Canada.

Mauricio Pochettino background

Born on March 2, 1972 in Murphy, Argentina, Mauricio Pochettino is 52 years old. He played professionally for 17 years and he began his career with Newell's Old Boys in his home country.

Newell's is the same club that launched the careers of Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona. While Poch didn't reach the heights of those two, he had a nice career as a center back and made 20 appearances for his country.

Pochettino made 153 league appearances for Newell's before making a move to Espanyol, which is located in Barcelona, Spain. He played in 216 La Liga matches for Espanyol before moving to Paris Saint-Germain, where he played 70 games in two years about a decade before the club's dominance over Ligue 1.

The defender and future manager moved from PSG to Bordeaux, then finished his career at Espanyol where he retired in 2006. Three years after his retirement as a player, he was hired as the first-team manager.

Mauricio Pochettino managerial record

Years	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Best League Position
2009-2012	Espanyol	161	53	38	70	8th
2013-2014	Southampton	60	23	18	19	8th
2014-2019	Tottenham	293	160	60	73	2nd
2021-2022	PSG	84	56	13	15	1st
2023-2024	Chelsea	51	27	10	14	6th

Mauricio Pochettino style of play

Former Southampton midfielder Jack Cork once said it feels "like you need two hearts to play like that" under Pochettino, and that sums up the manager's high-pressing system well.

USMNT players can expect to run a lot, and he instructs his players to go hard into tackles. His Chelsea side led the Premier League in yellow cards with 109 last season.

While pressing is a key component of his strategy, he also likes his teams to hold possession and create quality chances. Last year, Chelsea created the fifth-most expected goals (xG) per match, and the team held the fifth-most possession with a 58.6 percent share per match.

In his last season at Tottenham, his team held a similar amount of possession but was much more disciplined, with only 58 yellow cards.

Only two of his Tottenham seasons have available xG data, and his teams averaged 0.10 xG per shot in each of those seasons. That grew to 0.12 xG per shot in his one season at Chelsea, the fourth-best mark in the league.

Plus, Chelsea had the Premier League's third-best xG differential last season at +16.4. The team's defending and goalkeeping was slightly worse than expected with 63 goals conceded on 58.1 xG allowed.

In terms of creating chances and approaching the opposing team's net, Pochettino likes to let his players run at defenders and try risky passes. Last year's Chelsea led the Premier League with 116 successful through balls and was second with 398 successful dribbles.

Pochettino's lone season at PSG is probably not the best indicator of his style, given his team won Ligue 1 by 15 points and he had three of the best individual talents on the planet in Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Neymar.

Still, it's worth noting that the team conceded less than one goal per game (36 goals against in 38 matches), which is impressive considering the three aforementioned stars have never been known for their pressing ability. PSG attempted more tackles in the attacking third than any other team that year.

Also, Poch's PSG dominated possession with a league-leading 63 percent and completed 33 more dribbles than the second-best team.