In a game against Everton several weeks ago, Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson made the headlines for the wrong reason as they tried to wrestle the ball away from Cole Palmer ahead of a penalty.
Now, in a 5-0 win over West Ham, Madueke made the best choice for the team by squaring the ball to Jackson for the fourth goal. According to Mauricio Pochettino, this is a sign of progress.
"I think this is for Noni and Jackson to show that we learn, that we are smart," Pochettino said.
"The situation with the penalty, if you remember against Everton, we received too many criticisms but a young team always needs to make the mistake.
"Always you need to feel this situation to be able to improve. And we are able to improve, because we are smart and intelligent people.
"I think today was a great, great action for Noni to see how the group starts to live and how it starts to feel.
"Always it’s a process that takes time. You never know whether it’s going to take one month, six months, one year.
"But the most important thing is they start to settle the principles, to feel and live like a group of players that are creating all the links to compete. Because that is the reality.
"I’m so pleased for that, because we are part of this process, helping them to grow and to mature and improve all aspects.
"That is only the first step, a massive step, but a step that we wanted to reach. From there now it’s only to evolve in every aspect, for the facility to go in a tactical evolution and we can improve from there.
"But without principles or without things that we’re starting to show to be competitive in this way it’s impossible to evolve in other aspects."
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