Mauricio Pochettino will relish taking on Christian Pulisic’s call for United States culture change

MIAMI – If Mauricio Pochettino was pondering what his focus should be when he takes charge of the United States for the first time, his captain Christian Pulisic promptly provided him with the answer.

Speaking after a 1-1 friendly draw with New Zealand on Sept 10, which left the team with just one win from their last seven games, the AC Milan winger got straight to the point.

“There’s a lot of things that need to change... the mentality and the culture of the group. We have the quality,” Pulisic said, before adding what kind of approach he wants to see.

“Hopefully, a culture that is willing to fight, that is willing to take risks, win.”

What is strange for American fans is that while they have long known their teams are not technically or tactically on a level with the world’s elite, fighting spirit is something their national team never lacked – but seemed to have disappeared in recent years.

The first US team to grab any global recognition, at the World Cup they hosted in 1994, were built on exactly such qualities.

Through the years under Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley, the US played a rudimentary style of football but could never have been accused of lacking fight.

German Jurgen Klinsmann had his critics, but his team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, who battled their way out of a group with Portugal, Germany and Ghana before falling to Belgium, certainly did not lack mentality.

But under Gregg Berhalter, a young team lost their way with the emphasis on a fixed tactical approach.

Tactically, Pochettino is a relative pragmatist. But the Argentinian’s best-remembered team, the Tottenham Hotspur side he turned into Champions League finalists in 2019, were at their most effective on the counter-attack.

Those attacks were often finished off by Harry Kane, the England captain now playing with Bayern Munich and his assessment of Pochettino’s approach will resonate with Pulisic.

“He’s a fantastic manager. With him, it’s always about hard work and belief,” Kane said previously.

“You just want to perform for him, work hard for him, win for him. He’s very passionate. You can tell sometimes he wants to be out there himself, putting in tackles, running about.

“You respond to that. On big occasions, you just want to do him justice.”

American fans can expect Pochettino to pay little regard to reputations when it comes to picking his line-ups – he has never been afraid to make surprise selections, particularly when it comes to blooding young talent.

Eric Dier, now Kane’s teammate at Bayern, was thrown into the starting line-up at Spurs just two weeks after joining the club when he was expecting to serve his time as a reserve.

“He (Pochettino) installed all his faith in me, and he did that over and over again with players... if you were ready, you were ready and it didn’t matter the occasion,” he said.

Other former Spurs players have noted Pochettino’s uncompromising attitude on weight, fitness and punctuality. And while he makes full use of modern analysis methods, the 52-year-old also relies on other ways to assess players.

“I need data and tests, but what most influences my decisions is my ability to see if the right energy is flowing,” he wrote in his book Brave New World.

“I can foresee things that are going to happen and the associated consequences, or which path each player is going to take. I can see it in their auras.”

At Paris Saint-Germain, he coached a team with global superstars Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe but, now, he has the challenge of taking much lesser talents into a home World Cup in 2026.

US Soccer chief executive JT Batson indicated that expectations are high with their big-name appointment.

“Mauricio understands the unique potential of this team and this country, and he shares our belief that US Soccer is on the cusp of something truly special,” he said.

No pressure, then. AFP