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Mauricio Pochettino is too smart for your obvious press conference questions

Ask a silly question...

Mauricio Pochettino was in a jocular mood in his press conference ahead of Tottenham's trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool on Saturday. The language thing is getting easier for him, you can tell – he's now quick with a joke in English and he feels a lot more comfortable behind the camera than he did a year ago.

A good example is this clip, where the interviewer asks him if he is similar to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. "No!," he said, seriously, "No, I am Argentinan, he is German. He's very tall, I'm small."

I mean, obviously.

In truth, Poche and Klopp have similar coaching styles: both employ high pressure offenses and focus on winning the ball back quickly after losing possession and starting counterattacks. Both managers are also known for taking chances with youth and bringing through and developing young players.

But it's not a perfect comparison. Here's Pochettino on the differences between his tactics and Klopp's in a Guardian article from last fall when Klopp was still at Dortmund:

"It is a different style of pressing," he said. "If you analyse Dortmund, it's not similar to how we played at Southampton. Our pressing was to the opposing goalkeeper, whereas Dortmund played with a medium block. You can't compare Klopp's style with my style, we are different. I'm not saying one is better than the other, just that we are different.

"It depends on your ideas, your culture, how you see the philosophy, your football," continued Pochettino. "I prefer to press high and we believe we can press the keeper. Another manager believes it is better to stay with a medium block or play deep and go on the counterattack. This is how you feel and believe, and how you develop your style."

Well, that's certainly a more nuanced answer than "He's Fred and I'm Ted."