Pochettino on Jackson's development and managing his squad

Beginning with his Senegalese frontman, Mauricio spoke of how impressed with the progression of the forward he's been after the 22-year-old took his goalscoring account into double digits for the season after netting against Leeds during the midweek 3-2 FA Cup victory.

Pochettino pointed to how quickly he believes Jackson has adapted to his new environment as the forward aims to continue his momentum against Brentford in the Premier League later this afternoon.

‘Nico’s 22 years old, he has arrived from a different country and a different league and everyone has put responsibility on him to score goals,’ Pochettino opened.

‘For me, he is doing fantastic. I really appreciate his effort. He is very tough and plays football with maturity in the way that he accepts and deals with the pressure. You can see a player who fights, runs and wants the ball even when he has asked for the ball and made a mistake.

‘He never gives up. He is scoring goals. If we see him in his first season here in England, I think he is doing well. Better maybe than people think – much better. We are not at the top and it is difficult to say that he is fantastic, but that has happened with the whole team.’

The head coach revealed that Jackson has been studying notes from other forwards as he develops his own game. He said: ‘Jackson loves to watch different strikers and he is in the process of learning. He is very humble to listen and accept when we show him different strikers and advise him on the game.

‘It’s always like this – it’s a process to learn. From the beginning, they listen to us and when they start to score goals – the same happened with Harry Kane – and then when they become 30 they teach you. Of course, Jackson is, for me, doing well and he is in the process of learning.

‘I have shown him strikers in the Premier League for him to see how they behave. All the strikers, like Gabriel Batistuta, Didier Drogba, [Jimmy Floyd] Hasselbaink – big players, experienced players.’

Three games in six days – one of which made it to the 120-minute mark – has meant that Pochettino has been forced to manage the workload of his squad throughout the week.

During Wednesday night’s FA Cup tie against Leeds, the boss naturally rotated his squad with youngster Alfie Gilchrist earning minutes at full-back.

Explaining the reasoning behind his decisions, Pochettino said: ‘I didn’t play Gilchrist at left-back to rest [Ben] Chilwell – it was because we couldn’t start Chilwell for different circumstances. We spoke with the medical staff and the performance team and we all felt that he could not start, which is why we took that decision.

‘It’s the same with [Cole] Palmer, which I think they [media] asked me on TV. Palmer was sick the night before with vomit and it was a massive risk to have him start and maybe to make him play the full 90 minutes.

‘Also, they changed the rules because before if the scores were level after 90 minutes it would go to a replay, but [against Leeds] there was no replay – extra time. After last Sunday’s game [against Liverpool] where we went to extra time, we needed to manage the players that we weren’t sure could manage that extra time.’