Renowned fitness coach Raymond Verheijen feels Euro 2016 prevented Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino from running his players into the ground over pre-season as he was forced to take a lighter approach to training.
Dutchman Verheijen has been a fierce critic of Pochettino's methods on the training ground, which he feels results in a high number of injuries to his players, especially muscle injuries.
He also thinks Pochettino's methods ensure his sides fade in the latter part of the season due to exhaustion. But this term Verhejien thinks things might be different, though no praise is due to the Argentine.
Verheijen wrote on Twitter: "Interesting view on Spurs and Pochettino. Because of the Euro and the relative short pre-season, Poch was not able to run his players into the ground.
"Traditionally Poch runs his players into the ground with double and triple sessions during pre-season so they fade away in last part of season", he explained.
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"This season Poch was forced to do a relatively light pre-season as many of his players returned from Euro 2016.
"They seem to benefit in 2017.
"This relatively high freshness of the Spurs players compared to their rivals could be a decisive factor during the last phase of the season", he added.
Spurs recovered from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 away at Manchester City on Saturday, but with Chelsea beating Hull City on Sunday now sit a whopping nine points behind the Premier League leaders.
Pochettino's men have been hit with injuries of late, with Jan Vertonghen ruled out for six weeks and Toby Alderweireld hurting his hamstring against Manchester City.
