Mauricio Pochettino snaps back at reporter after question over ‘regular’ players – ‘I’m USA coach, not janitor’

The Argentine made nine changes to his team for the friendly with Uruguay, following their win over Paraguay four days earlier, and was without key players, including Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie.

In one of the first questions of the post-match press conference following Tuesday’s win, the United States head coach was asked about playing a second-string side, and took offence at the suggestion he was missing “regular” players.

Pochettino responded: “I don’t want to be negative, but I hate that ‘no regular players’. What does that mean? It’s the USA playing. It’s the national team.

“Stop with that mindset… I hate to talk in this way. It’s so disrespectful. It’s so disrespectful because I think we need to give credit to all the guys that today were involved.”

The Argentine was then asked about how he is now able to heavily rotate his team and still get results, when this was not the case previously, with the reporter appearing to praise Pochettino’s squad-building process.

‘We need to believe that we can win’ – Pochettino introduced as USMNT head coach

Video credit: SNTV

The reporter referenced Pochettino’s previous answer about “regulars”, and once again, he was unhappy with the use of the word, threatening to walk out of the press conference and start again. 

Pochettino said: “Who are the regular players? Maybe we need to stop the press conference, I need to go to the dressing room, come back and start again because it’s like we lost 5-0, 5-1. 

“I am the USA coach, not janitor. No, but regular? Regular? Which, tell me, which regular player you are talking about. Because I don’t understand what regular player means.

“We need to talk about that to congratulate the player. I don’t know. If they’re listening to the press conference, and a player feels they’re not a regular player, they play and did well. If I am the player, I am very disappointed with that.

“To be honest, maybe I am tired and don’t understand the question. I’m very disappointed in the first two questions because, I don’t know, what do you expect I am going to say?”

Alex Freeman, who scored twice in the win over Uruguay, praised this approach after the match. 

“This is his first year and a half, and knowing how he built this roster, he’s had this team here to be intense and be able to compete,” Freeman said.

“It feels good for all of us to have that connection. We know that every game, every part of it is going to be intense. I feel like we’re all building connections, and we’re going to build right into the next games and then the World Cup.

“Knowing we’ve had these outcomes lately, we’ve [gone unbeaten] in five games against top 40 teams, so that shows we’re a team that’s hard to beat. No matter what competition we go against, we’re hard to beat.”