LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino says the return of Premier League football so soon after the summer internationals has left club managers in an "impossible" position, and the players overworked and at risk of burnout.
Hugo Lloris will miss the next month after picking up a hamstring injury in the opening minutes of Spurs' Premier League curtain-raiser at Everton -- less than a month after he captained France in the final of Euro 2016.
Like 10 of Spurs' 11 Euro 2016 representatives, Lloris was left out of the club's preseason trip to Melbourne and he played just 45 minutes of friendly football before starting the 1-1 draw at Goodison Park.
In a passionate monologue ahead of Saturday's home match against Crystal Palace, Pochettino said managers had been left in a no-win situation by football's global decision-makers and feels his complaints will fall on deaf ears.
"We try to avoid that [injuries] but finding the balance is always difficult," Pochettino told a news conference, when asked if Lloris' injury was avoidable. "If you give rest in training and say 'I don't want to use this player that was involved in the Euros,' you have no positive results -- the media, the supporters, the board and the president will kill me!
"There is nothing to win, only to lose. If you don't win the game, you are guilty. Our players are athletes, special athletes. They need preseason, they need to train properly, they need to rest, they need good food. It's impossible to compete when the amount of competitions is so high."
After a subdued display on Merseyside, striker Harry Kane admitted he is still not at 100 percent fitness following his second consecutive summer away with England, and Pochettino said players deserve more "respect" from football's organisers.
"To be ready to compete, they need time," Pochettino continued. "It is not only if you pay good money, they must be ready. Like Harry Kane -- no holiday, no holiday, no holiday. He plays in the under-21s [European Championship], then he plays in the Euros. He's not a machine. It is important to be clear when the time is to compete and time to rest. In the NBA and the NFL in America, there's four months competition and then holidays. They receive more money than our players. Come on!
"It's a business, true, but respect the people, the athletes. You compete in the Olympic games only every four years. In football, every three days it's 'Come on, give your best, give your best and give your best.' Come on! That's very difficult. That's why it's important to organise the competition better in the future but sometimes you're speaking for the sake of it because who listens?"
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has also faced criticism after Aaron Ramsey, who starred in Wales' run to the Euro 2016 quarterfinals, picked up a hamstring injury in the Gunners' opening day defeat to Liverpool.
Pochettino feels players are being overworked, but insists the club managers are blameless, adding: "The solution would be better if we discuss about how our bosses manage football.
"Because we need to be like in the circus: juggling. Come on! All the pressure is on the managers, always. If you play a player who you didn't give holidays, and he gets injured, it's your fault.
"If you give rest to him, and he doesn't play, and doesn't go to preseason for the commercial side, you are guilty. Always it is the manager's fault. Always. Always. The problem is the organisation of the competition. You cannot play the Euros and start [the Premier League season] on 13 August. How can you give rest to the players, after the whole season?"
"You are in competition for 12 months, or eleven-and-a-half months. And the players, because you pay them good salaries, don't deserve the holidays? Come on! And their families? Their sons? Their kids? They are not machines. And then all the responsibility is on the coaching staff? If you play a player, and he gets injured, it is because you need to give him a rest. Why? If you don't play him, and you lose the game, [they say] you had the international players and did not use them! Always it's the same."
Pochettino said he agreed with his former roommate Diego Maradona that too many decisions in football are made by people who have never played the game.
"The problem is that in football, the managers and players need to make the decisions about the competitions. But sometimes the decisions are always from the people who never play football. I agree with Maradona sometimes when he complains about football: the people who take the decisions about football are people who never touch the football. And that is the problem. That is the problem. But it is difficult to change. Because in between business, football, sports, there are many things that happen. And as we always say, football is not an ordinary business."