Mauricio Pochettino admits not winning Champions League would make him a failure

Mauricio Pochettino has admitted he will feel like a failure if he does not win the Champions League while at Paris-Saint Germain.

It is coming up to a year since Pochettino took over from Thomas Tuchel at PSG and his first half-season at the club did not go well.

Not only did his side surrender the Ligue 1 title to Lille, they also exited the Champions League to Manchester City at the semi-final stage.

The pressure is now on Pochettino to deliver and his side have started the campaign well. They currently top Ligue 1 by 12 points after just 14 games and could secure progression to the Champions League knockout stages with a win over City in midweek.

However, Pochettino knows that this is only the start of the club's European ambitions this season.

"The feeling is about winning the Champions League and, if not, you will feel that you have failed. For sure. The people translate that feeling," he said.

He added: "It’s all about winning. It’s completely different to another project. When I accepted the job, I knew that if you play well and you don’t win, there’s nothing to do."

Key to PSG's potential success will be getting their fearsome front three - Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe - gelling together. A few bright performances aside, that has not happened yet and Pochettino went on to offer some reasons why.

"Each of the three can be the king of any club in the world," he said.

"But you have three kings in the same club, three with different needs and who need different things from the team. Mbappé needs space to run and high tempo in the transition. Neymar needs to have the ball and feel the ball, and sometimes he needs to drive the ball. And Messi needs maybe another tempo in the game. That is not easy to put all together.

"We’re working to find the right way to play in which Mbappe feels comfortable, Neymar and Messi feel comfortable and then the rest of the team understand that sometimes we need to increase the tempo and sometimes we can play on the space, sometimes we need to play more horizontal and build in the slow possession.

"It’s not an easy task but it’s an amazing challenge which we are enjoying, a beautiful time to have the possibility to work with these amazing players."

For more from Matt O’Connor-Simpson, follow him on Twitter!