There is so much to admire about Mauricio Pochettino's work at Tottenham, it's difficult to know where to begin.

Take Saturday's 1-0 battering of Watford. Afterwards, a seasoned member of the press was asked by another for his man of the match. He chose Kieran Trippier, which was derided as a "safe pick" (Trippier scored) by an advocate of Christian Eriksen. Someone else chose Mousa Dembele; Ben Davies and Eric Dier were also suggested.

Tricky, because Pochettino has created a Spurs team that is greater than the sum of its parts, routinely rendering post-match player ratings articles redundant.

Try to remember when a Spurs player was significantly better than his teammates. Eriksen at Swansea, perhaps? Dele Alli at Crystal Palace? (Nope, the teenager was quiet before his seminal moment of brilliance.) Dembele weekly, maybe? (Spurs seem to win when the Belgian is fit and draw when he's not.) Harry Kane at Bournemouth? Erik Lamela versus Man City?

Even in defeat, Spurs' players are on a level. The 2-1 home loss to Newcastle, their only wretched display of the season, was uniformly bad.

Pochettino's team is a well-licked machine with replaceable parts. It's impossible to name Spurs' first choice full-backs or say which attackers are best behind Kane. If you squint hard enough, Kevin Wimmer becomes Jan Vertonghen.

The individual improvements, too, have been remarkable. Dier and Alli -- shoo-ins, you'd think, to be among Roy Hodgson's midfielders at Euro 2016 -- started the season as an out-of-position centre-half and a League One rookie. Dembele and Lamela were supposed to be expensive flops, Davies and Trippier inexpensive back-ups.