As the Tottenham Hotspur players returned to training on Thursday after a day off, there was a different - but discernible - air about the place. There wasn’t the same pressure. There wasn’t the same tension. They’d won again.

It's amazing what a victory can do for a team.

As badly needed as that 5-0 win over Red Star Belgrade was, though, Mauricio Pochettino and his players know there is still much more to do. They know it was just one win, against a beatable side. They know there’s still some way to go to turn this season, and maybe even the entire era of this team, right back around.

There’s already an immediate stumbling block: a trip to Anfield, and a match against this Liverpool.

The Premier League leaders’ supreme form may make it feel like it’s something of a free hit for Spurs, but it is a highly weighted fixture for reasons beyond Pochettino’s intense desire to compete at such a level.

Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams Show all 17 1 /17 Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams Champions League Group Stage Power Rankings All 16 remaining teams ranked from those with the worst chances of winning the big prize to those with the best. Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 16. Atalanta FERRARA, ITALY - AUGUST 25: Luis Muriel of Atalanta BC celebrates after scoring his team's second goal during the Serie A match between SPAL and Atalanta BC at Stadio Paolo Mazza on August 25, 2019 in Ferrara, Italy. (Photo by Mario Carlini / Iguana Press/Getty Images) Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 15. Lyon Soccer Football - Champions League - Group G - Olympique Lyonnais v RB Leipzig - Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France - December 10, 2019 Olympique Lyonnais' Houssem Aouar celebrates after the match REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot EMMANUEL FOUDROT REUTERS Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 14. Valencia LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY - AUGUST 04: Kevin Gameiro (R) celebrates the second goal during the pre-season friendly match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Valencia at BayArena on August 04, 2019 in Leverkusen, Germany. (Photo by Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images) Bongarts/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 13. Napoli Napoli's Italian forward Lorenzo Insigne (C) celebrates with teammates after scoring a penalty kick during the Italian Serie A football match Fiorentina vs Napoli on August 24, 2019 at the Artemio-Franchi stadium in Florence. (Photo by Andreas SOLARO / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 12. Tottenham Hotspur LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's third goal during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on August 10, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 11. Chelsea Chelsea's players celebrate with the trophy after winning the UEFA Europa League final football match between Chelsea FC and Arsenal FC at the Baku Olympic Stadium in Baku, Azerbaijian, on May 29, 2019. (Photo by OZAN KOSE / AFP) (Photo credit should read OZAN KOSE/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 10. Atletico Madrid MADRID, SPAIN - AUGUST 18: Joao Felix, Kieran Trippier, Alvaro Morata and Jose Gimenez of Atletico Madrid celebrate after the Liga match between Club Atletico de Madrid and Getafe CF at Wanda Metropolitano on August 18, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images) Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 9. RB Leipzig Leipzig's players celebrate with the supporters at the end of the German first division Bundesliga football match RB Leipzig v Eintracht Frankfurt in Leipzig, eastern Germany on August 25, 2019. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP) / RESTRICTIONS: DFL REGULATIONS PROHIBIT ANY USE OF PHOTOGRAPHS AS IMAGE SEQUENCES AND/OR QUASI-VIDEO (Photo credit should read JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 8. Borussia Dortmund COLOGNE, GERMANY - AUGUST 23: Paco Alcacer of Borussia Dortmund (2R) celebrates with his team mates after scoring his side's third goal during the Bundesliga match between 1. FC Koeln and Borussia Dortmund at RheinEnergieStadion on August 23, 2019 in Cologne, Germany. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Bongarts/Getty Images) Bongarts/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 7. Bayern Munich GELSENKIRCHEN, GERMANY - AUGUST 24: Robert Lewandowski Muenchen celebrate with his team mates after he scores the 2nd goal during the Bundesliga match between FC Schalke 04 and FC Bayern Muenchen at Veltins-Arena on August 24, 2019 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (Photo by Martin Rose/Bongarts/Getty Images) Bongarts/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 6. Real Madrid Real Madrid's French forward Karim Benzema (C) celebrates with teammates after scoring during the Spanish League football match between Real Madrid and Real Valladolid at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on August 24, 2019. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP) (Photo credit should read GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 5. Manchester City BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND - AUGUST 25: Pep Guardiola, Manager of Manchester City hugs David Silva of Manchester City after the Premier League match between AFC Bournemouth and Manchester City at Vitality Stadium on August 25, 2019 in Bournemouth, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 4. Juventus Juventus' Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo waits for the VAR decision after opening the scoring during the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg football match Juventus vs Ajax Amsterdam on April 16, 2019 at the Juventus stadium in Turin. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP) (Photo credit should read FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 3. PSG Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian defender Thiago Silva celebrates after a goal of Paris Saint-Germain's Brazilian defender Marquinhos (unseen) during the French L1 football match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Toulouse (TFC) at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, on August 25, 2019. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP) (Photo credit should read FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty Images) AFP/Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 2. Barcelona BARCELONA, SPAIN - MAY 01: Lionel Messi of Barcelona during the UEFA Champions League Semi Final first leg match between Barcelona and Liverpool at the Nou Camp on May 01, 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) Getty Images Power rankings: Champions League last 16 teams 1. Liverpool MADRID, SPAIN - JUNE 01: Jurgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool celebrates with the Champions League Trophy after winning the UEFA Champions League Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at Estadio Wanda Metropolitano on June 01, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images) Getty Images

There is similarly so much this specific Liverpool team, and this club, represent.

They offer many concrete examples of converting managerial regimes that had taken a turn for the worse.

Jurgen Klopp himself, however, isn’t one of those examples. It’s actually funny how things can work out.

Had those at Borussia Dortmund - including Klopp himself - decided to stick amid the struggles of the 2014-15 season, and not felt a change was so necessary, Liverpool might never have encountered this glorious new era.

It might have been the Bundesliga club enjoying another spell of glory. Because, as rightfully admired as Dortmund are for their intelligence in the continuation of an exciting approach first instilled by Klopp, they have still only won one trophy - the 2017 DFB Pokal - in the time since he left. They’ve often been sensational sure, but it’s felt a level down from what Klopp was capable of.

This isn’t to blame anyone, of course. The fair feeling at the time was that everyone was just exhausted. Which sounds familiar.

But it also points to something that has now been almost entirely exhausted in the modern game: no one gets the chance to build again.

It feels like you get one cycle… and that’s it.

The general truth in football, uttered by pretty much everyone in the game, is that “when it goes, it goes”. When a team reaches breaking point, that's it.

Mauricio Pochettino needs time to turn things around (Getty Images)

And that has been seen with virtually every manager and every team in football. It similarly conforms to Bela Gutmann’s rule of the third season being “fatal” and Sir Alex Ferguson’s firm belief that a three- or four-year cycle is the most you can have with any one group. That isn’t because of any mathematical clock in the sky, but because of the inevitable mental effect of working with the same people for so long.

But this is what is key. Why not reverse it, and give a proven manager time to rebuild? Why not give him the two years or so you would usually allow a new manager who comes in - and that Klopp pretty much got when he arrived at Anfield?

That, after all, has pretty much been the story of every turnaround. Clubs have taken the decision to hit pause, to be patient.

Some of the most instructive of those stories have come from Liverpool. Both Bill Shankly, in the early 1970s, and Bob Paisley, around 1981, endured serious drop-offs in the level of title-winning squads. One of those, in 1980-81, even involved a run to a European Cup final. Both were ultimately given the space to create a new team.

Precious few of those stories, however, come from the Premier League era.

This is indicated by the rather stark fact that, of all the managers in the competition’s history who took a job after the 1992 landmark - so excluding Sir Alex Ferguson, George Graham and Brian Clough - Pochettino is the eighth longest serving, at five years and five months.

That in itself is remarkable, and points to how rare it is for managers to get a second go.

This, it should be said, isn’t a plea for patience in the way we hear any time a new manager is struggling. The overwhelming majority won’t prove to be Ferguson.

But this isn’t about new managers. It’s about proven managers, and those like Pochettino who remain at the very forefront of the modern game.

Daniel Levy knows Pochettino can turn things around (AFP/Getty Images)

It is even rarer, with them, that they don’t succeed when given that chance to build a second team. Pretty much all the greats have. It’s why they do what they do.

Many might argue here that Pochettino doesn’t deserve to be put in such a category since he hasn’t won anything, but that’s something else that is genuinely different in the modern game. The Argentine - as should barely need saying by now - has raised Spurs to standards of performance that should not be possible for a club of their resources. He has worked wonders. He has turned them into a Champions League contender, with Daniel Levy to be fair fully building on that with the construction of a truly Champions League stadium.

That was never going to be indefinitely sustainable, especially not with a team where many key players are the wrong side of their prime. Pochettino knew this as early as 2017, but the club’s economic restrictions have prevented him from acting upon it in the way Ferguson - or Shankly, or Paisley, or Sir Matt Busby - would have.

It is why the club should overlook what is a standard process in football, in the decline of one group of players together, and continue to invest in something special.

There is a proven way out of this, tough as it seems right now.

For his part, Levy is well aware of it. He knows Pochettino better than anyone, bar assistant Jesus Perez. More coldly, he also knows the price of getting rid of the Argentine, and getting in a new manager. There would be no guarantees there either. There may be a similar waiting period, especially if you make the wrong choice. Just look at what has happened with Unai Emery at Arsenal.

The feeling among some at Spurs is that results will start to right themselves once the new players - like Tanguy Ndombele, like Giovani Lo Celso - fully attune and get up to speed, which would also give more licence to drop the want-away players.

That could see things start to turn properly.