The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[Dharmabum]

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/tott...-of-transition-at-wembley-mauricio-pochettino

Tottenham in season of 'transition' at Wembley - Mauricio Pochettino

BURNLEY, England -- Mauricio Pochettino has described Tottenham's season away from home as a period of "transition" and says they are using the year at Wembley to build for the future.

Spurs are spending this season at the national stadium while their new 61,500-seater home is being built, and Pochettino began the campaign by talking-up their title chances and pledging to make Wembley "feel like home."

But Spurs have already dropped nine points there -- five more than in the whole of last season at White Hart Lane -- and they are 21 points adrift of runaway leaders Manchester City after 19 games.

Although Pochettino has not publicly conceded the league title, he now says this season is about strengthening "for the next few years" and claims they could never have been expected to mount a third consecutive title challenge.

"The thing you must see and analyse is the club in the last two seasons were third, [then] we were second in the Premier League," the Spurs manager said ahead of Tuesday's game against his former club Southampton at Wembley.

"The next year is a transition as we move from our stadium to Wembley and everyone changed, so the expectation cannot be the same in the next season. But we have never used Wembley as an excuse why we are not one of the teams to challenge for the Premier League.

"We need to recognise and give credit to the team, which is having a fantastic season away from home at Wembley. I'm so happy that we can achieve all that we want to make us strong for next season and the next few years. I am pleased. I am discovering different things about the team and learning about them every day."

Spurs are only five points worse off than they were at the same stage of last season, while they are through to the Champions League round-of-16 after finishing top of their group.

"My ambition and the team's ambition is always to win," he added. "The people need to understand the club is building a new stadium, facilities at the training ground. Every season it is changing and this means things are not stable like they were in the previous season.

"It's so important to recognise that. Sometimes there are not good performances from the team, but they are doing everything to perform in the right way. The people know it is not easy to move stadium. It has happened at different clubs and always it is a tough, tough period.

"But for us it is not an excuse. OK our idea is always to win. It's true that we can do better, but I think we are having a fantastic season.

"Me and my staff give the credit to the players for playing in a different place after last season at White Hart Lane. In 19 Premier League games there, we won 17 and had only two draws. It was a fantastic season at White Hart Lane. So to move to Wembley and make Wembley home... I think when you assess the team it is important to remember this."

Pochettino's team tend to find an extra gear in the second half of the campaign and the Argentine says there is "no doubt" they will finish strongly again.

"During the season in the first six months, we were good," he said. "Maybe it's true in the last few games away from home, at [Manchester] United and Manchester City, we could not win the games. Maybe that's created a little bit of low energy and some not good feeling from the team.

"I think we are going to do well. The team are strong, they are working so hard. They are giving their best and there is no doubt that we are going to finish in a very good way."

 

[thebenjamin]

I never said Conte did brilliant I said he was more tactically astute than Poch. Fa cup Final and Premiership title in your first season thats not bad.

For 60 minutes chelsea had Hazard and Costa on the bench and in the end they won it's a result game unfortunately.

Maybe it is a lack of experience and young age of our 1st team.

I agree the Manager is the most important person because he picks the Team and Poch has done a good job.
But Poch picked Trippier over Walker why? and Plays Son as Left wingback, what makes it look worse is Son gives away a penalty
maybe because he has not got that defensive side to his game.

Winning Cups and silverware Is a requirement if you want to be classed as a world class manager.

And less of the muppet you don't need to go there.

Shocking that someone with a playing squad paid £240M per season has more options than someone with a squad paid £100M. Just shocking.

 

[Khilari]

I don't think I ever said he was tactically very poor... however I would question his tactics away from home against the big teams... that is where most people will accept we have made the least progress under him

Agreed.

 

[coys200]

Mistake after mistake this season. I’m not a football manager I knew West Ham had 12 fit players and would park the bus. I know sissoko is not the player to break down a packed defence. I’m honestly fuming Poch can’t see this shit.

 

[Diarmuid]

Mistake after mistake this season. I’m not a football manager I knew West Ham had 12 fit players and would park the bus. I know sissoko is not the player to break down a packed defence. I’m honestly fuming Poch can’t see this shit.

That's a fair criticism... it's also the lack of urgency we play with early on in games like these that I cannot understand.. I know we have played a lot of games but its like there is no real plan of attack

 

[SugarRay]

Mistake after mistake this season. I’m not a football manager I knew West Ham had 12 fit players and would park the bus. I know sissoko is not the player to break down a packed defence. I’m honestly fuming Poch can’t see this shit.

Champions League run makes up for the average domestic return this season. The squad aren’t consistent enough. All season, the only ones who can hold their heads up high are Kane, Vertonghen, Sanchez, Davies and Son. Sure, all of them have had a few iffy moments at times, but few and far between. Their effort never drops and they stand up to be counted.
We need Hugo, Eriksen and Dele to step up to their level ( and for Wanyama & Toby, who will never let the side down, to get fit )

Take away Europe and it’s been a pretty average season, as crazy as that sounds. One win out of three against West Ham, throwing away the Carabao and defeats against Chelsea and Arsenal? Not overly impressed with those results to be honest. Quite the opposite

 

[Hercules]

What the heck could he have done today?
Dembele, Lamela, Winks, all injured, but on bench to play if needed, though hindered. Some people need to take the blinkers off. Sorry, some not aware of all of this.

 

[rossdapep]

What the heck could he have done today?
Dembele, Lamela, Winks, all injured, but on bench to play if needed, though hindered. Some people need to take the blinkers off. Sorry, some not aware of all of this.

Talk to me....

 

[thebenjamin]

What the heck could he have done today?
Dembele, Lamela, Winks, all injured, but on bench to play if needed, though hindered. Some people need to take the blinkers off. Sorry, some not aware of all of this.

It's not necessarily about blinkers. It's clear this Spurs team have a major problem against 10 behind the ball. No matter how inferior the opposition, we can't do it. And there seems to have been zero done differently, and zero improvement despite the same issue occurring numerous times, and costing us a huge amount of points.

It's not unreasonable to question what steps are being made to change something that happens over and over agains in exactly the same way.

 

[Hercules]

My final point if you cannot grab what I am saying. If he had the luxury of all the previously named being fully fit, Sissoko would not of played.
Davies is not 100% fit, and another of our key players has been playing with injections. Lay off a Poch please as you don’t know the facts.

 

[Hengy1]

My final point if you cannot grab what I am saying. If he had the luxury of all the previously named being fully fit, Sissoko would not of played.
Davies is not 100% fit, and another of our key players has been playing with injections. Lay off a Poch please as you don’t know the facts.

So we should blame levy for not giving him a adequate squad then are you saying?

 

[thebenjamin]

My final point if you cannot grab what I am saying. If he had the luxury of all the previously named being fully fit, Sissoko would not of played.
Davies is not 100% fit, and another of our key players has been playing with injections. Lay off a Poch please as you don’t know the facts.

It's not really about team selection though, is it? There is undeniably an issue that our system doesn't work against the blanket defence. You can't really blame team selection when individually we are better than the opposition in every position on the field.

BTW I'm Poch's biggest fan. But whatever he is trying to do isn't working. At WHL it eventually worked because we wore teams down, but not possible at Wembley. Surely there is something that isn't exactly what the opposition expect that we could try. It seems to me attending the games we play exactly the same way every time and hope that this time it will work. We are very predictable and really relying on Kane to score from nothing.

 

[rossdapep]

What the heck could he have done today?
Dembele, Lamela, Winks, all injured, but on bench to play if needed, though hindered. Some people need to take the blinkers off. Sorry, some not aware of all of this.

Easy to say this now but I think we should have gone with Sissoko away and Lamela tonight. Unless of course Lamela got injured in training.

 

[coys200]

What the heck could he have done today?
Dembele, Lamela, Winks, all injured, but on bench to play if needed, though hindered. Some people need to take the blinkers off. Sorry, some not aware of all of this.

In no universe is sissoko a better option than Marcus Edwards against a packed defence. If those players named were all unfit.Give the lad a chance on the bench at least. Honestly I’d have taken Nkoudou over sissoko tonight.

 

[The Apprentice]

Anyone got Poch’s email address? I’ve done my research and there’s nothing in the laws to prevent subs before 70 minutes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitute_(association_football)

 

[allpaths]

My final point if you cannot grab what I am saying. If he had the luxury of all the previously named being fully fit, Sissoko would not of played.
Davies is not 100% fit, and another of our key players has been playing with injections. Lay off a Poch please as you don’t know the facts.

Poch doesnt deserve as much flak as he is getting we were more unlucky than anything tonight. But if he just showed a little more belief in one of the top CM prospects in the world we wouldnt have found ourselves in this spot.

 

[lukespurs7]

Anyone got Poch’s email address? I’ve done my research and there’s nothing in the laws to prevent subs before 70 minutes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitute_(association_football)

This made me chuckle lol thanks really tickled me after a shitty long journey home

 

[tiger666]

if he just showed a little more belief in one of the top CM prospects in the world we wouldnt have found ourselves in this spot.

Who?

 

[Graysonti]

Who?

Bentelab my guess

 

[St José Dominguez]

Was his fault today but he's really got to have some strong words with Levy about his squad now. First 11 when fit is great but he's got to honest and say this squad isn't getting Top 4 this year.
He needs to lay it out that beyond the first 11 all he's got to work with is:

Lamela - good player but been out for a year and might take a while to be up to speed

Llorente - worth a punt but hasn't worked out and never will

GKN - worth a punt but hasn't developed at all and he's given up on him

Sissoko - horrible waste of money and of no use at all

Dembele - half crocked and unreliable now

Foyth - a kid who won't be first team ready for years

And that's it. That's his squad players for a team who before season were apparently pushing to win the league. Embarrassing really.