The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[Spurs 1961]

Perhaps when Poch talks about acting like a big club he means bringing in players whom top teams want. That is adding a few to the squad but adding quality. We know he doesn’t want a huge squad but suspect he has said he would rather stick with players than take third or fourth choices.

Complete speculation on my part.

The recent meltdown worries me but in truth we know we have not been great all season. Poch talking up the squad and achievements these last weeks is clearly a tactic to keep them going for the last few games. No point in criticism if directed in the wrong place. That has to be the management which he is a big part of in failing to get adequate quality cover in the last couple of years.

 

[JW72]

I wish more fans also understood the huge amount of food that Donna Daniel etc are doing...

Typical Levy, skimping on the caterers and preparing the pies himself . To be fair, his sausage rolls are decent...

 

[Dzejkob]

So I'm thinking that maybe Poch refused to sign another Nkoudus in January that could possibly help us this season but would only be 'temporary' players, so that we have more money to spend this summer and could potentialy buy better players for next season. Brave and very risky but well, he has done it.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Typical Levy, skimping on the caterers and preparing the pies himself . To be fair, his sausage rolls are decent...

Haha yea I’m only crediting them for the improvement in food nothing else

 

[Khilari]

I think there was money that could have been used for transfers, but in the context of the time the decisions were being made the risk of spending said money on players was too great.

A right back, a CM and another forward like Son imo.

I'd add a LB to that. Rose has been the better of the two and I don't think Davies, whilst solid gives us enough going forwards to play the way we want.

Also, expecting Toby and probably Eriksen to leave, we'll need to replace them too.

Lamela will likely be the fall guy if we can bring in another forward.

So: LB, RB, CB, CM, AMF, RWF.
Yeah, never gonna happen.

 

[TheChosenOne]

Nice Guardian online article by David Hytner on MP
.

 

[ackie]

I seriously don't understand some of the negativity.
We didn't sign any player.
We sold our best midfielder in Dembele.
Have many injuries.
But we have a new stadium...probably one of the best.
Still manage to make top 4 irrespective of the injuries and not signing players.
ANDDDDD we are in the semi final of the Champions league when many thought we were doomed from the stage group.

Let's appreciate what we have and where we are.
In the words of MoPo: Let's believe.

For next season, we can all see that the squad needs upgrading and we have an ambitious manager.
Like someone said, I think we should challenge for the premiership and think we will win a trophy next season. We have been close. Yes we can!

Coys

 

[shelfmonkey]

I seriously don't understand some of the negativity.
We didn't sign any player.
We sold our best midfielder in Dembele.
Have many injuries.
But we have a new stadium...probably one of the best.
Still manage to make top 4 irrespective of the injuries and not signing players.
ANDDDDD we are in the semi final of the Champions league when many thought we were doomed from the stage group.

Let's appreciate what we have and where we are.
In the words of MoPo: Let's believe.

For next season, we can all see that the squad needs upgrading and we have an ambitious manager.
Like someone said, I think we should challenge for the premiership and think we will win a trophy next season. We have been close. Yes we can!

Coys

It's the first 11 that needs upgrading!

 

[Primativ]

It just won’t. We’ve got out of jail this year. It won’t happen again.

This group, especially if weakened by departures, will not make the top 4 again.

It’s lacking variety, depth and quality in too many areas. There are too many injury prone players too.

Need fresh blood, fresh ideas and some pace and skill.

We are, barring the disaster of all disasters, back in the CL and definitely in our stadium.

Time to be bold

Completely agree. it is pure blind delusion to think this side gets anywhere near top 4 next season. Huge holes in our squad. We were playing kids like Skipp for goodness sake, players who are miles from being ready. We have carried woefully out of form players.


I’d also say that we have been relying on individual brilliance in moments from Son, Eriksen and Kane to win us games rather than having a consistent team strategy this season.

Apart from those moments of brilliance we’ve been pretty dire all season. Like really poor.

We’d have to admit luck has been on our side hugely this season. We’ve had some bad luck too of course, but by all intents and purposes United and or Arsenal should have easily overtaken us by now.

We should be sitting in 5th or 6th now having blown CL for next season in our new stadium. Then I’m sure these boards would be very different. The fact we have scraped our way to CL qualification shouldn’t paper over the so very obvious cracks we have in the squad.

Poch might be able to fool some fans with his words but he won’t fool me. We’ve been shite this season in the league by and large. He definitely shares big responsibility for that. The decline in many areas of our squad are there to see, our defence is far worse and our playing style is far worse. Ultimately he is the one who has control about shipping out injury prone players. That we were left relying on kids and players who aren’t good enough is on him. It’s no good just saying I wanted De Jong and if I can’t have him I want no one. That doesn’t solve our issues in the squad.

Whilst Poch deserves credit for getting this squad to stay top 4, I feel we’ve been very very fortunate. I don’t think we can turn around and say Poch plans for this season came off. His decision (and Levy?) to make no signings horribly backfired. We’ve looked leggy, slow, passive, out of ideas in far too many games.

Wembley was an easy excuse but we are back home now and still losing games.

Major work needed in the summer before we can genuinely say we can stay in top 4 let alone a title challenge for next season. Too many players in our squad who aren’t good or fit enough.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

Completely agree. it is pure blind delusion to think this side gets anywhere near top 4 next season. Huge holes in our squad. We were playing kids like Skipp for goodness sake, players who are miles from being ready. We have carried woefully out of form players.


I’d also say that we have been relying on individual brilliance in moments from Son, Eriksen and Kane to win us games rather than having a consistent team strategy this season.

Apart from those moments of brilliance we’ve been pretty dire all season. Like really poor.

We’d have to admit luck has been on our side hugely this season. We’ve had some bad luck too of course, but by all intents and purposes United and or Arsenal should have easily overtaken us by now.

We should be sitting in 5th or 6th now having blown CL for next season in our new stadium. Then I’m sure these boards would be very different. The fact we have scraped our way to CL qualification shouldn’t paper over the so very obvious cracks we have in the squad.

Poch might be able to fool some fans with his words but he won’t fool me. We’ve been shite this season in the league by and large. He definitely shares big responsibility for that. The decline in many areas of our squad are there to see, our defence is far worse and our playing style is far worse. Ultimately he is the one who has control about shipping out injury prone players. That we were left relying on kids and players who aren’t good enough is on him. It’s no good just saying I wanted De Jong and if I can’t have him I want no one. That doesn’t solve our issues in the squad.

Whilst Poch deserves credit for getting this squad to stay top 4, I feel we’ve been very very fortunate. I don’t think we can turn around and say Poch plans for this season came off. His decision (and Levy?) to make no signings horribly backfired. We’ve looked leggy, slow, passive, out of ideas in far too many games.

Wembley was an easy excuse but we are back home now and still losing games.

Major work needed in the summer before we can genuinely say we can stay in top 4 let alone a title challenge for next season. Too many players in our squad who aren’t good or fit enough.

No doubt whatever that there's issues we need to address, urgently. However, that first bit of your post, heard/read it for the last 3 years, yet we've remained in the top 4.

 

[Shadydan]

Completely agree. it is pure blind delusion to think this side gets anywhere near top 4 next season. Huge holes in our squad. We were playing kids like Skipp for goodness sake, players who are miles from being ready. We have carried woefully out of form players.


I’d also say that we have been relying on individual brilliance in moments from Son, Eriksen and Kane to win us games rather than having a consistent team strategy this season.

Apart from those moments of brilliance we’ve been pretty dire all season. Like really poor.

We’d have to admit luck has been on our side hugely this season. We’ve had some bad luck too of course, but by all intents and purposes United and or Arsenal should have easily overtaken us by now.

We should be sitting in 5th or 6th now having blown CL for next season in our new stadium. Then I’m sure these boards would be very different. The fact we have scraped our way to CL qualification shouldn’t paper over the so very obvious cracks we have in the squad.

Poch might be able to fool some fans with his words but he won’t fool me. We’ve been shite this season in the league by and large. He definitely shares big responsibility for that. The decline in many areas of our squad are there to see, our defence is far worse and our playing style is far worse. Ultimately he is the one who has control about shipping out injury prone players. That we were left relying on kids and players who aren’t good enough is on him. It’s no good just saying I wanted De Jong and if I can’t have him I want no one. That doesn’t solve our issues in the squad.

Whilst Poch deserves credit for getting this squad to stay top 4, I feel we’ve been very very fortunate. I don’t think we can turn around and say Poch plans for this season came off. His decision (and Levy?) to make no signings horribly backfired. We’ve looked leggy, slow, passive, out of ideas in far too many games.

Wembley was an easy excuse but we are back home now and still losing games.

Major work needed in the summer before we can genuinely say we can stay in top 4 let alone a title challenge for next season. Too many players in our squad who aren’t good or fit enough.

Utd and Arsenal have far more work to do than us.

 

[Primativ]

No doubt whatever that there's issues we need to address, urgently. However, that first bit of your post, heard/read it for the last 3 years, yet we've remained in the top 4.

But you’re being massively complacent. Can you seriously turn around to me and say this top 4 battle has been in control? Our form is relegation form. We should all intents and purposes be out of it by now. The only reason we aren’t is two fold. We scraped a few last minute 1 nil wins against shite sides over the course of the season, and arsenal have completely let us off the hook. We’ve even let Chelsea over take us in recent weeks.

I can’t have people say to me that we look like a comfortable top 4 side when we are playing like we’ve been playing. It’s not based in reality on what we are seeing.

Whilst last season and the season before, our stats and performances were good, I could understand people being confident. But after this shit show of a season? We’ve been really poor. Even Kane has had a poor output season. Aubameyang has even outscored him comfortably. We’ve declined in all areas of our stats and performances, the evidence is right in front of our eyes. All arsenal had to do was beat Brighton and we were minutes from dropping two points against them at home and we’d be basically not out of the top 4. We’ve got lucky. That’s a 4 point swing just there. I can’t believe how any Spurs fan can be confident about top 4 next season based on our current playing squad very likely minus two of our best players in Eriksen and Toby. We need major major work. We needed work last summer, I was saying it all summer, we didn’t and lo and behold we declined this season. If we don’t sort it out next summer we will decline even further.

It’s not hard to work out where the problems in our squad are. It’s quite clear. These issues urgently need addressing. Otherwise next season we will drop another level like we did this season.

 

[Primativ]

Utd and Arsenal have far more work to do than us.

I wouldn’t say far more. They have more work to do, but they also have more money and United at least have more gravitas.

Don’t be fooled though, we also need major work. Maybe not as much as them, but we still need lots of work. They are only a few pts behind us, we are hardly talking big differences here.

 

[nicdic]

We've been lucky?

 

[Shadydan]

I wouldn’t say far more. They have more work to do, but they also have more money and United at least have more gravitas.

Don’t be fooled though, we also need major work. Maybe not as much as them, but we still need lots of work. They are only a few pts behind us, we are hardly talking big differences here.

Utd have throw money at the problem for the last 7 years and they have nowhere near challenging for the title or at least been consistent. Listen to Gary Neville talk about Utd last night and that will tell you how far away they are.

We are in a far better place than our rivals, we do need surgery but when you put it into perspective others are in more of a mess than us by a mile.

 

[Primativ]

We've been lucky?

Maybe luck is the wrong word. We’ve been very close to dropping loads of points but managed to crawl over the line in loads of games. I think of how many last minute wins we’ve got this season. Fulham away, Burnley and Brighton home. The margin for dropping points in loads of fixtures this season has been so so tight. We’ve rarely comprehensively won games.

 

[14/04/91]

Even Kane has had a poor output season. Aubameyang has even outscored him comfortably.

Comfortably?? He’s scored 3 goals more!

Kane has had two injuries to contend with and would, most likely, be level at least if he’d not missed as many matches.

 

[Shadydan]

We've been lucky?

Apparantley yes because luck only applies to us because our rivals haven't taken advantage of us dropping points even though they've dropped point as well

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

So I'm thinking that maybe Poch refused to sign another Nkoudus in January that could possibly help us this season but would only be 'temporary' players, so that we have more money to spend this summer and could potentialy buy better players for next season. Brave and very risky but well, he has done it.

You do have a point, but there is a dark cloud in that silver lining of yours. This is pure supposition, but if you turned back time and told Pochettino in January: "You'll reach the CL semis and nearly miss out on top 4, would you like a loan deal for Tielemans?" He would say, "Hombre, where the fuck do I sign". In other words, had he fully know where we'd be now, I bet he'd make different decisions.

 

[Primativ]

Utd have throw money at the problem for the last 7 years and they have nowhere near challenging for the title or at least been consistent. Listen to Gary Neville talk about Utd last night and that will tell you how far away they are.

We are in a far better place than our rivals, we do need surgery but when you put it into perspective others are in more of a mess than us by a mile.

Yes but Neville is talking about how far they are from the title and where they “should” be. Not how far they are from us. You do realise we are also over twenty points away from the top and only a few points ahead of United? You make it sound like we are miles in front of them.

In any case the only relevance is that our rivals have let us off the hook. It doesn’t matter how much of a mess United are in, it’s how are we going to bridge the gap to the top.