- Feb 24, 2016
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did poch really have issues with onomah's application and maturity though? he had him with the first team squad for a long time and made 30 odd appearances, i don't think he'd have been afforded that time if poch had those issues with him - as shown by how quickly he's moved other players on who were perceived to lack the right application/mentality. i think poch just didn't rate the defensive side(reading of the game, concentration, positioning etc) of onomah's game enough to play him at cm and that's it but he does rate his ability and athleticism so tried to use him elsewhere.
Apparently when Josh came back from the U20 World Cup Pochettino thought he had an attitude, I know that much. It's perception, of course, and who knows whether he did or whether Pochettino perceived it incorrectly.
One story I heard was that Pochettino didn't fancy Josh as anything other than an AM, but Josh was adamant, so Poch said to him to go out on loan and prove that he could be a CM... if that's true it's not gone so well. Villa are stylistically a terrible, terrible fit for Josh in hindsight, and some of their fans think he doesn't try (others see that that's his languid style rather than a lack of effort).