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The Mauricio Pochettino thread

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spursfan77

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2005
46,680
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Well this explains why they've stopped listening to him and why they didn't "respect the plan" the other night. It sounds like we need to go back to basics and get back to working on what makes us so strong as a team. Things haven't been right with the team for a long time, but we shouldn't give up on him now. He's already got the players for the evolution of this team, but he hasn't had a chance to get them into the team yet. Let's see how things look when Sessegnon, Lo Celso and Foyth are available again.

If he goes I can't see and don't want Jose coming in. He's fine for a short term solution, but the guys a bully and a creates disharmony wherever he goes. He would eventually undo all of the good work that Poch has done. A lot of the football experts think that he's been lined up to take over at Madrid again anyway. I also can't see Levy sacking Poch if he thinks that Madrid might come in to get him if Zidane gets the boot. Financially it would make much more sense to give him time and then get Madrid to pay us however many million for him rather than for us to sack him and have to pay him compensation.

The same experts who were convinced Poch would go to Man Utd in January?
 

nailsy

SC Supporter
Jul 24, 2005
30,536
46,628
The same experts who were convinced Poch would go to Man Utd in January?

I think the guys who've been saying it are the guys who cover Spanish football so possibly not. Anyway, Poch was Uniteds number one target wasn't he? They only moved on after it became clear that they couldn't get him didn't they? Madrid won't have the same issues with Jose as he's out of work.
 

srups34

Well-Known Member
Jun 11, 2008
2,595
5,477
Neville has a go at loads of people though - that doesn't mean he's anti Spurs. He also called Daniel Levy the 'best operator in football' fairly recently. I think people forget that we are fans whereas a lot of these pundits aren't.
I understand what you are saying but it was blatantly obvious what he was doing at the time. Unfortunately for us I believe his wish will be granted sooner rather than later.
 

Monkey boy

Well-Known Member
Jun 18, 2011
6,381
17,040
I think we have to let Poch have this season - drop jan, rose, eriksen, wanyama and anyobe else who not up for it and play the younger players who will give it. No time for these pre-madonnas crying about not winning anything. Theres a reason they havent got medals and its nothing to do with Poch. And hate to say it but theres a reason these players are at Spurs and not real ir city.

Kyle Walker springs to mind, he jumped ship and look where that’s got him. Bet he regrets the move now the loser
 

gavspur

Well-Known Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,255
8,686
Poch has said he likes working with the younger players, and yet we haven’t seen any of them get a game yet, even after particularly impressing in pre-season. Parrott, Skipp, and Tanganga were all very good, especially Tanganga I thought. And all players in positions we have struggled with, or been short on so far. It’s not like those friendlies were Vs Kilmarnock or Ebbsfleet either.
 

dude573

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
1,589
4,813
Lamela is better suited to the bench

At a time when we have about four or five starting 11 players who clearly don't want to be at the club, you're suggesting we drop one of the few who actually cares?

At this stage Poch needs fighters and Lamela is certainly one.
 

Timberwolf

Well-Known Member
Jan 17, 2008
10,328
50,217
My biggest concern at the moment is that we don't look particularly well coached. We have the third best squad in the league yet for the best part of a year our passing has been predictable, our defence shaky and unless we're playing on the break we consistently struggle to break teams down or pass our way through them.

I watched Brighton against Newcastle the other day and Brighton, who don't have half the talent we have, were able to consistently put together intelligent passing moves and create spaces behind the opposition. They didn't convert any of the opportunities they created because they don't have the individual talent, but they looked a well drilled side who knew exactly what they were doing going forward. You could say the same of Norwich - they're a flawed side but they look extremely well coached in the way they pass the ball around and put attacking moves together.

In the last year it feels like most of our goals have come from individual moments of brilliance rather than any kind of coaching. When the other team gets into a defensive shape we seem to just pass the ball around from side to side and occasionally throw in a speculative cross if the ball gets out wide. Occasionally a quick vertical pass will create a pocket of space, but despite our technical talent we seem almost incapable of passing through the middle or creating space in the way that the best attacking sides do. Even against Palace, a game we dominated, our goals were fairly one-dimensional - every single one of them coming from crosses from the right side. Some of them were exceptionally well taken, and fair play to Poch for exploiting Palace's weakness, but they were all a result of us ruthlessly exploiting an obvious weakness in our opponents rather than well-coached passing moves. Despite winning 4-0, amazingly our xG was only like 1.2 compared to palace's 0.6. We were converting low percentage chances due to individual brilliance rather than creating reliable goalscoring opportunities.

When Poch came in he got all of our players to over-perform. Now it seems more and more like our players are stuck in a rut and underperforming. Eriksen's in terrible form, we haven't seen the best of Alli in about 2 years, we're massively underutilising Kane and I often feel that players like Son and Lucas aren't being used in the most efficient way. The only players on an upward trajectory are young players like Winks and those brought in from the cold like Sissoko - everyone else has gone stale.

It's a very difficult situation as Poch has been loyal to us, is on a long contract and has a huge amount of credit in the bank. He's also capable of getting this squad into the top 4, though it will be one hell of a slog and a close race. Moreover, if we were to replace him we could easily create huge amounts of unrest and things could get a lot worse before they get better. Ultimately we're stuck between a rock and a hard place and I think the most likely outcome is that we suffer a slow, inevitable decline over the course of the season. I think Poch will then parts way come the summer or if we go on a terrible run and are in serious danger of dropping out of the top 4.
 

Nick-TopSpursMan

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2005
4,000
18,943
He needs to go back to basics because his obsession with this shit shape he keeps playing has caused a lot of our problems.

1. Play a DM. Whether that's Dier or Skipp, one of them has to play in the holding role.
2. DO NOT PLAY THE DIAMOND! FFS
3. Play 4-2-3-1, with Dier/Skipp partnered alongside 1 one of Ndombele, Winks and Sissoko in a double pivot.
 

Marty

Audere est farce
Mar 10, 2005
39,885
62,563
At a time when we have about four or five starting 11 players who clearly don't want to be at the club, you're suggesting we drop one of the few who actually cares?

At this stage Poch needs fighters and Lamela is certainly one.
And the way Lamela played as a number 10 against Leicester means that for me he is one of the first names on the team sheet right now, preferably in that central role as well.
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,776
99,340
To lose the Leicester game was incredibly frustrating, but that's not what has me down - it's the wider picture of how we've generally looked since the turn of the year.

There doesn't seem to be a quick fix to this for whatever the reasons.

It just feels like we're sliding down at the moment and this season all most has a write off feel to it.
 

Gb160

Well done boys. Good process
Jun 20, 2012
23,646
93,315
this season all most has a write off feel to it.
Yeah 6 games in and realistically top 4 is all there is to aim at....even that looks to be a struggle.
We look further away from winning anything than we have in years.

At least next year we'll be able to use the 'tired' excuse because of the Euros.
 

McFlash

In the corner, eating crayons.
Oct 19, 2005
12,740
45,363
I’m with @Mr Pink on this one. Yes it’s not great, but if he wants to be here, then he has more than enough in the bank to try and sort it out
I do agree that he's more than earnt his chance to sort out what is his first tricky patch at the club. Whether or not Levy will agree remains to be seen.
Poch has got to sort things out quickly, and being a bit cheerier would help too!
 

dagraham

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2005
19,115
46,080
Lamela is better suited to the bench

Trust me if you’ve seen my posts I’m not part of the Lamela fan club and he still frustrates me, but he’s been one of our better performers this season and was arguably our best player at the weekend.

If all our players were playing to their maximum then he wouldn’t make my starting 11, but they aren’t and he no doubt deserves his place.
 

Primativ

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2017
3,229
12,486
My biggest concern at the moment is that we don't look particularly well coached. We have the third best squad in the league yet for the best part of a year our passing has been predictable, our defence shaky and unless we're playing on the break we consistently struggle to break teams down or pass our way through them.

I watched Brighton against Newcastle the other day and Brighton, who don't have half the talent we have, were able to consistently put together intelligent passing moves and create spaces behind the opposition. They didn't convert any of the opportunities they created because they don't have the individual talent, but they looked a well drilled side who knew exactly what they were doing going forward. You could say the same of Norwich - they're a flawed side but they look extremely well coached in the way they pass the ball around and put attacking moves together.

In the last year it feels like most of our goals have come from individual moments of brilliance rather than any kind of coaching. When the other team gets into a defensive shape we seem to just pass the ball around from side to side and occasionally throw in a speculative cross if the ball gets out wide. Occasionally a quick vertical pass will create a pocket of space, but despite our technical talent we seem almost incapable of passing through the middle or creating space in the way that the best attacking sides do. Even against Palace, a game we dominated, our goals were fairly one-dimensional - every single one of them coming from crosses from the right side. Some of them were exceptionally well taken, and fair play to Poch for exploiting Palace's weakness, but they were all a result of us ruthlessly exploiting an obvious weakness in our opponents rather than well-coached passing moves. Despite winning 4-0, amazingly our xG was only like 1.2 compared to palace's 0.6. We were converting low percentage chances due to individual brilliance rather than creating reliable goalscoring opportunities.

When Poch came in he got all of our players to over-perform. Now it seems more and more like our players are stuck in a rut and underperforming. Eriksen's in terrible form, we haven't seen the best of Alli in about 2 years, we're massively underutilising Kane and I often feel that players like Son and Lucas aren't being used in the most efficient way. The only players on an upward trajectory are young players like Winks and those brought in from the cold like Sissoko - everyone else has gone stale.

It's a very difficult situation as Poch has been loyal to us, is on a long contract and has a huge amount of credit in the bank. He's also capable of getting this squad into the top 4, though it will be one hell of a slog and a close race. Moreover, if we were to replace him we could easily create huge amounts of unrest and things could get a lot worse before they get better. Ultimately we're stuck between a rock and a hard place and I think the most likely outcome is that we suffer a slow, inevitable decline over the course of the season. I think Poch will then parts way come the summer or if we go on a terrible run and are in serious danger of dropping out of the top 4.

Excellent post. We see the same thing. I’m just not sure how we are going to turn it around and start improving. This has been happening for 18 months now. Results have slowly got worse.

We may get top 4 by default because other sides are so useless too but I wouldn’t want to risk it and regardless it’s not good enough.

As you said can anyone really say we look well coached? We don’t. We did a few years ago but not anymore. Players have regressed not got better and players like Eriksen are completely unmotivated. It doesn’t look great behind the scenes at all.
 

dagraham

Well-Known Member
Sep 20, 2005
19,115
46,080
It doesn’t help that we have players not only here who wanted to leave, but players we’ve tried to flog who are still here.

Hardly likely to be focused when we basically told them to find another club.

Then we have Verts who clearly wants to stay but for some reason also seems to be just running his contract down.
 

DiamondLites

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2011
4,630
13,062
He needs to go back to basics because his obsession with this shit shape he keeps playing has caused a lot of our problems.

1. Play a DM. Whether that's Dier or Skipp, one of them has to play in the holding role.
2. DO NOT PLAY THE DIAMOND! FFS
3. Play 4-2-3-1, with Dier/Skipp partnered alongside 1 one of Ndombele, Winks and Sissoko in a double pivot.

We’ve all been saying this for some time now, yet Poch is blind to what a lot of us can see or is too stubborn to go back to this set up. Either way it’s a problem
 

Norgie

Well-Known Member
Mar 29, 2005
2,271
2,303
For me it's a mental issue, the hangover from the players not signing contracts or possibly moving has plagued the start of our season mentally. This has now started a snowball effect and they can't seem to get out of it. The palace game was an exception and I hoped they would kick on from it and start some momentum but I worry the snowball is rolling again and the negativeness from fans and pundits will weigh heavy on the players and coaching staff. Poch needs try and get their heads right and try and get some results and then build from there, otherwise it will just get worse.
 

doctor stefan Freud

the tired tread of sad biology
Sep 2, 2013
15,170
72,169
Poch and a specific element of SC
A78B6400-55DD-43FA-A042-D1786ED5750E.jpeg
 
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