Next Manager Watch

Tottenham_God said:

What sort of players would we need to bring in to cater for an Enrique system?

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Players that like the ball

Recommend people listen to High Performance Podcast episode with Ryan Mason. Wow. Really impressive.

Just needs some experience but he has all the tools to be a very successful Manager/Coach. When that will be who knows.

muel said:

Recommend people listen to High Performance Podcast episode with Ryan Mason. Wow. Really impressive.

Just needs some experience but he has all the tools to be a very successful Manager/Coach. When that will be who knows.

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I would, but I have an unhealthy hatred for Jake Humphries!

JUSTINSIGNAL said:

Agree with a lot of this. I think the Mourinho/Conte appointments were partly due to circumstance (Mourinho the hugest profile manager available when Poch was sacked) but also partly to appease Kane and also the narrative that developed during the Poch era that all we needed is to install a winning mentality to push the club onto the next level.

And I do agree that having a big name manager is an extra string to our bow to attract players. We need every advantage we can get because we’re unlikely to come out on top if we simply try and outspend our rivals.

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I'd quite like it if we moved on from prima donna managers and players tbh. I'd welcome a manager and players who were desperate to do well here, not just for themselves, but for the club and the fans too. I'm quite fed up with the atmosphere that they're too good for us and deserve to be somewhere else. I can't recall other clubs trying to appease a star player the way we have with Kane, but then they all seem to win stuff and we don't. All the talk now is that Kane might stay if we get Poch in, but is that really the best route for the club to be taking?

Tottenham_God said:

What sort of players would we need to bring in to cater for an Enrique system?

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Players who don't have a panic attack when they receive a 5-yard pass.

Tottenham_God said:

What sort of players would we need to bring in to cater for an Enrique system?

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I actually think regardless of whether it’s Enrique, Pochettino or Conte continuing we will need a goalkeeper who is good with their feet and a high quality LCB.

Then it’s a question of formation - are we going to stick with wing backs and a back three? In which case we need one more centre back and probably a LWB.
Are we going to move to 4-3-3 in which case we need a high technical quality player to play in central midfield who can help us unlock defences either from deep or from the 10 position.
Existing players I think that Enrique would like: Romero, Porro, Skipp, Kane, Kulusevski, Bentancur. I think he’d likely be able to make use as squad players out of Royal, Davies, Bissouma because all of them are technically proficient without being exceptional. I’m not sure Hojbjerg or Richarlison would be a good fit for him whereas I think both of them would be good for Pochettino or De Zerbi.

Japhet said:

I'd quite like it if we moved on from prima donna managers and players tbh. I'd welcome a manager and players who were desperate to do well here, not just for themselves, but for the club and the fans too. I'm quite fed up with the atmosphere that they're too good for us and deserve to be somewhere else. I can't recall other clubs trying to appease a star player the way we have with Kane, but then they all seem to win stuff and we don't. All the talk now is that Kane might stay if we get Poch in, but is that really the best route for the club to be taking?

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but our recruitment needs to be right, just look at how we did when we sold Bale...

coy-spurs1882 said:

but our recruitment needs to be right, just look at how we did when we sold Bale...

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Not sure how there can be any confidence in this till the issue with Paratici is resolved and/or his replacement.

Japhet said:

I'd quite like it if we moved on from prima donna managers and players tbh. I'd welcome a manager and players who were desperate to do well here, not just for themselves, but for the club and the fans too. I'm quite fed up with the atmosphere that they're too good for us and deserve to be somewhere else. I can't recall other clubs trying to appease a star player the way we have with Kane, but then they all seem to win stuff and we don't. All the talk now is that Kane might stay if we get Poch in, but is that really the best route for the club to be taking?

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100%

That's what was so special about the Poch era. A young hungry team all pushing the same direction, and the feeling they could achieve their dreams at spurs. Now everytime we fail to win a trophy the talk is immediately about Kane leaving rather than us continue to grow, develop and build the team.

We simply can't employ a project manager because of the threat that Kane is not interested in a project. It really is a bit of a catch 22 for club - employ a project manager on a 3-5 year contract and potentially lose Kane this year or next. Or get another 'win now' manager that we don't have Man City/Chelsea/Man U finances to back properly and deal with more toxicity around the club when we inevitably don't win anything.

coy-spurs1882 said:

but our recruitment needs to be right, just look at how we did when we sold Bale...

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Signed Eriksen who was a key contributor to our most successful period in PL to date

C0YS said:

Yet Leverkusen have been going backwards for a long time now. Tim Stiedten seems to have got his job at a time that Bayer Leverkusen were regularly in the CL (top 4 in 8 of the 10 seasons before), to have qualified just once in, what will now be, 4 seasons. So a few good players aside its hard to make a convincing case that hes led to an improvement of the club.

Furthermore, while a few of those players are very good most are not much more than okay. Like Schick, an incredibly highly rated prospect his whole life, has had one very good season but to say he's been erratic is an understatement. While its impossible to say alonso will be a hit. This season is very hard to judge him by but much more will be expected next year, as
Leverkusen are a team that should be competing for CL positions every year, as you would expect the 4th richest club in the league to do so.

Werder Bremen being relegated two seasons after his departure would also worry me. Again, werder are a relatively rich club for the bundesliga and DoFs are responsible for long term health not just short term gain.

I get this seems harsh. But a good scout =\= a good Dof. And while it might well be that hes great at his job and other factors are harming his teams I have very big question marks. Particularly as people seem to overate dofs abilities to sign hidden gems rather than create stable well functioning clubs with good structures which has a long term shot at success (Look at monchi at Sevilla and, yes, ragnick at Leipzig as examples of this. Even though each of these clubs have had ups and downs there is a structure).

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Yh i'm not saying we should get him just thought it was interesting timing.

The key to that approach is getting the recruitment right, and consistently. Naturally a team of young hungry players with potential, assuming they deliver, will evolve into a team of higher end players and inevitably want to move on if we haven’t yet won anything. It’s what happened with Walker for example, he went from talented young player from the Championship to arguably the best right back in the league whilst at Spurs, but with his upward trajectory he became sought after by elite clubs and we lost him. Now if we are accepting of that, then focus needs to be placed on making sure the replacement is already in place when the player leaves, so we have far greater continuity. Replacement should be a similar style/skillset. We replaced Walker with Aurier, and it just didn’t work. However if we’d got Walker-Peters development right and got him out for a full season of regular football the year before Walker left, we may have been in a better place. That Walker fee could have gone on the next development RB, and the rest been utilised elsewhere.
The Borussia Dortmund model.

Tottenham_God said:

What sort of players would we need to bring in to cater for an Enrique system?

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Well. Porro, Romero, Lenglet, maybe Davies, Skipp, Sarr, Bissouma, Bentancur, Kulu, Son, Kane, Gil, Lo Celso, Ndombele, Winks would be fine BUT obviously Enrique may want to improve signings

Lloris, Regi, Rodon, Spence, Emerson, Sanchez, Dier, Hojbjerg, Richarlison may be in bother but managers seem to love PEH and Dier anywhere they are.

He likes technical players.

Pau Torres or Laporte would without doubt be his first signing.

nedley said:

Could see him at Porto.

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With Clement under pressure, I think its written for Gallardo to go to Monaco where he was a legend of a player and speaks fluent French.

Ghost Hardware said:

Interesting, I know Pep really rates him but kind of odd. Idk, maybe this sort of thing happens a lot.

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He stated River Plate were best team in world years ago and with the Julian Alvarez link, probably not that odd.

muel said:

Recommend people listen to High Performance Podcast episode with Ryan Mason. Wow. Really impressive.

Just needs some experience but he has all the tools to be a very successful Manager/Coach. When that will be who knows.

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Well at some point he’ll need to get out from under the wing of a head coach and have a proper go himself somewhere.

There’s only so much more he can learn working under other people.

JUSTINSIGNAL said:

The thing going against Gallardo is that he is totally untested in Europe. I'm not saying that means he won't be a roaring success BUT if i'm looking at Gallardo and Enrique side by side then Enrique comes out top every time.

He has many of the qualities that Gallardo brings - plays attractive football, promotes youth, is tactically flexible - but has that added experience of winning trophies in a top european league and the champions league.

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But, as I mentioned a few posts above, you could also say that Enrique may only suit the Spanish league as the only time he’s ever managed outside of La Liga was a failure. Furthermore he has never actually played outside of Spain. In the same way one might question Gallardo tactically adapting to the PL I think you could also just as easily question Enrique, there are plenty of managers whose tactics only suit the league they themselves developed in. After all La Liga has a very different pace, style and ethos to PL. His time as manager of Spain doesn’t really do anything to alleviate such concerns as he’s still working with players that also developed in the Spanish system.

For me I don’t see Enrique as a more of an obvious choice than Gallardo. He might be a bigger name but his pedigree comes from winning at Barca who had the best front three in the world at the time and he was at a club he knew back to front both as a player and from managing their youth team. As much as he altered the existing tactics to a more direct style it was still based in possession football, his teams still averaged 60% + in the three seasons he was in charge.

Also another question regarding him is his ability to build a project. The longest period he stayed at a club was at Barca and his third season he very evidently looked to have run out of ideas resulting in him over relying on his front three. This also wasn’t helped by poor transfers which is why a good DoF would be imperative. He even cited mental fatigue when talking about his last season after he left. This is a clear area Gallardo comes out on top because he very successfully built and rebuilt a project at River over a number of years that consistently challenged in multiple competitions.

But that doesn’t mean to say I think Enrique will be unable to adapt or will fail if he came here. He may well come in and fit perfectly, and as I’ve said I’m not completely against him. I’m just saying that I don’t think looking at his career as a manager there is any reason to think he will necessarily adapt any easier then Gallardo or any other foreign based manager and I think it would be risky to appoint him primarily based on his success at Barca.

YB123 said:

He stated River Plate were best team in world years ago and with the Julian Alvarez link, probably not that odd.

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Yeah and Pep said he was shocked Gallardo wasn’t ever named in the top three best managers in the world list in the past. I guess I’m just a little surprised he would have flown over just to see the game but I guess he is looking for a job in Europe so I guess it makes some sense as he may have had some meetings as well.

muel said:

Recommend people listen to High Performance Podcast episode with Ryan Mason. Wow. Really impressive.

Just needs some experience but he has all the tools to be a very successful Manager/Coach. When that will be who knows.

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When he’s ready I hope he gets a good job in the Championship or Europe. Be nice to see him work closely under a more attacking manager first tho. Hopefully he can eventually come back and take over the top job assuming he develops how we all hope.

JUSTINSIGNAL said:

I don't agree with this at all. We've got plenty of players in the current squad (and on loan) that would thrive in a possession based team.

However, I will say that Enrique is a very tactically flexible coach. His all conquering Barcelona team were a counter-attacking side more than possession based. Everyone just assumes he is Guardiola-lite because of the Catalan connection but his philosophy is more adaptable than that.

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They were excellent on the counter because of the front 3 but they were still highly possession based.

14/15
La Liga 65.3% (ranked 1st)
CL 58.6% (ranked 2nd)

15/16
La Liga 62.9% (ranked 1st)
CL 64.8% (ranked 2nd)

16/17
La Liga 62.1% (ranked 1st)
CL 60.5% (ranked 2nd)

Top of the possession charts every year in La Liga and only behind Bayern every season in the CL.

Now I want to be a team who dominate and have more of the ball and Liverpool prove you can do this AND also be an excellent counter attacking team too.

My fear with Enrique though is that without Messi, Neymar etc we would end up with sterile, boring possession rather than really high tempo and quick attacking play.