Assessing Pochettino's pre-season: Tactics & Player Management vs Seattle

[benski]

Keep up the good work, was very interesting to read and great analysis. Will read for every fixture throughout the season. Put them all on a blog!

 

[carpediem991]

Hats off. Very very good

 

[Style_Over_Substance]

Great thread Luke, look forward to future analysis of actual competitive fixtures!

 

[SamR]

Great work Luke - Really refreshing to get an indepth review like this - particularly as some of us don't get a chance to watch all of the games! Look forward to you doing more! Keep it up!

You think some of the Spanish lads might get a chance this season?

 

[thinktank]

Imagine doing this when Sherwood was in charge.

For a laugh.

 

[Blake Griffin]

i thought it was 4231 as well luke, don't listen to them.

 

[idontgetit]

i thought it was more of a 4-3-3 than a 4-2-3-1

.......capoue..
..holtby...carroll

townsend.....lennon
............kane......

The first half didn't look 4-3-3, Townsend looked more centralish, Lennon left and Holtby everywhere

 

[LukeBB]

Imagine doing this when Sherwood was in charge.

For a laugh.

There would be nothing to analyze

Besides even if there was, the numbness at that point last season was overwhelming

 

[LukeBB]

Great work Luke - Really refreshing to get an indepth review like this - particularly as some of us don't get a chance to watch all of the games! Look forward to you doing more! Keep it up!

You think some of the Spanish lads might get a chance this season?

We'll have to wait and see, they have the advantage that Pochettino can clearly communicate with them but I haven't watched them enough to make a confident conclusion, we'll get a better look at them over pre-season but there's no arguing that in this game they were a lot brighter than Lennon, Townsend and Kane.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I actually think @LukeBB called it pretty correct in terms of shape and application. It took a while to figure out (for me anyway and I wasn't 100% sure exactly) and it puzzled me a bit and I don't think he got it quite right in terms of where he used people.

I would have Holtby central of the 4231 both halves with Townsend ARM first and Lamela ARM second. Then replacing Holtby with Mason in a more forward role than in a deeper CM2 role which it definitely was once all changes had been made.

I think movement from people like Townsend, Lennon, Rose, Naughton and Kane wasn't very clever - they were often too static and you saw players like Carroll, Holtby and Capoue looking for forward passes and being stuck for choice and having to slow down again.

This improved when the likes of Lamella and (particularly) Ceballos were on. Their movement was more lively and their interplay showed zip at times and they also were much more tenacious at pressing from the front along with Falque and Holtby when he was on.

 

[spursFanKC]

Nice write up. Personally I am with Bus-conductor as I was confused as to what formation we were playing at times.

Personally I have no problem, unlike others on this forum, with Townsend running with the ball and if he did start off in the middle then that was an interesting move. Holtby was everywhere but of he was meant to be on the right then this would lead to some unbalance to me. Lennon does not seem to work on the left to me and personally I would prefer Rose moving up and Fryers at LB.

Interesting comments about the way that the Spanish speaking players played so well in the 2nd half - hopefully this will continue and we can see some good play from Soldado and Ceballos.

Personally I was not happy with Soldado for the elblow/kick and I wam want to him to stop doing this. Interestingly enough Robbie Keane threw an elbow in the La Galaxy/Sporting KC game that followed the Spurs/Sounders game over here in the US.

 

[Outnumbered]

Super write up, look forward to the next one.

 

[crokey]

It's a 4231, its just asymmetrical. Right hand side is tucked in far more, Walker will be doing more overlapping runs that whoever our LB turns out to be. Left hand side expected to chip in with more goals than the right I would imagine, whereas the right will be more about chance creation. Will invariably end up working both ways though I'd imagine, or else we won't get anywhere.

Decent write up, if you're looking for feedback though it's a bit bloated. You're writing a technical analysis then just fluffing it with descriptive language where it's not really required, but I liked it anyway. I would end up doing the same though if I could be arsed writing it all out. I prefer just to let it run through my brain and keep all my analysis to myself. Some would call it lazy, I prefer to think that I'm creating my own little Mourinho-esque football bible... just without the book!

 

[arunspurs]

I felt first half, we simply couldn't play back to front. Dawson & Fryers struggled, often giving away ball in pretext of playing out from back. Second half -especially Veljkovic did play a key role. Along with Caroll & Cebellos they moved the ball along the turf.
Another key aspect was - how high Naughton & Fredricks played at times. Attimes, Holtby ended at right back - looks like there was a conscious effort to move teh full backs forward.

But then, the wingers weren't good enough - both Lennon & Townsend had a horror game - both couldn't beat their man or make decent runs of FB.

Also, we genuinely tried to get behind the defense - something we have not done at all last season -

Holtby for 1st goal, Soldado for 2nd goal,both made superb runs behind defense to get into great positions. This can only improve with better players like Eriksen still to play.

On the whole, I was satisfied. For Poch, biggest work though is the defense - who still are on a suicide mission to gift goals.

 

[Monkey Bastard Hands]

Great write up, thanks. I have the tactical knowledge of a doughnut (raspberry jam - so not all bad) so it's good to read these write ups so I can understand a bit more about how we go about playing.

 

[makeveli]

Can we have 1 for every game fantastic stuff, well done much better than reading any papers.

 

[Kendall]

Good read, but I didn't think there was much need for the ratings. This was nothing more than a fitness exercise coupled with not wanting to be embarrassed by a team that is much sharper due to being mid-season. So I don't see much point in judging individual performances.

 

[LukeBB]

Nice write up. Personally I am with Bus-conductor as I was confused as to what formation we were playing at times.

Personally I have no problem, unlike others on this forum, with Townsend running with the ball and if he did start off in the middle then that was an interesting move. Holtby was everywhere but of he was meant to be on the right then this would lead to some unbalance to me. Lennon does not seem to work on the left to me and personally I would prefer Rose moving up and Fryers at LB.

Interesting comments about the way that the Spanish speaking players played so well in the 2nd half - hopefully this will continue and we can see some good play from Soldado and Ceballos.

Personally I was not happy with Soldado for the elblow/kick and I wam want to him to stop doing this. Interestingly enough Robbie Keane threw an elbow in the La Galaxy/Sporting KC game that followed the Spurs/Sounders game over here in the US.

I believe Townsend was meant to shift over to the right when Holtby tucked in to restore balance but like you I have no problem with Townsend playing centrally this pre-season as he needs to educate himself on what to do when he can go either left or right rather than just cutting in one way.

Yeah, I threw Bobby a disappointed glare when he left his mark on Ossie Alonso, he had a reputation over in Spain for being aggressive which saw him throw a few punches and stamp on Falcao's head, so the less we see of it, the better.

 

[LukeBB]

Good read, but I didn't think there was much need for the ratings. This was nothing more than a fitness exercise coupled with not wanting to be embarrassed by a team that is much sharper due to being mid-season. So I don't see much point in judging individual performances.

Yeah, initially I wasn't going to do ratings for the reasons you stated but I wanted to give a quick opinion on each player and in the end I just decided the easiest way to do that was to rate them and say why.

 

[Tucker]

You should really start a blog for this, excellent stuff and you would likely get a good following going.