The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Its not hyperbole, its stating facts ,his in game management is poor as are his lack of proactive substitutions .

In comparison to who? Most coaches openly admit that in game management is mainly down to chance. Mourinho is the only manager who excels at the aspect and even Man U lost to West Brom recently.

No manager is perfect at every aspect of management. But I would argue we have one who consistently wins matches and has high league finishes in comparison to more established teams and managers so he can’t be ‘terrible’ at any aspect of management. It just ridiculous hyperbole in reaction to losing the match today

 

[jonathanhotspur]

My gripe with Poch is his worrying attraction to athletes and hard working players.

Creative, technical, skilful...these seem like they are down the list of qualities Poch looks for in his players.

This is one of my biggest misgivings regarding Poch; I am not sure he can identify creative, technical, skilful players. He is good at building from the back, and after that...

When you hear him comparing Dembele to Maradona and Ronaldinho, it is a little alarming, and encapsulates our apparent philosophy of overpowering opponents.

 

[mpickard2087]

He came in and was completely ruthless with all the shit, lazy deadwood we had polluting the club. He's ruthless when he needs to be.

What you often can see though over a longer period of time is that managers and players who have had a bit of success start to lose their edge. Players start to mentally ease off a bit, thinking some of the hard work/dirty work is done, and the manager probably shows too much loyalty/attachment and sticks with certain players too long - often to his downfall.

Alex Ferguson for instance lasted, and won, for a long time partly because he mastered judging when to refresh and shake up, even very successful teams and players, and being able to rebuild various versions of his team.

Poch's approach and style of play, at it's best, is very much one based on hard work, the press, that aggression and intensity and needs 100% buy in. I think it's only natural that with a style like that then there is a limit to how many times/seasons you will get players going again and again and keeping that desire and energy going, and so is a style of play that in particular will need to keep refreshing and rebuilding a squad. At this point, we've seen in the short-term he can be ruthless, but that's in a certain way quite easy, whether he can be ruthless, and take tough/big decisions over a longer term, with players who he will have worked with for a while, developed them and built bonds with them, to keep that edge and keep driving the team forward remains to be seen in the future.

 

[SpursD22]

who would you have played today? you think KWP would have won it for us? the players sucked today, all of them.

KWP wouldn’t have won it but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have started. He would offer us more than Trippier and that could benefit us.

 

[CarrickSpurgus]

In comparison to who? Most coaches openly admit that in game management is mainly down to chance. Mourinho is the only manager who excels at the aspect and even Man U lost to West Brom recently.

No manager is perfect at every aspect of management. But I would argue we have one who consistently wins matches and has high league finishes in comparison to more established teams and managers so he can’t be ‘terrible’ at any aspect of management. It just ridiculous hyperbole in reaction to losing the match today

Mourinhio is actually ott in this regard,poch will never make a change before the 70 min mark ,games often will be crying out for a change and he will not budge nor does he take a chance by which I mean its a striker for a striker or a winger for a winger,none of this is hyperbole or knee-jerk its been an on going weakness of pochs game management

 

[Dougal]

Some reactions are way over the top, that said, I don't think he'll survive a 5th place. Nothing wrong with being 5th, but have to consider from what position we were in. Spurs made to look like fools again this season.

Only idiots think we look like fools. Spurs have long been a joke club and this would continue even if we had won a trophy this season. FA Cup winners? Yay. So it’s one FA Cup in nearly 30 years. It’s only if we go through a sustained period on near constant success when we could finally shut some of the idiots up. And in my lifetime as a Spurs fan we haven’t done that as we moaned for so long about being inconsistent. But now we are stringing together some of the most consistent league finishes in our history. And you’re worried about us looking like fools? We are building, slower than we would possible optimistically prefer, but clubs that think we look like fools have plenty of their own problems and are happy to deflect attention. The Poch Revolution is has barely begun.

 

[DCSPUR]

There is, as usual, a lot of stuff and nonsense. Top manager, best in my lifetime. Probably the best we have had since Sir Bill Nicholson. BUT we are a tough project for all the reasons we know so well from culture to economics. Poch needs time and we better give it to him.
Love the guy, I really do.

 

[WiganSpur]

I think the most frustrating thing i've found with him is his increasing unwillingness to give academy players real opportunity. He's a great coach of players, but at the moment he seems intent on signing rather than developing.

 

[riggi]

I think the most frustrating thing i've found with him is his increasing unwillingness to give academy players real opportunity. He's a great coach of players, but at the moment he seems intent on signing rather than developing.

That's pressure for you.

 

[WiganSpur]

That's pressure for you.

He talks about being brave, but I haven't seen it for a few years from him now.

He could end up being the architect of his own downfall. His development of academy players and signings such as Alli is what has given him such a good reputation. It's why Levy has put so much trust in him.

By not developing young players there is an argument that he heaps even more pressure on himself. With £50m signings in the team, there's no excuses.

 

[riggi]

He talks about being brave, but I haven't seen it for a few years from him now.

He could end up being the architect of his own downfall. His development of academy players and signings such as Alli is what has given him such a good reputation. It's why Levy has put so much trust in him.

By not developing young players there is an argument that he heaps even more pressure on himself. With £50m signings in the team, there's no excuses.

He could ease some of that pressure by making a sub before 70 minutes!

 

[Deleted member 27995]

Only if it's the right sub though ...

 

[Dougal]

I think the most frustrating thing i've found with him is his increasing unwillingness to give academy players real opportunity. He's a great coach of players, but at the moment he seems intent on signing rather than developing.

He’s got them in when they’ve improved the team but the stakes are a lot higher than they were when he started due to his success. You really think Spurs fans have the patience to allow him to blood youngsters when every result counts? We’ve heard nonstop this season that we have to win a cup, we have to get Champions League football, we have to keep improving. Any sign of weakness, and defeat or even draw and people are questioning whether he is up to the job. It’s madness but he’s the victim of his own success. I prefer to acknowledge that he is having success.

 

[Thewobbler]

I think the most frustrating thing i've found with him is his increasing unwillingness to give academy players real opportunity. He's a great coach of players, but at the moment he seems intent on signing rather than developing.

Exactly. We're wasting money on players like aurier and sissoko who are no better than winks and KWP instead of putting that money to one quality signing and promoting the youth.

 

[WiganSpur]

Exactly. We're wasting money on players like aurier and sissoko who are no better than winks and KWP instead of putting that money to one quality signing and promoting the youth.

There's for me two obvious areas where they could be used.

KWP should be playing at RB now and in midfield either Onomah or TOB should be given squad minutes at the expense of Sissoko. Additionally with Llorente going why not just go with Kane, Son and Sterling or Griffiths as strikers instead of spending £60m on Bale or Martial?

I'm not saying we shouldn't make big signings, but sometimes I think we can look to what we have already. It will help ease the wage bill and leave us with even more money to spend on the right player when it's really necessary.

 

[punky]

Pochettino's complete inflexibility is going to be his downfall.

Yes, when he picks the right team and gets the tactics right, it's glorious. Best football we've ever seen and capable of beating anyone.

But his complete inability to make the subs at the right time, let alone the right person and his inability to see when his tactics aren't working and put things right are seriously going to cost us. It was clear in the first half we needed to be more direct and put more men and balls into box and yet nothing changed at half-time. I can't remember when Poch has ever changed tactics mid-game. He's never made a half-time sub and very rarely makes a sub earlier than 75 mins. Moura came on at 78 mins and looked bright but there's only so much 1 man can do in 12 mins.

At one point in the game, I think about 70-80 mins the camera stayed on him for about 10+ seconds and he was just looking on the pitch, frozen. He looked bewildered like a deer in the headlights.

I'm *not* saying Poch out. I love the man and think he's the best manager we've had recent years but he needs to see and work on his own shortcomings or we - he and the team - will never reach the top level.

 

[SugarRay]

I think we’ll win things, consistently, but I’m not sure it’ll fall under Poch’s revolution. It’ll be more of the Tottenham revolution, kickstarted by Poch.

Hope I’m wrong because I love the man but, the truly great managers, they’ve done it by now. They’ve already had that silverware against all odds. Look at Mourinho. Sure he cherry picks now but he worked his way in to such a position by performing against the odds and delivering trophies he shouldn’t have won. Same as Fergie did, and all the elite managers.
Poch just cannot get over the line.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Got to say I'm very disappointed with some of Pochettino's comments lately, about whether he's the one to take us forward, about us having to make better purchases etc.

Bad timing, hardly conducive to motivating players at the end of a busy and tough season, and all a bit fucking whiny too, effectively a variation of the "I can only work with the shit Ive got" bollocks we got from Redknapp.

He's a great coach, but if you put out first 11 up against most it comes out pretty well, the club's hardly dealt him a Clint Fucking Dempsey, Michael Dawson, JuJu'd Adebayor, one legged Sandro, Ghost of Soldado type mess have they.

Smacks of blaming his own tactical deficiencies and decisions on those around and above him.

The last month or so has seen him tactically fuck up some important games, bitch to the press and demotivate players. The trifecta.

Not impressed.

You wrote that, and almost like Pochettino wanted to prove you right, we were outplayed grossly by the weakest team in the league. I've pointed out for some time that Pochettino isn't the finished product, he has got development to do. I'm fine with that, it doesn't bother me. But what does bother me is that I thought he showed real improvement last season, and this season I feel he has regressed in ingenuity and taken a step backwards. I think he has the 4th best squad in the league, and finishing outside top 4 would, to me, be underachievement. We have seen from him really, really great football, some of the best in the game. And we've seen some truly horrendous football. But most displays this season have been quite forgettable.

 

[Hengy1]

Best thing to happen to us for over a decade let’s remember that

 

[KenTHFC]

Best thing to happen to us for over a decade let’s remember that

No one is forgetting that. Its said near enough every other time someone talks about Poch. Just personally think that we should start looking at him less like a god and more a young manager with some growing to do if he wants to achieve what we know he can do