The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[WiganSpur]

Overreaction from some people here desperate to show faux intelligence by assuming whoever is being critical of Poch is some kind of knee-jerk idiot who wants him out.

Barely anybody wants him out, so stop getting your knickers in a twist and accept that Poch although great isn't perfect and is in fact allowed to be criticised with reasonable arguments.

 

[Dov67]

seen him get a lot of stick about the team he played, keeping Lamela on for too long etc etc. But the team he put out should have had enough to beat WBA. If he played Danny Rose in Goal, Harry Kane at CB and Loris at Full Back that team is still good enough not to lose to WBA.

 

[truebluespur]

Wow am i really reading some of the comments on here? , and to think we call the scum fickle.

Poch is still learning, still growing as are we.....but whilst growing and learning Poch has still managed to keep us in the top 4 three seasons running with a net spend less the majority of the league...
Add he is a remarkable classy human being who i am so proud to call our manager...

Hang your heads in shame you pathetic fickle bunch .

I 99% agree, he's been fantastic for us, however, is he learning, and when do you go from learning to have actually learnt?

A few seasons in a row now he has undervalued certain cup competitions. It makes so much sense to go after any cup competition with vigour, even the less glamorous. It creates know how and a winning mentality in highly contested matches which is clearly lacking. We threw that Juventus game away for example. Pochettino and the players didn't know how to go on and win. Will this change next season? Probably not in the Champions League, but will he change his ways in other cups?

Another example. I hate to say this and no doubt people won't like it. I can't stand Mourinho and wouldn't want him in charge of us for a second, but just as an example of knowing how to win, I can't help but feel if Mourinho had our Tottenham team against that Man Utd team, I wouldn't be surprised if we won. These cup games are a different kettle of fish and Poch hasn't learnt yet, and now it's affecting us in the league...

Maybe he'll learn next season...

 

[tiger666]

Another example. I hate to say this and no doubt people won't like it. I can't stand Mourinho and wouldn't want him in charge of us for a second, but just as an example of knowing how to win, I can't help but feel if Mourinho had our Tottenham team against that Man Utd team, I wouldn't be surprised if we won.

Whilst playing the most turgid, negative football imaginable. No thanks.

 

[WiganSpur]

I 99% agree, he's been fantastic for us, however, is he learning, and when do you go from learning to have actually learnt?

A few seasons in a row now he has undervalued certain cup competitions. It makes so much sense to go after any cup competition with vigour, even the less glamorous. It creates know how and a winning mentality in highly contested matches which is clearly lacking. We threw that Juventus game away for example. Pochettino and the players didn't know how to go on and win. Will this change next season? Probably not in the Champions League, but will he change his ways in other cups?

Another example. I hate to say this and no doubt people won't like it. I can't stand Mourinho and wouldn't want him in charge of us for a second, but just as an example of knowing how to win, I can't help but feel if Mourinho had our Tottenham team against that Man Utd team, I wouldn't be surprised if we won. These cup games are a different kettle of fish and Poch hasn't learnt yet, and now it's affecting us in the league...

Maybe he'll learn next season...

Mourinho does have some good qualities, mainly that he's a winner but the football is fundamentally not good to watch and I hate the way he conducts himself and belittles his own players. Not at Spurs.

 

[EastLondonYid]

I 99% agree, he's been fantastic for us, however, is he learning, and when do you go from learning to have actually learnt?

A few seasons in a row now he has undervalued certain cup competitions. It makes so much sense to go after any cup competition with vigour, even the less glamorous. It creates know how and a winning mentality in highly contested matches which is clearly lacking. We threw that Juventus game away for example. Pochettino and the players didn't know how to go on and win. Will this change next season? Probably not in the Champions League, but will he change his ways in other cups?

Another example. I hate to say this and no doubt people won't like it. I can't stand Mourinho and wouldn't want him in charge of us for a second, but just as an example of knowing how to win, I can't help but feel if Mourinho had our Tottenham team against that Man Utd team, I wouldn't be surprised if we won. These cup games are a different kettle of fish and Poch hasn't learnt yet, and now it's affecting us in the league...

Maybe he'll learn next season...

i agree with some of your points and am frustrated especially our cup runs, but regarding Poch undervaluing the domestic cups,all managers sit with their chairman at the start of each season and discuss what targets they want to achieve, I'm pretty certain DL set Poch a target of CL qualification as no.1 priority thus his stance on the domestic cups, that's not to say DL said don;t win a cup, but like i said made it clear to Poch that CL was top of his list what with the finances that come with qualification as we pay off the new stadium.

 

[shelfboy68]

I 99% agree, he's been fantastic for us, however, is he learning, and when do you go from learning to have actually learnt?

A few seasons in a row now he has undervalued certain cup competitions. It makes so much sense to go after any cup competition with vigour, even the less glamorous. It creates know how and a winning mentality in highly contested matches which is clearly lacking. We threw that Juventus game away for example. Pochettino and the players didn't know how to go on and win. Will this change next season? Probably not in the Champions League, but will he change his ways in other cups?

Another example. I hate to say this and no doubt people won't like it. I can't stand Mourinho and wouldn't want him in charge of us for a second, but just as an example of knowing how to win, I can't help but feel if Mourinho had our Tottenham team against that Man Utd team, I wouldn't be surprised if we won. These cup games are a different kettle of fish and Poch hasn't learnt yet, and now it's affecting us in the league...

Maybe he'll learn next season...

I think even some of the Utd fans are not salivating at mourhinos footballing ethos but I take your point about on the whole it's winning football and he gets results based on it.
Most fans want to be entertained in the main especially with extortionate prices that club's charge these days and so winning football whilst providing some thrills and spills wins it for me.

 

[spids]

What I always loved about Poch is that he picked the team on merit. But since Kane came back as a sub against Chelsea he has done nothing to warrant getting picked for the next game. He is clearly not fit and is also bang out of form to boot. He has actually been a liability in most games, and offered nothing yesterday or the other week against Brighton (5 points dropped), and was shocking in the FA Cup semi-final. Contrast that to how the team played after he went off against Bournemouth and for 65 mins against Chelsea, and it is hard not to think his fast track back to the first team has actually ruined our chances of a first trophy and even 2nd place. And that is mainly down to Poch who talks about being brave but hasn't been himself these last few weeks. Yes, Kane is our talisman. Yes, we need to keep him happy. But no-one is more important than the team and Poch knows this.

 

[John48]

Whilst like most I don't want Poch out, I do want him to show he's learning from mistakes in the past & our big games this season, Juve, semi & recent league games, suggest he isn't. To me he's making the same mistakes & hasn't yet shown he's capable of motivating the team for them.

 

[tiger666]

What I always loved about Poch is that he picked the team on merit. But since Kane came back as a sub against Chelsea he has done nothing to warrant getting picked for the next game.

Apart from score in the next game, assist in the one after, scoring in the next, and the next.

 

[truebluespur]

Whilst playing the most turgid, negative football imaginable. No thanks.

Yeah but sometimes you simply need to grind out a win, especially in cup competitions, you don't get another chance, you either stay in or you're out

If Pochettino is indeed learning, and hopefully he is, it will make all the difference

 

[WiganSpur]

I think Pochettino takes the cups as seriously as he can. Just because he values the League and CL higher (and rightly so) it doesn't mean that he doesn't care about winning one.

As most managers do, it's a chance to keep the rotation players on their toes and to keep the players happy with the amount of minutes they're getting in general. Most if not all managers rotate for cup games. His record has been largely decent too, 2 FA Cup semi finals and a league cup final is not a disaster.

The issue he has is getting tactically outwitted in a lot of these crunch games, with an inability to react quickly enough. In knockout competitions that is often more costly than it is in the league.

 

[DCSPUR]

The time to analyse Poch is after the season is finished. For now he needs our support to bring our magnificent club into the Champions League again.

don't need to wait - he is magic - love the man

 

[DCSPUR]

Overreaction from some people here desperate to show faux intelligence by assuming whoever is being critical of Poch is some kind of knee-jerk idiot who wants him out.

Barely anybody wants him out, so stop getting your knickers in a twist and accept that Poch although great isn't perfect and is in fact allowed to be criticised with reasonable arguments.

reasonable LOL

 

[tommyt]

Is Harry Kane a player that you drop when out of form or do you play him regularly to regain it?

Personally, I'd go for the latter. The team has dipped collectively in recent weeks and I'm not sure it's helpful to pick on individuals.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Whilst like most I don't want Poch out, I do want him to show he's learning from mistakes in the past & our big games this season, Juve, semi & recent league games, suggest he isn't. To me he's making the same mistakes & hasn't yet shown he's capable of motivating the team for them.

To be honest I don't know wether that's accurate or not, but you're obviously entitled to your onion.

The problem I have with it is, every time we lose a game, it'll be because he "hasn't learned". Sometimes when we lose, it isn't always for the reasons you suggest but......this is SC and it will be

 

[spids]

Is Harry Kane a player that you drop when out of form or do you play him regularly to regain it?

Personally, I'd go for the latter. The team has dipped collectively in recent weeks and I'm not sure it's helpful to pick on individuals.

I'd also go for the latter as long as he was putting a shift in and played for the team. Last few weeks he's just goal hung and offered nothing - purely because he is not fully fit.

 

[mattyspurs]

Apart from score in the next game, assist in the one after, scoring in the next, and the next.

...and can you imagine the meltdown if he had of benched Kane yesterday and we still lost?

Damned if you do...

 

[RichieS]

His tactics made absolutely no sense today. Playing 343 with your front 3 of dele kane lamela no pace at all on the counter. Plus you’re counting on your wing backs to get crosses in that WBA will eat up all day. We needed the extra offensive player to stretch them instead of x3 CB. This was exactly our problem early in season at Wembley. Why he suddenly reverted to a back 3 is baffling. Even worse was ditching it in last 5 mi utes to bring on Llorente who is never gonna score. When a point would have done us fine.

We accommodated an extra offensive player by playing only Wanyama instead of Wanyama/Dembélé.

What "counter"? West Brom didn't come out to attack.

That as well.

Patience is starting to wear increasingly thin with Poch. Every competition we have failed in this season has hinged on his errors of judgement to an extent.

Picks a weakened XI in the League Cup and we get dumped out by West Ham.

Juventus switch to 4-4-2 in the Champions League and score 2 goals in 2 mins. Poch is too slow to react to their change in formation.

Disregards the FA Cup for the umpteenth time and lo and behold we get beaten in yet another semi-final, on our own patch (by a goal that our first choice keeper saves 9 times out of 10, if he's playing).

And now the inevitable end-of-season burnout, akin to 2016. Persisting with an injured Harry Kane? Failure to make substitutions before the 70th min? Reluctancy to change the system mid-match when clearly we are struggling?

I think it's only fair that after 4 years in charge we start to questions Poch's methods and decision making, which up until now has been rather poor in the moments that *really* matter.

FFS. It was a little over 5 minutes between Lichtsteiner coming on and the second goal being scored. No manager makes reactionary changes that quickly. What actually needed to happen was for one of the centre backs to ask Dier to drop in and Dembélé to hold for a bit with Eriksen and Alli in front of him so that the full backs could then push wider to deal with Juve's new found energy on the flanks. The players themselves bear large responsibility for in-game tactical micro-management.

A few nights ago i watched Premier League Legends on Netflix, the Ginola & Sheringham episodes was of interest. It's was really interested to hear the views of the players and some of the coaches, how we where so close to something special but alas it didn't materialize. I really hope I'm wrong but we had our chance a few seasons back and now the gap is widening to the other teams. Can't seeing it closing to be honest in the short term. Lets be happy with what we have and where we are at present.

What you actually mean is the gap is widening to one other team who have infinite wealth. The four or five places after them will be fluid for at least the next few years as the rest of us at the top are more or less of the same standard (as shown by the points tallies).

We have struggled against park the bus teams for several seasons. Pochettino has been tactical savvy enough to out play the likes of RM and Dortmund. He's no mug and I don't believe our main problems are tactical.

I believe the simple truth is that we don't have the right players to break down these WBA type of teams. Especially when our best players are out of form. We always look twice the team when we face teams that go at us because that plays to our players strengths. We just don't have that pure pace or technical type of players. And even Liverpool and United who have those players have struggled against park the bus teams.

Agreed. I would also add that the reason we don't have the sort of players that can consistently (that's actually the key bit as we do sometimes have the keys to the bus) break these teams down is because you're talking about the Hazards, De Bruynes and Pogbas of this world. That's the tangible effect of the massive wealth imbalance we're up against.

 

[buckley]

What scares me is I think Harry Hotspur is at work on this site lately so many negative comments he has either using fake names or worse still managed to get spurs fans to think like him now that is scary