The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[Mr Pink]

I think it's hide time the manager and the players just got on with it.

We've a great squad, they're all paid very handsomely.

Stop the blame culture, regroup and hit it hard.

It's all been to do with our attitude imo.

 

[danielneeds]

I don't think we're that far away from trophies personally, I think Kane leaves in 2021 years if we don't win anything, he'll be at his peak then and that will be his last big contact.

Losing Kane would be a blow but the manager is far more important to anyone else at the club IMO

We look a million miles away from a trophy in the way we're playing this calendar year. And, yes, I know how silly that sounds when we got so close to the CL. You take out Toby and Eriksen from this side and there are huge question marks everywhere.

We still would have a core of excellent players with good age profiles - Ndombele, Lo Ceslo, Sessegnon, Winks, Foyth, Dele, Son, Kane, Lucas -
but as to how competitive we'll be, we don't know how any of the new signings adapt yet.

The future's very uncertain at the moment, for me. It could go many ways.

 

[danielneeds]

I think it's hide time the manager and the players just got on with it.

We've a great squad, they're all paid very handsomely.

Stop the blame culture, regroup and hit it hard.

It's all been to do with our attitude imo.

You can't just switch on inspiration and belief like a tap, though. If you could, every team would have it.

 

[Shadydan]

We look a million miles away from a trophy in the way we're playing this calendar year. And, yes, I know how silly that sounds when we got so close to the CL. You take out Toby and Eriksen from this side and there are huge question marks everywhere.

We still would have a core of excellent players with good age profiles - Ndombele, Lo Ceslo, Sessegnon, Winks, Foyth, Dele, Son, Kane, Lucas -
but as to how competitive we'll be, we don't know how any of the new signings adapt yet.

The future's very uncertain at the moment, for me. It could go many ways.

We don't really do we?, last season Semi Final of the league cup and Final of the CL, the seasons prior to that we had two semi final appearances in the FA Cup, unless you mean the league then you're 100% right but that will take time - I don't expect us to challenge this season anyway - if you're reaching semi's constantly that normally suggests that you're getting close.

 

[wirE]

Agree with you, If it came down to it, i would also take lucien favre in a second, also julian nagelsmann would be a interesting candidate for the future, not so much the now ( he only just went to RB Lipzig)

Big fan of Nagelsmann. Only 33 yrs of age and did his stuff pretty well. Reminds me of Klopp tbh

 

[danielneeds]

We don't really do we?, last season Semi Final of the league cup and Final of the CL, the seasons prior to that we had two semi final appearances in the FA Cup, unless you mean the league then you're 100% right but that will take time - I don't expect us to challenge this season anyway - if you're reaching semi's constantly that normally suggests that you're getting close.

Yes, but if you look at how the team is playing, we've only won three away matches in 2019, and one of those was Moura's Miracle of Amsterdam, we're giving a ridiculous amount of chances per game. At the moment we don't look like a competitive team at the elite level.

 

[mattyspurs]

I think it's hide time the manager and the players just got on with it.

We've a great squad, they're all paid very handsomely.

Stop the blame culture, regroup and hit it hard.

It's all been to do with our attitude imo.

...and following on from this, it's why I get so annoyed with Pundits/Media etc saying that players and Coach might/should move on if we don't win something.

Our squad over the last 5 years has been good enough to win something. 2 finals, 3 semi finals, PL runners up and probably should have beat Lester to the PL too.

Yes we could have had more investment, that is on Levy, but the players and Poch have to stand up and say they they have failed in certain moments that could have seen us win something. Questionable decisions by Poch in certain key moments, players not motivated enough at key times in finals etc...

 

[Shadydan]

Yes, but if you look at how the team is playing, we've only won three away matches in 2019, and one of those was Moura's Miracle of Amsterdam, we're giving a ridiculous amount of chances per game. At the moment we don't look like a competitive team at the elite level.

You don't have to play well to win k.o matches that's the point, you just need to stay in games and produce moments. Last season you rightly said that we didn't play well over a sustained period but the remit of winning a knock out tie isn't necessarily outplaying your opponent, it's by staying in the match. Look at the CL matches last season, we were outplayed for the majority of the City and Ajax ties yet we still got through, we outplayed Liverpool in the final but we lost.

The concern is valid though because we're in danger of coasting and turning up at 60% knowing that we are capable of moments which leads to complacency, Poch's biggest challenge is to get us playing as a unit again.

 

[Pauleta01]

Very interesting take on where it is going wrong ...

Tottenham Hotspur / Spurs Transfer News

Football Whispers has combed through the gossip columns and rumour mill to bring you the latest transfer stories concerning Tottenham Hotspur. Below you can

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[Lighty64]

Our general play has been dire since at least last Christmas. We've slowly regressed over the last two years. The lucky CL run papered over some cracks. But our style is so laborious and static. Our players look like they don't know what the plan is. It's awful and turgid.

Palace was an outlier.

Combine that with bizarre decisions like playing Sanchez at RB.

why are there so few amounts of people on the forum that play FM manager and their teams don't feel the after-effects of a summer comp?

1. the last 2 seasons before this one our players played 111 fixtures (not including internationals)

2. we had 12 players involved in internationals over those 2 seasons, we also had 9 play until the final weekend of the WC, and none of them had any pre-season, or a holiday. 1 of those 12 players also played in 2 major competitions in Asia too.

3. due to the strains of 1 & 2, we picked up injury after injury, which meant some players were playing with knocks, they were knackered both physically and mentally and we struggled to field our strongest XI once since before last Xmas.

Sanchez was played at right-back v Arsenal, because of Aurier not being match ready and all other RB cover injured, the same happened because KWP wasn't fully fit v Olympiakos, and with 2 games a week every week until Xmas now, Poch will rotate wing-backs

 

[danielneeds]

You don't have to play well to win k.o matches that's the point, you just need to stay in games and produce moments. Last season you rightly said that we didn't play well over a sustained period but the remit of winning a knock out tie isn't necessarily outplaying your opponent, it's by staying in the match. Look at the CL matches last season, we were outplayed for the majority of the City and Ajax ties yet we still got through, we outplayed Liverpool in the final but we lost.

The concern is valid though because we're in danger of coasting and turning up at 60% knowing that we are capable of moments which leads to complacency, Poch's biggest challenge is to get us playing as a unit again.

Sure, anything can happen in knockout football, but the huge majority of cups have been won by the financially dominant teams in the last decade. That's no coincidence. At the moment, we're not looking competitive. It might change if Poch can rally the troops and get our big players back into form, but it's not a given at the moment.

 

[ikky]

I’m just hoping once our 3 new signing are up and running it will give this team the refresher it desperately needs, things have gone a bit stale. Unfortunately this won’t happen until January at the earliest.

 

[Shadydan]

Sure, anything can happen in knockout football, but the huge majority of cups have been won by the financially dominant teams in the last decade. That's no coincidence. At the moment, we're not looking competitive. It might change if Poch can rally the troops and get our big players back into form, but it's not a given at the moment.

And we are financially dominant over the vast majority of our competition...

At the moment we're in 2nd month of the season and there's no way to measure how competitive we are to winning trophies.

 

[Shadydan]

Very interesting take on where it is going wrong ...

Tottenham Hotspur / Spurs Transfer News

Football Whispers has combed through the gossip columns and rumour mill to bring you the latest transfer stories concerning Tottenham Hotspur. Below you can

www.footballwhispers.com

Perfect example of reactionary nonsense I was talking about no offence...

Firstly comparing stats from this season where we've played 5 matches to 38 matches is just dumb, secondly we've played Arsenal and City away where traditionally we don't play well in either fixture anyway, I want to see the corresponding stats to those same fixtures from the last season to see if we're trending up or down to get a better picture.

He says that were not pressing as much which is true so why is he ignoring the Palace match where we pressed more than normal and we won?...doesn't suit the agenda does it...

This is what you call painting a negative narrative and fans lapping it up

 

[McFlash]

Sorry if it came across as like a massive conspiracy or something.

Firstly I mean like it's pretty obvious the ValenciaYids ITK sources are part of a faction which is unimpressed with Poch's current direction of travel. There's nothing conspiratorial or necessarily wrong about this. They give their ITK in good faith and Val passes it on. And many people are of the same mind as them in any case. Not necessarily "stirring up shit" as expressing an increasingly common and exasperated view.

Recently - and I mean in the last couple of weeks - there's been a sudden rash of posters on SC who have been members for over a decade, yet have less than a hundred posts. So you have to ask why such posters who have been pretty much silent since Redknapp have suddenly decided that right now is clearly the most worrying period in the club' history and have swarmed to SC to post about it. Now they could be old opposition troll accounts sticking the boot in? I don't know. It's just been an observable phenomenon recently.

It could be that some people have nothing to say, unless they're moaning.
We've had a pretty decent few years but as soon as we have a wobble, they've crawled back out of the woodwork.
There's an old Spurs fan in my local like that, all he does is moan and slag off the club, players and management. I argued with him the first couple of times but he plays the old 'I've been a fan for longer than you' card all the time, which of course he has, he's more than 20 years older than me, still doesn't mean he knows what the fuck he's talking about.
Nowadays, I just smile and provoke him with the odd comment, then sit back and watch as he argues with anyone who'll listen. Great fun.

 

[Primativ]

I think it’s right that we are concerned about the team at the moment. Nobody can take away the progression we’ve made under Poch but you’d expect for a side that’s been together for so long, we’d be much more refined and polished than we are now. Especially with so many experienced players.

As Kane said midweek, 5 years together and still making the same mistakes. It has to fall on Poch’s shoulders. The shit performances for a year now has to fall on Poch too.

The question one has to ask is, do we think a new coach / manager could get better performances and results out of the current squad? I think if we look at everything since the start of last season objectively without emotion, then yes I think someone would.

I hope Poch can turn it around but at the moment a lot of fans understandably feel we’ve stagnated and regressed under Poch despite the CL final appearance.

There are perhaps external factors that have hampered Poch but that still doesn’t account for his bizarre decisions he seems to be making almost every game.

He doesn’t seem to be helping himselof

If you look at the state of arsenal, Chelsea and Uniteds teams at the moment, we really should be much closer to City and Liverpool than we are to those other three.

 

[Mr Pink]

You can't just switch on inspiration and belief like a tap, though. If you could, every team would have it.

Before that comes hard work though, and we're not seeing anywhere near enough of that.

Not talking about inspiration, I'm taking about sheer effort. You don't need to have an abundance of belief for that.

Belief will come again once we put the real work in and our quality shines through.

It's down to attidude at the end of the day.

 

[danielneeds]

Before that comes hard work though, and we're not seeing anywhere near enough of that.

Not talking about inspiration, I'm taking about sheer effort. You don't need to have an abundance of belief for that.

Belief will come again once we put the real work in and our quality shines through.

It's down to attidude at the end of the day.

But the hard work comes from belief and being inspired by a vision. Players used to be evangelical about Poch and they would run for him all day, but they've done that for years and missed out on glory. It's natural that some of them are questioning things. You also add to that we have more players who are older and carry niggles and injuries. All of it adds up to why Poch was screaming for a total clear out in the summer. He saw the way the wind was blowing.

 

[ackie]

Let's be fair in regards to last season:
We have had major injuries to Kane and Alli. Not mentioning Lamela.
Son traveled far and missed a few games last season.
We sold Dembele in January and didn't sign a replacement.
We had a "small" squad to deal with the demands and pressure of CL and PL. Major players were out injured and so suffered from fatigues towards the end of that season.
Pochetino's press conference and certain comment towards the end of last season was silly and may have caused uncertainty in some players mind.

This season
All 3 new players have already suffered injuries, meaning they have not played together yet.
There are 3 "big" players with contract uncertainty which could be affecting the squad.
I don't think our team has gelled or have a understanding of each other yet.
Our mentality have been shaken up and could be because of uncertainty of contracts regarding the 3 players.
We should have bought a RB.
Parrott will be a star!

I predict it will only get better.
We just need to start applying ourselves and play to our strength.

 

[ackie]

But the hard work comes from belief and being inspired by a vision. Players used to be evangelical about Poch and they would run for him all day, but they've done that for years and missed out on glory. It's natural that some of them are questioning things. You also add to that we have more players who are older and carry niggles and injuries. All of it adds up to why Poch was screaming for a total clear out in the summer. He saw the way the wind was blowing.

Yep, two seasons ago MoPo's slogan was "belief" and the players were fully behind his philosophy but I think he shot himself in the foot by some silly comments in his press Conference.

Clear out? Players we thought would go are still hanging around here and that includes Eriksen and Alderweireld. Just seems odd that they including Rose was not wanted by "big teams". Wanyama still here too. That's about 4 we kind of expected to leave. How can we clear out when we don't get offers or they don't accept them.