We've been sussed

[HildoSpur]

We need two new midfielders who can be rotated with Alli and Dembele - there is no surprise that when we lost those two players we really struggled. I think Poch will ship a few out after Sunday.

 

[aussiespursguy]

Not a bad thought. Someone like the apparently otherwise unemployable Bielsa?

Yep, as long as the person whoever it may be realises they are there as an advisor!

 

[DJS]

Is the system that good that a couple of absentees and everything crumbles?

No it just shows its not the system but the fact we need a bit more squad depth.

 

[NeverRed]

Not sure we've been sussed, more what we haven't sussed: Ask any leicester player/manager if a 1 goal lead can often be enough to see out a game and why, then go ask in the spurs squad the same thing. The answers will be quite different.

Further a good strategy against spurs would be:
9-man wall for 20 mins while spurs tap around you and get comfortable in control
Then switch up the style to high press them, direct and attacking, enjoy the rewards of ruffling the perceived control spurs had
Finally revert to another wall with countering attacks as you see out the game while spurs flap under the pressure of potentially not getting a result.

 

[Lighty64]

Love it!! Those energy and talent sapping navy shorts have got to go.

I'm saying they clash slightly with black, years ago we would not seen kits that clashed in anyway, whether it be shorts or socks, and the obvious shirts. from ground level I don't know how bad those shadows took effect. all I know is our passing accuracy yesterday was most probably our worse all season in the league

 

[eddiebailey]

Yep, as long as the person whoever it may be realises they are there as an advisor!

Pleat? Hoddle? Jol? Redknapp? Strong links to the club and I am sure they could be trusted not to covet the managers job…
Okay, Bill Nicholson and the ouija board it is.

 

[aussiespursguy]

Pleat? Hoddle? Jol? Redknapp? Strong links to the club and I am sure they could be trusted not to covet the managers job…
Okay, Bill Nicholson and the ouija board it is.

Either of these is not a bad shout!

 

[eddiebailey]

Either of these is not a bad shout!

Do you seriously think Pochettino is going to listen to advice from anyone?

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Just a thought. Would Poch benefit from having an old head in beside him.Just to make suggestions and guide.
The theory works well in other sports. Another set of eyes to see things maybe Poch hasn't. Important that this "old head" will have no say other than providing support and suggestions. The last few games suggested this could well have helped.

Just a thought.

Not quite what you're getting at, but I wonder if we will take Arteta on board as a coach, as was being rumoured a few months back?

 

[aussiespursguy]

Do you seriously think Pochettino is going to listen to advice from anyone?

Sure. He's a smart man. Just needs to be the right person.

 

[ostrov]

I think a significant part of the blame should fall on Poch's head not only on the players. It was his responsibility to preserve the motivation and desire until the last game. Maybe the meeting with Fergie and contract thing distracted him from focusing on the last stretch.

 

[dagraham]

I think a significant part of the blame should fall on Poch's head not only on the players. It was his responsibility to preserve the motivation and desire until the last game. Maybe the meeting with Fergie and contract thing distracted him from focusing on the last stretch.

Whilst I think Poch still has a lot to learn, this is stretching it a bit don't you think? The idea that Poch spent all day dreaming about Fergie like a guy at work unable to concentrate because the temp with great tits is always in their eyeline .

 

[Freddy Adu]

The weirdest thing about this post is criticising Poch for not creating his own unique tactics and strategy. Like maybe you want him to revolutionise football by creating tiki-baka, where the players can only back-heel the ball to each other (oops too late I just invented it!).

Do you think Fergie invented 4-4-2 or something? What a bizarre point to make.

 

[ostrov]

Whilst I think Poch still has a lot to learn, this is stretching it a bit don't you think? The idea that Poch spent all day dreaming about Fergie like a guy at work unable to concentrate because the temp with great tits is always in their eyeline .

This is not the main point of my message that you highlighted.

 

[eddiebailey]

I think a significant part of the blame should fall on Poch's head not only on the players. It was his responsibility to preserve the motivation and desire until the last game. Maybe the meeting with Fergie and contract thing distracted him from focusing on the last stretch.

Imagine how much Harry would have been slated in this position.

 

[dagraham]

This is not the main point of my message that you highlighted.

Yeah I know. I just don't think the lunch with Ferguson has anything to do with it.

If anything, I think his comments pre match about not worrying about being ahead of Arsenal were more damaging.

 

[cliff jones]

I said as much at the time but Bilic has shown the world how to stop Spurs. That defeat against West Ham was when we started to crumble.

Ironically the way to stop us, is to press us higher up the pitch and stop us playing it out from the back. Primarily press Dier and Lloris when they're in possession. Our whole strategy then crumbles.

In isolation it's been a great year. We just finished in our highest league position since 1990. You can't argue with that. In context it's been a strange year generally and not just because Leicester won the title. I still maintain that up until Xmas we hadn't played very well. We had spells in games where we were excellent and awful. In the New Year it seemed to click. Until West Ham.

Poch's vision is obvious and effective. The problem I can see is that when it's not effective we struggle. Poch sets his teams up with one formation, one style of play. And if that doesn't work? Then we lose or draw. IMO he doesn't have the tactical flexibility required to be a top manager (yet, he is still young). What concerns me more is that his formation and style are mimicry. They aren't something he personally came up with. It's something he has seen done, believes to be successful and adopted as his own approach. With this in mind does this make him nothing more than a glorified motivator? Time will tell.

Interesting glass empty analysis. But you are right to an extent imo.

If we don't match the oppositions intensity, whether attitude or fatigue, we've not won. Yesterday was a freak score line caused by the lack of tactics and breakaway goals but still illustrated this tendency right from the off. We passed slow and square, showed no ambition to get men forward and defended badly all over the pitch.

As of course we did from the corner at west ham, corner at Chelsea, corner v wba, which is the other recurring problem. Leicester just didn't go this, they played worse than us yet still closed out a string of one nils which saw them pull away.

Fix the shitty goals we started letting in and we will be up there again assuming we sign a couple of quality additions to cope with the more demanding workload the cl brings.

with another quality cf comes an opportunity for Poch to play two up top and create a plan b. But then again it was the man himself who led us to believe he didn't want another striker last season. If we buy that party line, he left himself with no room to improvise.

 

[luptic]

5 senior players out drinking on Saturday night Didn't help the cause

 

[Styopa]

I don't think we've been sussed. We've endured a relatively poor run of form which culminated in what was, undeniably, a terrible and shocking performance yesterday. There really can be no excuses for yesterday's debacle, but it was a blip, an anomaly, in an extremely good season in which we have progressed much faster than anyone can have really expected.

To put things into perspective, last season we had a few really good days (ie beating Chelsea and Arsenal at home ), plenty of really bad days (losing to A Villa at home, W Brom at home, Newcastle at home, beaten away by Man U 3-0, Stoke 3-0, Man City 4-1, etc, etc) and lots of average to underwhelming performances. In fact we lost 12 times in the Premier League last season.

Fast forward a year and we've reduced our number of defeats by half, We've scored 9 more goals and conceded 18 fewer, we've had plenty of really good days and we've eradicated most of the bad days, for most of the season we've played terrifically well and dominated the majority of matches we've been involved in. Before yesterday's collapse we hadn't lost a league game by more than a single goal.

Being involved in the title race this season has perhaps skewed our perceptions of where we are at. Clearly we are still a work in progress but regardless of what happened yesterday we have come on leaps and bounds. In many ways we are ahead of schedule and if we continue to develop at the same rate then we will have many happy years ahead.

 

[Japhet]

Interesting glass empty analysis. But you are right to an extent imo.

If we don't match the oppositions intensity, whether attitude or fatigue, we've not won. Yesterday was a freak score line caused by the lack of tactics and breakaway goals but still illustrated this tendency right from the off. We passed slow and square, showed no ambition to get men forward and defended badly all over the pitch.

As of course we did from the corner at west ham, corner at Chelsea, corner v wba, which is the other recurring problem. Leicester just didn't go this, they played worse than us yet still closed out a string of one nils which saw them pull away.

Fix the shitty goals we started letting in and we will be up there again assuming we sign a couple of quality additions to cope with the more demanding workload the cl brings.

with another quality cf comes an opportunity for Poch to play two up top and create a plan b. But then again it was the man himself who led us to believe he didn't want another striker last season. If we buy that party line, he left himself with no room to improvise.

Has this coincided with Vertonghen's return. It certainly feels like it.

The most alarming aspect to the end of this season is the player's ability to throw the towel in when things get a bit sticky. I'm talking physically and mentally like v Chelsea.