What do we think of Poch?

[SpursTHFC]

He gets shed loads of unwarranted stick if you ask me. One such example has been the League Cup Final, which in its own right is a magnificent achievement, an opinion which is greeted by the argument; "the quality of opposition has been 'low level'"

It doesn't seem that long ago when we were conceding soft goals at the ends of games, something which at present, is most definitely the opposite. This transition should surely be credited to the manager and his staff, right? It's a shame that some of the fan base doesn't recognise such details, covering their view with a dark, bleak veil of negativity.

 

[Winchy85]

I don't rate him. I think he's had a lot of luck in his first season and apart from 3 or 4 games we have played some of the worst and most boring football I've seen from a Tottenham side. Then you have the games v Chelsea, Man Utd and Everton which are televised bigger games where we turn up and give a good account of ourselves for everyone to see.

I also really don't like his system. His Plan A with no Plan B.

I like he is bringing players through with a bit of confidence in their game and building for the future though.

I also don't like the departure of Aaron Lennon. I thought he had done well when he played for us this season. Offered a lot of maturity coming back and helping the right back and added width we hadn't seen a lot of on the right hand side with a final ball to go with it! I guess I miss the counter attacking football with two rapid wingers.

 

[sloth]

I don't rate him. I think he's had a lot of luck in his first season and apart from 3 or 4 games we have played some of the worst and most boring football I've seen from a Tottenham side. Then you have the games v Chelsea, Man Utd and Everton which are televised bigger games where we turn up and give a good account of ourselves for everyone to see.

I also really don't like his system. His Plan A with no Plan B.

I like he is bringing players through with a bit of confidence in their game and building for the future though.

I also don't like the departure of Aaron Lennon. I thought he had done well when he played for us this season. Offered a lot of maturity coming back and helping the right back and added width we hadn't seen a lot of on the right hand side with a final ball to go with it! I guess I miss the counter attacking football with two rapid wingers.

How would you set us up differently?

 

[stemark44]

I like him,slightly disappointed with his lack of change regarding formations and tactics but I think he has done a pretty decent job of things so far with the squad he has inherited.
I still maintain that he has a squad loaded with players that are simply not good enough and they badly need replaced.
The BIG task for Poch will be replacing them with the RIGHT players who can integrate well into his system and hopefully lead us to great success for years to come.

 

[james82mckay]

The most impressive thing he has done is install a fighting spirit or winning mentality however you want to put it. The spirit from the players to try get results when not playing well and fight for possession is something we've not had for years. In fact I really can't remember seeing a tottenham team how look so hungry to win.

 

[Riandor]

I also don't like the departure of Aaron Lennon. I thought he had done well when he played for us this season. Offered a lot of maturity coming back and helping the right back and added width we hadn't seen a lot of on the right hand side with a final ball to go with it! I guess I miss the counter attacking football with two rapid wingers.

It was not Lennon's football ability that got him sidelined and shipped out.

 

[IanC]

After the first ten games I did question his philsophy as I never saw it coming through in the performances. After the Everton win it seemed to click and barring a few dodgy home results I can see that it is filtereing through slowly. The West Brom match again higlighted his style. If in the summer he gets the players that fit his style of play then we will be better for it. A majority of the players he has are not his preference. I hope we have a manager that we will give time so that he can get his ideas down for once instead of knee jerking reaction from the fans when the performances are not too great.

 

[The Spurs Lad]

He gets shed loads of unwarranted stick if you ask me. One such example has been the League Cup Final, which in its own right is a magnificent achievement, an opinion which is greeted by the argument; "the quality of opposition has been 'low level'"

It doesn't seem that long ago when we were conceding soft goals at the ends of games, something which at present, is most definitely the opposite. This transition should surely be credited to the manager and his staff, right? It's a shame that some of the fan base doesn't recognise such details, covering their view with a dark, bleak veil of negativity.

We literally crumbled against Leicester, Sheffield and palace in the past month or so and have 6 clean sheets In 23 games, for reference sake Burnley have 5 And qpr have 4. That's not mentioning the absolutely hammering we took from Leicester away, a game we should by all rights have lost and the fact that even in the two home games vs utd and Chelsea we conceded an extortionate amount of glaring chances.

Lets not let results cloud our judgement, that's what happened with AVB and look how that panned out in the end.

 

[wishkah]

I think like Rodgers at the Pool it will take a second season to really hit the ground running to know what this guy is all about. Like all managers you have to give them time as we chanted at the begining of the season. Although like most fans my pateince has waned during the early parts of this season due to some horrific, predictable shite.

The proof is in the pudding points though, and I can't deny that we are stacking up well. The key going forward regardless of Poch/any manager has to be stability. I for some reason have blind faith that more is coming and the footballing world knows it. We just need to click.

One thing I will say though is that we seem to have stopped being simply pants in the final ten minutes. I've forever assumed that somewhere in our coaching ranks is a little arsenal fan who's in charge of training our team for the final ten minutes of games. "Retreat into your own goal lads, that will work", "blind panic is the best form of defence", "forget everything you've ever learnt - the key to winning games is making the opposition look amazing". We seem to have broken this trend a bit, not so "soft" anymore. This i see as step one of a big venture forwards. Bravo mon petit Poch.

The second thing i'm coming round to is youth. I've mostly assumed that youth players either immediately when the time is right or are forever pretty useless. Impressed we are starting to see some talent coming through. More importantly I feel the fans mentality is changing to realise we can't go and blow money each season as we cannot compete on wages. We still have some £ to play with though which is nice.


In PochClusion i think its going well, but i still need to see a lot more. I feel we owe so much to the Lloris late show and the Eriksen point grabbing. Although, and again, points don't lie.

 

[SHaRD]

The most impressive thing he has done is install a fighting spirit or winning mentality however you want to put it. The spirit from the players to try get results when not playing well and fight for possession is something we've not had for years. In fact I really can't remember seeing a tottenham team how look so hungry to win.

I love how Mason, Bentaleb and Stambouli battle in midfield - they are so tough, yet also cultured.

It's like watching the midfield of the teams that usually beat us, rather than a Spurs midfield

 

[eddiebailey]

I thought if we got him he'd be here for the real long term, and nothing has changed my mind on that - in fact I'm more confident that will be the case.

If he does well enough to get better offers he won't be here for the longterm, that's for sure...

 

[225]

We literally crumbled against Leicester, Sheffield and palace in the past month or so and have 6 clean sheets In 23 games, for reference sake Burnley have 5 And qpr have 4. That's not mentioning the absolutely hammering we took from Leicester away, a game we should by all rights have lost and the fact that even in the two home games vs utd and Chelsea we conceded an extortionate amount of glaring chances.

Lets not let results cloud our judgement, that's what happened with AVB and look how that panned out in the end.

I'm confused, you've talked a lot (negatively) about results, then ended by saying that we shouldn't judge him on results. Contradictory some?


Poch > AVB already. Why?

He's got rid of one captain, Dawson, with ease (which AVB failed to do), has managed to drop Ade and still have him thank him for his support, he's dropped Kaboul with little fuss. He's even Ramos'd the training and by all accounts the players seem happy with him.

The man is a miracle worker with his relationships with the players, and that's the most important foundation to long term success - the team and the tactics can evolve.

 

[DanielCHillier]

We literally crumbled against Leicester, Sheffield and palace in the past month or so and have 6 clean sheets In 23 games, for reference sake Burnley have 5 And qpr have 4. That's not mentioning the absolutely hammering we took from Leicester away, a game we should by all rights have lost and the fact that even in the two home games vs utd and Chelsea we conceded an extortionate amount of glaring chances.

Lets not let results cloud our judgement, that's what happened with AVB and look how that panned out in the end.

If you're mentioning clean sheets, then you should also have mentioned that we only have 1 less than Chelsea, City and Utd, can't just compare to sh!t teams to suit your agenda

 

[The Spurs Lad]

I'm confused, you've talked a lot (negatively) about results, then ended by saying that we shouldn't judge him on results. Contradictory some?


Poch > AVB already. Why?

He's got rid of one captain, Dawson, with ease (which AVB failed to do), has managed to drop Ade and still have him thank him for his support, he's dropped Kaboul with little fuss. He's even Ramos'd the training and by all accounts the players seem happy with him.

The man is a miracle worker with his relationships with the players, and that's the most important foundation to long term success - the team and the tactics can evolve.

No what I was saying was that results are not indicative of performances as we seen with AVB who was utter abysmal but time after time people paraded on here with nonsense about points tallys and how avb was the best thing since sliced bread yet a year later he was sacked (rightly) for some or the worst results in our history.

Ultimately what I'm saying is we can't simply sit back and say poch is good because of results because as we saw with avb, results can come from luck whilst performances signify longevity

 

[The Spurs Lad]

If you're mentioning clean sheets, then you should also have mentioned that we only have 1 less than Chelsea, City and Utd, can't just compare to sh!t teams to suit your agenda

It's not an agenda, don't be so paranoid.

If you want I will list a few for you. Firstly it's 2 less than Chelsea. Furthermore: 4 less than saints, 3 less than swansea, 2 less than Liverpool, 2 less than west brom, 1 less than villa, 1 less than city, 1 less than utd, the same as Sunderland and Newcastle. Now whose only selecting certain stats to suit an agenda?

The league is and has been terrible for the past 3 years, defensive midfielders are almost extinct and true centre backs with actual defensive ability are being replaced by powerful pacey players. As Gary Neville pointed out a couple months back defending in general has gone to pot at the top level, teams don't work on it anymore.

I believe it should be fundamental so I will criticise any manager who refuses to adhere to it, when you are in a league where the teams battle relegation can challenge the title challengers in clean sheet tallys then, imo, there is an almighty problem.

 

[Coyboy]

I’m generally positive (naturally I usually am with Spurs. I don’t see the point of being anything else, to paraphrase Churchill). I remember toying up him and De Boer in the summer and preferred the latter to the extent he had experience at one of Europe’s top clubs, was potentially bedded in the Cruyff/Michels school and speaks fluent English. I was concerned about Pochettino at Southampton that they struggled when they went a goal down, had possibly rode the wave of Lallana, Lambert and Lovren (I was clearly wrong) and that essentially his CV amounted to doing reasonably well at Southampton and Espanyol.

I was enthusiastic about the pressing game derived from working with Bielsa, his use of youth players (often unfashionable English ones) and his serious, professional attitude. This is what I like the most about him, as well as the emphasis on our academy. Jol and Redknapp were great for this club but I sometimes tended to think they lacked the sort of drive and professionalism to succeed at the top level. Pochetinoo isn’t interested in soundbites or bearhugs on the touchline but on constantly improving. His use of the academy has already been mentioned and to be fair, as DM said, he has happened to come in when Mason, Kane and Bentaleb are becoming PL footballers and the likes of Winks, Onomah and others are knocking on the door. But given his work at Southampton he was a suitable replacement. That said, I pray to Lucifer every night that Levy has not just picked the ‘next big thing’ au AVB and Ramos.

On the other hand, I have yet to see a coherent or consistent form of pressing. I honestly can’t remember how long this took at Southampton or even who long it took Pep to achieve it as Barcelona to such a grand level but I would love to see more of the high level pressing that led to Eriksen’s goal at City, Chadli’s at Arsenal and Soldado’s against Everton. I’m also a little concerned that our reliance on Kane leaves us quite vulnerable. A year ago he did not have a EPL goal to his name for us and even with his wonderful rise to form, I worry if he loses form or gets hurt. Adebayor is erratic and Soldado isn’t good enough so we are a little weak there. I’m also concerned that we haven’t really replaced Sandro or Parker. Stambouli is improving and he is new to this league but I feel with players like Dembele (though his playing further forward is much better for us and him), Bentaleb, Mason and Paulinho we have players that aren’t good enough ball winners and need someone more energetic to play with them.

Overall if we don’t win a trophy and come 6th this season, progress has been made and we would be where the financial Gods have deemed us to be more or less. We need to get the stadium built and carry on nurturing the academy talent.

 

[lenny7]

Given the myriad of clusterfucks before him (save for the two marginally stable periods we enjoyed under Jol & Redknapp), my hopes were that of a realist, my thoughts really were that a supergroup of Moanrino, Sir Blootoface McFerg, Ancellotti and Pep could take over and still we would be stuck with the same issues. Poch though, to his credit, has got us going lately, which shouldn't really be much of a surprise as it took him a good half a season to really make a difference at Southampton, but you know this is Spurs and you could be forgiven for thinking the contrary would happen. If we can cut those shitty results out (1-0 defeat to Alan Irvine's West Brom at home etc etc), we might actually be going places.

 

[thinktank]

The most impressive thing he has done is install a fighting spirit or winning mentality however you want to put it. The spirit from the players to try get results when not playing well and fight for possession is something we've not had for years. In fact I really can't remember seeing a tottenham team how look so hungry to win.

What a lovely thing to have to get used to, ay.

 

[Kendall]

He gets shed loads of unwarranted stick if you ask me. One such example has been the League Cup Final, which in its own right is a magnificent achievement, an opinion which is greeted by the argument; "the quality of opposition has been 'low level'"

It doesn't seem that long ago when we were conceding soft goals at the ends of games, something which at present, is most definitely the opposite. This transition should surely be credited to the manager and his staff, right? It's a shame that some of the fan base doesn't recognise such details, covering their view with a dark, bleak veil of negativity.

Are you sure?

Burnley's equaliser in the cup
Palace x2
Leicester x2
Sheffield United x2

Older ones include Besiktas at home, West Brom at home, Sunderland away


I'm not all that convinced about Poch being this big reason for our late goals and it all being as a result of fitness. Most of the late goals have been pieces of exceptional quality from one player (Eriksen usually) or a free kick (Kane at Villa). I haven't seen us pulling teams apart with our quick passing and untrackable movement in the 92nd like, say, the Arsenal of old. Our pressure in the last few minutes isn't relentless, it's just that we happen to have a player in Eriksen who has exceptional technique from outside the area and when it gets late/desperate enough he chooses to unleash it. It's not a question of fitness, IMO, it's a question of circumstance.

In terms of our ability to create, we are toothless far too often. Moving the ball too slowly, no running from deep, poor crossing. It's good that we have a striker with a very good conversion rate.

Defensively, our lack of clean sheets and requirement for Lloris to pull worldies out of his arse every week highlights a concern that we are riding our luck, even in games where we have controlled 60+% posession.

 

[225]

No what I was saying was that results are not indicative of performances as we seen with AVB who was utter abysmal but time after time people paraded on here with nonsense about points tallys and how avb was the best thing since sliced bread yet a year later he was sacked (rightly) for some or the worst results in our history.

Ultimately what I'm saying is we can't simply sit back and say poch is good because of results because as we saw with avb, results can come from luck whilst performances signify longevity

Wasn't exactly sacked, and I think that was actually one of our best starts to a season in a while.

The problem was the knee-jerkers who couldn't take that a newly assembled team being disrupted by the AVB/Ade issue might need some time.

The Danny Blanch thing is lovely and romantic, but if it has to get a bit ugly and scrappy to get into the CL before we can adapt to a more pleasing style of football, so be it. I think people often misinterpret what he meant by that, and it was supposed to be, for example, not playing like George Graham and winning 1-0.

Should have said "The game is about scoring"