Redknapp2011/12 vs Pochettino2016/17 vs Mouriniho2020/21

[fishhhandaricecake]

We’ve had some very good teams and squads over the last 10 years or so which have produced some of the best performances and memories certainly in my time as a Spurs fan.

Fans are now saying that our current squad depth is the best it’s ever been, I wanted to compare our three best Managers over the last 10 years, the first XI’s they’ve had and the squad depth they’ve had.

Harry Redknapp’s squad 2011-12

Gomes
Cudicini

Ćorluka
Hutton

King
Woodgate
Dawson
Gallas

Rose
Assou-Ekotto

Lennon
Krancjar

Parker
Palacios/Huddlestone/Sandro

Modrić
Jenas

Bale
Bentley

Crouch
Defoe
Van Der Vaart
Pavlyuchenko

Best XI:
Friedel

Ćorluka
King
Dawson
Assou-Ekotto

Lennon
Parker
Modrić
Bale

VDV
Crouch

Very strong first XI especially midfield with peak Modrić and Bale and VDV. Experience in defence, played some very exciting fast football with Lennon and Bale flying down the wings, Crouch and VDV were also very effective. Defence could’ve been improved a bit and Crouch is no Kane, depth is reasonable. Produced some great memories.

Ratings:
First XI : 7.5/10
Squad depth : 7/10
Manager rating : 8/10 from 2 points from 8 games to CL football, not too shabby Arry, shame the England job speculation got in the way of it.

Pochettino’s squad 2016/17

Lloris
Vorm

Walker
Trippier

Toby
Jan
Wimmer
CCV

Rose
Davies

Wanyama
Dier

Dembele
Sissoko

Eriksen
Onomah

Dele
Lamela

Son
Nkoudu

Kane
Janssen

Best XI:
Lloris

Walker
Toby
Jan
Rose

Wanyama
Dembele

Eriksen
Dele
Son

Kane

One of the best XI’s we’ve ever had, the team which came 2nd and was in back to back title races. Squad depth could’ve made the difference. Peak defence with Walker and Rose flying, Toby & Jan so solid, Wanyama a beast, Dembele a beast, Eriksen creating, Dele, Son and Kane scoring, high energy exciting exhilarating football. Should’ve won a big trophy.

Ratings:
First XI : 9/10
Squad depth 6/10
Manager rating: 9.5/10 transformed our club on a shoestring budget compared to rivals, just needed that trophy to make it 10/10.


Mouriniho’s squad 2020-21

Lloris
Hart

Doherty
Aurier

Toby
Sanchez

Dier
Roden

Regullion
Davies

PEH
Winks

Sissoko
Ndombele

Lo celso
Dele
Lamela

Bale
Lucas

Son
Bergwijn

Kane
Vinicius

Best XI:
Lloris

Doherty
Toby
Dier
Regullion

PEH
Lo Celso
Ndombele

Bale
Kane
Son

Early days with this squad but some are arguing it’s our best ever in terms of depth. The first XI on paper is pretty strong with solid full backs, CB’s not bad, we could improve in that area mabye but Toby and Dier are pretty good, midfield are finding their feet in the prem and this team but on their day as a trio they are 3 fantastic players and Sissoko can come
In and be effective. Bale still getting up to speed but we have 3 world class attackers there. At times have played some very exciting fast direct counter attacking football and demolished some teams. The CB and DM areas could be improved but in terms of squad depth it’s pretty incredible.

Ratings:
First XI : 8/10
Squad depth : 9/10
Manager rating : 8/10 too early to tell but some very promising signs early on this season.

So overall I’d say that peak Pochettino first XI was the best but our depth right now is the strongest it’s been. Redknapp also had a pretty strong first XI and depth with some world class players but always lacked in some areas so didn’t have the consistency.

Combined best XI:
Lloris

Walker
Toby
King\Jan
Rose

Dembele
Modrić

Bale
Eriksen
Son

Kane

All teams have provided us with some scintillating football and amazing memories.

Under Harry’s time the Crouch goal away at Man.City to secure CL football felt like we’d won the league and the CL wins against Inter and AC Milan were special.

Under Poch‘s time the 2 title challenges, unbeaten at home in final Season at the lane, the CL wins over Real Madrid, Dortmund, Ajax, Man.City and reaching the CL final will always be such special memories. How that team didn’t win a trophy is incredible.

And now the current chapter with Jose, we’ve seen glimpses this season of possibly a very special squad, we are still finding our feet but hopefully with the depth we now have we can get over the line for some silverware.

In terms of comparing first XI’s for these era’s and squad depth, what are your opinions, which teams have been your favourite and why didn’t Redknapp or Poch team get over the line for a trophy?

COYS

 

[Athenspur]

How about the squad that made it to a Champions League final in 2019?

 

[SUIYHA]

Redknapp's squad peaked in 2011-12 when we had Parker, Adebayor and the legendary Saha and Nelson signings in January

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

How about the squad that made it to a Champions League final in 2019?

I included that as a memory of Poch’s time but for me that squad was stagnant as we saw in the league that season and the following start of the PL season. Whereas his peak team that came 2nd to Chelsea really was virtually unstoppable just didn’t quite have the depth and came up against a Chelsea team under conte that won about 15 games in a row.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Redknapp's squad peaked in 2011-12 when we had Parker, Adebayor and the legendary Saha and Nelson signings in January

Think I meant 2011-12 but just didn’t include Nelson and Saha, I’ll edit it.

 

[RikkiRocket]

I included that as a memory of Poch’s time but for me that squad was stagnant as we saw in the league that season and the following start of the PL season. Whereas his peak team that came 2nd to Chelsea really was virtually unstoppable just didn’t quite have the depth and came up against a Chelsea team under conte that won about 15 games in a row.

So you rewrote history re CL final

I included that as a memory of Poch’s time but for me that squad was stagnant as we saw in the league that season and the following start of the PL season. Whereas his peak team that came 2nd to Chelsea really was virtually unstoppable just didn’t quite have the depth and came up against a Chelsea team under conte that won about 15 games in a row.

You rewrote history to suit the narrative ?

 

[dagraham]

Put Kane and Son in that Redknapp squad ( maybe even just Kane actually ) and we’d have come very close to winning the league.

Midfield far superior to our current one and better than Poch’s too ( even though Wanyama/Dembele partnership was superb).

Better CB’s too, even though King was breaking by that point, Gallas best years behind him and Woodgate’s fitness issues.

Corluka was also an underrated RB imo, despite having the movement of a canal boat.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

So you rewrote history re CL final


You rewrote history to suit the narrative ?

Not quite haha, I compared each of them at their own merit and at the end summarised the highlights of each of the managers times but ultimately the ratings were based on each of the squads listed ?

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Put Kane and Son in that Redknapp squad ( maybe even just Kane actually ) and we’d have come very close to winning the league.

Midfield far superior to our current one and better than Poch’s too ( even though Wanyama/Dembele partnership was superb).

Better CB’s too, even though King was breaking by that point, Gallas best years behind him and Woodgate’s fitness issues.

Corluka was also an underrated RB imo, despite having the movement of a canal boat.

Agree with this.
Although so you’d take Parker and Modric over Wanyama and Dembele? That’s a toughie as both such strong partnerships.

I agree redknapps squad with a peak Kane and a slightly better defence would’ve won a title I think.

 

[slartibartfast]

Maybe not the best squad but for me Redknapps football was the most exciting and enjoyable football I've seen for us.
We scared the living shit out of everyone. EVERYONE.

 

[dagraham]

Agree with this.
Although so you’d take Parker and Modric over Wanyama and Dembele? That’s a toughie as both such strong partnerships.

I agree redknapps squad with a peak Kane and a slightly better defence would’ve won a title I think.

It’s very close, they both bring different things to the table. As a squad though, I think the midfield in Harry’s squad had more depth.

 

[mpickard2087]

Redknapp's 11/12 team had the potential to do a lot more. Myself and others on here used to cop a fair amount of stick for pointing this out and not swallowing the "this is as good as it gets" blarney from Redknapp (narrator: It wasn't) but that team had some super talent, especially going forward - Parker was heroic for 6 months, pace of Lennon, pace and skill of Bale, elite ball player in Modric, dollop of flair and lots of goals from VDV, and that first season Adebayor was really good up top - to rival anyone in the league and sometimes played some great football (though also quite often didn't...) but was unfortunately a lazy team that frequently couldn't control matches, games frequently became far too open, and had many days where their luck ran out and they got punished for this.

Occasionally we'd get an attacking player sacrificed to pair Sandro and Parker and usually get a more mature and secure performance, or one game I remember vs. Rodgers' bright and buzzy Swansea team where Harry had obviously watched them and thought 'shit we've got to work hard today' and that's what we got - pressing and intensity to go with decent football, and you'd start to hope that halle-fucking-lujah the penny had dropped, but then we'd revert to type the next week.

Peak Poch team was largely about intensity, energy, hard work and application. With a dollop of (individual) quality to go with it. And the players/team reflected this. But that largely maxed out what it was capable of. Just a small amount of those traits and qualities injected into Redknapp's team though and who knows what it could have done...

 

[Shadydan]

This current squad is the best we've had I the Prem era

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Redknapp's 11/12 team had the potential to do a lot more. Myself and others on here used to cop a fair amount of stick for pointing this out and not swallowing the "this is as good as it gets" blarney from Redknapp (narrator: It wasn't) but that team had some super talent, especially going forward - Parker was heroic for 6 months, pace of Lennon, pace and skill of Bale, elite ball player in Modric, dollop of flair and lots of goals from VDV, and that first season Adebayor was really good up top - to rival anyone in the league and sometimes played some great football (though also quite often didn't...) but was unfortunately a lazy team that frequently couldn't control matches, games frequently became far too open, and had many days where their luck ran out and they got punished for this.

Occasionally we'd get an attacking player sacrificed to pair Sandro and Parker and usually get a more mature and secure performance, or one game I remember vs. Rodgers' bright and buzzy Swansea team where Harry had obviously watched them and thought 'shit we've got to work hard today' and that's what we got - pressing and intensity to go with decent football, and you'd start to hope that halle-fucking-lujah the penny had dropped, but then we'd revert to type the next week.

Peak Poch team was largely about intensity, energy, hard work and application. With a dollop of (individual) quality to go with it. And the players/team reflected this. But that largely maxed out what it was capable of. Just a small amount of those traits and qualities injected into Redknapp's team though and who knows what it could have done...

Very good analysis, agree with this.

I always thought the Redknapp team could’ve achieved more and also didn’t agree with him that the was as good as it would get. Some of the football at times was absolutely electric but I think the defence wasn’t quite solid enough and as you say the mental application of the team not quite there as well as the strength in depth to be consistent over the whole season.

 

[HodisGawd]

Very good analysis, agree with this.

I always thought the Redknapp team could’ve achieved more and also didn’t agree with him that the was as good as it would get. Some of the football at times was absolutely electric but I think the defence wasn’t quite solid enough and as you say the mental application of the team not quite there as well as the strength in depth to be consistent over the whole season.

I felt the Redknapp team could have done better had it not been managed by Redknapp. The talent in that squad was insane, but the opportunity squandered.

 

[Wsussexspur]

I still feel people are going way over the top about how good our current squad is! On paper it is a very good and strong squad. However in a reality there are still a lot of flaws and weakness in it.

We have the usual cast of Aurier, Winks, Sissoko,all of whom have massive flaws and appear to have big weakness mentality wise and to be honest just aren’t good enough for a team who are supposedly aiming to win trophies/ finish in the top 4. Certainly none of them should be playing regularly as they are.

Then throw in players like Lamela (who I am a fully paid up member of his fan club), Moura, Bergwijn again very good players but all of them seem to have flaws and are very streaky players. When they are good they are good! However equally when they are bad they very bad. Look at Moura he has had one good game in 12 months the rest of the time he has been woeful! How he gets in the starting line up as regularly as he does I have no idea. Yes is a hard worker but as I say over nearly the last 12 months he has been woeful Barring that one game against LASK.

Then we get on to players like Dele, Bale (early days yet let’s give him time to regain fitness) Dier, Sanchez, Toby. There has to be big question marks about these players in some cases are they going to be good as they can be/ in others are they past there best.

As I say on paper it’s very good squad. But personally I feel when you actually break it down and analysis it look at individual players performances over past couple of season you can see there is a lot of question marks about a lot of the players in our squad. Performances like last night really don’t help settle any of those question marks.

I would say equally though it Is clear that there were too many changes to last nights team. Given we had three players coming back from injury and majority of the rest of the starting line up who hadn’t played in weeks. Maybe if jose had made only 5/6 changes then we might have seen a different performance.

 

[Thenewcat]

Really interesting thread - thanks. Scattered thoughts:

One thing the post doesn’t consider is the strength of the competition. And for me, that’s why Redknapp should have won the league. He had 2 of the top 10 players in the world, a decent squad and no one else was that good. 69 points is frankly pathetic with that lot.

The 2016-17 team is by far the best, as reflected in the points total. 86 points is actually incredible when you think about the injuries we had and the lack of depth in several key positions. Chelsea were so lucky with injuries that year (and not playing in Europe)

This year’s team is an interesting one - the attack is the strongest it’s ever been if you consider depth, but it has bigger issues than the other teams. The centre backs are a concern, and whilst I love our theoretical first choice midfield (that has never played together) of Gio, Tanguy and Hojbjerg, we have no cover worth speaking of for Hojbjerg and need one of Tanguy and Gio on the pitch or we lose control of midfield every time

 

[dagraham]

I still feel people are going way over the top about how good our current squad is! On paper it is a very good and strong squad. However in a reality there are still a lot of flaws and weakness in it.

We have the usual cast of Aurier, Winks, Sissoko,all of whom have massive flaws and appear to have big weakness mentality wise and to be honest just aren’t good enough for a team who are supposedly aiming to win trophies/ finish in the top 4. Certainly none of them should be playing regularly as they are.

Then throw in players like Lamela (who I am a fully paid up member of his fan club), Moura, Bergwijn again very good players but all of them seem to have flaws and are very streaky players. When they are good they are good! However equally when they are bad they very bad. Look at Moura he has had one good game in 12 months the rest of the time he has been woeful! How he gets in the starting line up as regularly as he does I have no idea. Yes is a hard worker but as I say over nearly the last 12 months he has been woeful Barring that one game against LASK.

Then we get on to players like Dele, Bale (early days yet let’s give him time to regain fitness) Dier, Sanchez, Toby. There has to be big question marks about these players in some cases are they going to be good as they can be/ in others are they past there best.

As I say on paper it’s very good squad. But personally I feel when you actually break it down and analysis it look at individual players performances over past couple of season you can see there is a lot of question marks about a lot of the players in our squad. Performances like last night really don’t help settle any of those question marks.

I would say equally though it Is clear that there were too many changes to last nights team. Given we had three players coming back from injury and majority of the rest of the starting line up who hadn’t played in weeks. Maybe if jose had made only 5/6 changes then we might have seen a different performance.

Absolutely this and it’s why I’ve said what I’ve said earlier in this thread about Redknapp’s squad in particular.

Of course that had weaknesses too, but Toby, Dier, Sanchez and Tanganga better than King, Gallas, Dawson and Kaboul. Not a chance ( although in fairness we know the fitness issues King had and indeed Kaboul in the end).

Then Winks, Sissoko, PEH, GLC, Ndombele better than Sandro, Parker, Modric, VDV, Hudd. Again, no way. We also had players like Krankjar that couldn’t get regular minutes.

We have a good squad no doubt and our aces in the pack Kane and Son piss all over that Redknapp squad’s forward options, but other areas I just can’t see it.

 

[Thenewcat]

Absolutely this and it’s why I’ve said what I’ve said earlier in this thread about Redknapp’s squad in particular.

Of course that had weaknesses too, but Toby, Dier, Sanchez and Tanganga better than King, Gallas, Dawson and Kaboul. Not a chance ( although in fairness we know the fitness issues King had and indeed Kaboul in the end).

Then Winks, Sissoko, PEH, GLC, Ndombele better than Sandro, Parker, Modric, VDV, Hudd. Again, no way. We also had players like Krankjar that couldn’t get regular minutes.

We have a good squad no doubt and our aces in the pack Kane and Son piss all over that Redknapp squad’s forward options, but other areas I just can’t see it.

To be fair, Redknapp’s forward options were better than Luis Suarez...

I just wish we’d had a better manager when we had that squad. A top notch CF instead of Crouch and Defoe and a bit more tactical nous and the sky was the limit

 

[dagraham]

To be fair, Redknapp’s forward options were better than Luis Suarez...

Don’t even go there mate.