The Mauricio Pochettino thread

[nailsy]

He says the team didn't respect the plan.

‘We didn’t respect the plan’: Pochettino disappointed with Tottenham draw

Mauricio Pochettino accused his Tottenham players of lacking fight in the 2-2 Champions League draw at Olympiakos and suggested that they needed to work harder on the psychological side of their game

www.theguardian.com

The players were eager to point out after the Palace game about how this is how we play only to go away from it in the next game.

"The only way is to be more demanding. Training needs to be harder. Psychologically harder." I'd like to see some intensity on the pitch again. Let's make the opposition worried when they have the ball again.

 

[Spursy2j]

"The only way is to be more demanding. Training needs to be harder. Psychologically harder." I'd like to see some intensity on the pitch again. Let's make the opposition worried when they have the ball again.

the players look tired and constantly getting injured, im not sure harder training is the way.

 

[Pellshek]

WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE THINGS??!

 

[Gilzeanking]

It does look like the squad have tired of Pochs voice.

Pep said that after 3 years the players stop listening to a manager .

 

[Spursy2j]

WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE THINGS??!

we did, however we then sat still for a few windows and built a stadium. Now we've got 2 years of catching up.

 

[King of Otters]

we did, however we then sat still for a few windows and built a stadium. Now we've got 2 years of catching up.

And we find ourselves ‘catching up’ in the Pep Man City era, where the points total to win the title has never been higher.

The sooner he fucks off to Qatar the better.

 

[Spursy2j]

And we find ourselves ‘catching up’ in the Pep Man City era, where the points total to win the title has never been higher.

The sooner he fucks off to Qatar the better.

of course its not a fair game when it comes to City, hence why the negative spurs fans cant see us winning anything.
I guess the question is would we of pushed on like Liverpool if we had stayed at the Lane? Cant see it, even though we were better then both of them a few years ago.

 

[dagraham]

Genuine question but who is the player on the pitch who is most vocal/ shouting out orders/ calming everyone down? I feel like I don’t really see anyone really taking charge on the pitch.

Been a bug bear of mine for ages. Over the last few years, whenever we have a defensive calamity ( whether it directly relates to a goal or not), fail to track runners or when players make daft attacking decisions the players just shrug their shoulders and move on.

Can you imagine any of the real successful teams doing that? The likes of Keane, Ferdinand, Neville, Viera, Petit, Terry, Lampard etc.

I know it’s a different football era, but we are still too ready to accept poor standards and dumb arse play on the pitch. Yeah we talk a good game between matches, but don’t really seem to learn.

 

[Haddock]

My biggest concern is how fragile we've been in defence for over two seasons now. We were so well organised and defensively solid in 15/16 for example. I understand that a individual defence specialists like Wanyama and Dier, and the paciest RB in the league, Walker, made us a better defence unit. But I can't understand how Pochettino has allowed us to quite frankly deteriorate in such a key aspect of the game.

If it's specific players he's missing he should be able to at least identify that and put that higher up the "transfer request pecking order". If not he must be quite satisfied with the defence players at his disposal and he just can't get them to play as he wants.

I just can't remember the last time we went out to a tough game and looked well drilled and defensively solid. I was watching Napoli vs Liverpool the other day and Napoli totally obliterated Liverpools attack with how well organised they were. Yes, Ancelotti is a terrific coach but honestly, if you're managing an elite team and serial CL campaigners like Pochettino are, organizing your defence and tactics accordingly should be manager 101.

 

[danielneeds]

Pep said that after 3 years the players stop listening to a manager .

This is at the heart of why Poch wanted a massive clearout. Yes, Rose, Toby, Eriksen, Wanyama, Aurier are all good players, but there's a complacency that's setting in at the club. Players are getting used to being sloppy and half-arsed.

When this sort of thing starts happening you can do two things - change the players or change the manager.

Does Levy have the conviction to let a bunch of players go without getting value for them? That's what's stopped the rebuild in essence. I think more than new signings, it's was the failure to get out more players that affected Poch's mood in the summer. He could sense the mood in the camp was not what he wanted.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

I really do believe that Poch has squeezed everything out of this squad. It needed a bit of tinkering over the last 2-3 season, which didn't happen. The 3 players bought in the summer, due to injuries and fitness have had next to no impact. We still have the same squad as 2 years ago, getting older, losing motivation and focus and we expect to maintain PL challenge, when we are weaker than before and our main competition have strengthened.
Poch knows we have little chance of challenging, I suspect the players know this too, so the belief has gone.

 

[Mattspur]

On one hand, I'm encouraged by Poch's comments after the game about the intensity we played with. It seems that the intensity issue is not one that stems from his instructions, it's the players themselves. On the other hand it's concerning that the players are no longer carrying out his instructions, because in theses sort of situations it's normally the players who outlast the manager. I hope Poch is given the time and resources to rebuild the squad and hopefully the improvements with squad depth we've already made mean that he's able to drop players who aren't doing what he wants, but essentially, this shows we still have a poor mentality amongst the players because it means that they're not trying their best when they're on the pitch, and this is unacceptable.

 

[danielneeds]

My biggest concern is how fragile we've been in defence for over two seasons now. We were so well organised and defensively solid in 15/16 for example. I understand that a individual defence specialists like Wanyama and Dier, and the paciest RB in the league, Walker, made us a better defence unit. But I can't understand how Pochettino has allowed us to quite frankly deteriorate in such a key aspect of the game.

If it's specific players he's missing he should be able to at least identify that and put that higher up the "transfer request pecking order". If not he must be quite satisfied with the defence players at his disposal and he just can't get them to play as he wants.

I just can't remember the last time we went out to a tough game and looked well drilled and defensively solid. I was watching Napoli vs Liverpool the other day and Napoli totally obliterated Liverpools attack with how well organised they were. Yes, Ancelotti is a terrific coach but honestly, if you're managing an elite team and serial CL campaigners like Pochettino are, organizing your defence and tactics accordingly should be manager 101.

I think the thing about defensive organisation is you can either be a lower block passive defensive team or a higher block aggressive defensive team. We've always been the latter, because that's in the very DNA of how Poch wants to play, but since several areas of the team are not functioning properly - fullback, centre midfield, pressing - we've become a high block team that isn't aggressive in winning the ball back. That means there are wide open spaces for opposition players to use, and at the moment we're getting punished again and again for it.

So, either Poch finds a way for us to be more aggressive and stay high, put constant pressure on the opposition so they find it hard to exploit the spaces we leave open, or we become a lower block side that gets men behind the ball and plays on the counter. This no man's land in between will only lead us to ruin.

 

[Hakkz]

I said on another spurs forum two or three season ago that I had a feeling this team would win nothing..(think it was when we lost to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi)..and the cycle will come to an end without ever doing so. I was shouted down, but unfortunately it’s come to reality.

Clubs don’t continually get more chances to win things with a certain group of players. We wasted too many chances under Poch over the last five years, we simply had to win something and we constantly blew it, and this team is clearly on the decline now.

It’s not all doom and gloom but i don’t see this team as one with the ability to win any major trophies this season. Our defence is all over the shop. We have a squad of very talented players but Poch isn’t getting a tune out of them and hasn’t for a while.

I don’t see how we will suddenly turn it around and have a watertight defence this season, it doesn’t just switch on overnight. We’ve been leaky for a long while.

I am worried for Poch’s future. A defeat on Saturday will be a disaster and increase the pressure further. Let’s hope we get a performance and three points.

I’ve lost a lot of enthusiasm for Spurs this season.
I don’t know if it’s a hangover from the CL final, perhaps, but I just think it’s more the way we’ve been playing for a year now. We just look like a team going through the motions and it’s a million miles away from the feeling we had three seasons ago when it felt we were on the verge of something special.

It does look like the squad have tired of Pochs voice.

I don’t know if I am alone about this feeling of less enthusiasm with Spurs than I’ve had since Poch took over? New stadium offered a lot of excitement but that’s worn off now, we’re finally in the stadium yet now it feels like an anticlimax based on the way the team is playing.

I was very excited last season. I miss watching us play good attacking football like that and that's why I've had the feeling you talk about. Almost a year now of games where we win unconvincingly, CL final or not. Entertainment on the pitch comes first for me personally.

 

[Thewobbler]

Poch can't catch a break at the moment. Just when it looks like we are getting everyone back from injury another player goes down and is out for a month.

I don't think he has even had a chance to field his best 11 this season.

 

[olliec]

I've never seen Eriksen have such a poor game in a Spurs shirt. We might as well of been playing with 10 men because he was literally a passenger the whole night. I just can't see how Poch is going to be able to motivate him.

 

[Spursy2j]

Poch can't catch a break at the moment. Just when it looks like we are getting everyone back from injury another player goes down and is out for a month.

I don't think he has even had a chance to field his best 11 this season.

i dont think he knows his best 11.

 

[wrd]

I said on another spurs forum two or three season ago that I had a feeling this team would win nothing..(think it was when we lost to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi)..and the cycle will come to an end without ever doing so. I was shouted down, but unfortunately it’s come to reality.

Clubs don’t continually get more chances to win things with a certain group of players. We wasted too many chances under Poch over the last five years, we simply had to win something and we constantly blew it, and this team is clearly on the decline now.

It’s not all doom and gloom but i don’t see this team as one with the ability to win any major trophies this season. Our defence is all over the shop. We have a squad of very talented players but Poch isn’t getting a tune out of them and hasn’t for a while.

I don’t see how we will suddenly turn it around and have a watertight defence this season, it doesn’t just switch on overnight. We’ve been leaky for a long while.

I am worried for Poch’s future. A defeat on Saturday will be a disaster and increase the pressure further. Let’s hope we get a performance and three points.

I’ve lost a lot of enthusiasm for Spurs this season.
I don’t know if it’s a hangover from the CL final, perhaps, but I just think it’s more the way we’ve been playing for a year now. We just look like a team going through the motions and it’s a million miles away from the feeling we had three seasons ago when it felt we were on the verge of something special.

It does look like the squad have tired of Pochs voice.

I don’t know if I am alone about this feeling of less enthusiasm with Spurs than I’ve had since Poch took over? New stadium offered a lot of excitement but that’s worn off now, we’re finally in the stadium yet now it feels like an anticlimax based on the way the team is playing.

Personally I don't agree with this, Chelsea under Conte in his first season were 8 points behind after 6 games having lost 2 and drawing one and they found a system which clicked and went on a run, I don't think it's out of the realms of possibility that we will eventually find the right system which clicks along with the correct way to rotate. We usually start pretty poor also.

I think you're right you're feeling the effects of a champions league hangover because fact is the only way we can top last season is by getting there again so it's hard to get excited by the possibilities knowing last season was the big one.

 

[wrd]

Pep said that after 3 years the players stop listening to a manager .

Fergy didn't win his first title until 93 after being appointed in 86, he then went on with onto have unprecedented success with the same core group of players lasting around 10-15 years so it's not some fixed number where you have a window to be successful.

 

[olliec]

Fergy didn't win his first title until 93 after being appointed in 86, he then went on with onto have unprecedented success with the same core group of players lasting around 10-15 years so it's not some fixed number where you have a window to be successful.

Yes, but this is a whole different generation and things are a lot more different now, especially when it comes to pressure by the media.