Mauricio Pochettino

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The problem with the criticism at playing Soldado is what do you do when you're a goal down? The club has a lack of goalscorers (Ade?) available to change the game.

I agree that bringing Soldado on and then dropping Kane deeper doesn't really work, Kane needs to be at the head of the attack. So what do you do? It's tough.
 
Some of his selections have been pretty poor imo. That period of playing Demeble at AM really frustrated me as he just doesn't have the final ball to justify the position, pushing Eriksen out wide and Chadli off the pitch at a point that Chadli was our second most productive (goals/assists) player. Not knocking Dembele as he shouldn't be played there. Everyone dreams of a Moussa with goals but it'll never happen.

Pushing Kane out of position for Ade or Soldado is suicide as well. If Kane is on the pitch, he is #9 and everyone else accommodates him, no question. Having Kane trying to provide service for a striker who can't score is mental.

Also, I don't think we have trained on the break well enough. Every time I see a player pivot on a ball and let people track back when we're c.3 on 3 I want to kick someone in the face.

Other than that, Poch is the fucking Massianic Poohbah Shizzletits and has transformed this team from something that was slowly giving me eye cancer to a very enjoyable spectacle to watch.

I agree with your second point. I absolutely hate seeing Kane behind a striker. Perhaps it could work if the frontman wasn't Soldado or an out of form Adebayor, but it just doesn't work for us. I can see why he does it late in games to push forward, but thankfully we've stopped starting games that way.

As for the Dembele/Chadli discussion. Let's not forget that Chadli was away on personal leave for a week and that we beat West Bromwich 3-0, beat the scum and went to Anfield and gave Liverpool a game with Dembele behind Kane. It did work quite well and now that's Chadli is fit and flying again Dembele has been dropped to the bench again.

I never understood people saying it was to sure up the midfield that Dembele played ahead of Chadli. It was just because Chadli went away and Dembele did quite well away at Sheffield United that he was given a little run in that position.

The only time I was disappointed with Pochettino this season was when Paulinho got games against Liverpool and West Brom. Thankfully he's realised that he's not worth anything and now he's not even in the squad anymore, thankfully.
 
The problem with the criticism at playing Soldado is what do you do when you're a goal down? The club has a lack of goalscorers (Ade?) available to change the game.

I agree that bringing Soldado on and then dropping Kane deeper doesn't really work, Kane needs to be at the head of the attack. So what do you do? It's tough.

Better to keep kane up top and perhaps thrown on Townsend or lamela, Bobby and ade have been so wank this season we have less of a goal threat when they come on than when we keep them away from the pitch.
 
The Dembele as an AM thing isn't an attacking change, it's defensive. He's using Dembele as a forward destroyer to break up the shape of the other team. If you think of it more as a 4-3-3 with no AM, I think it's closer to what Pochettino was trying to do.
But it doesn't work. Our right side fails to create assists anywhere near the levels of centre or left. You stick him in at AM and whoever is on the left is pretty much the only place a goal will come from. Starting Dembele at AM = very few goals.

From a winning position maybe but we simply don't have the creativity on both wings to be breaking up the centre.
 
Better to keep kane up top and perhaps thrown on Townsend or lamela, Bobby and ade have been so wank this season we have less of a goal threat when they come on than when we keep them away from the pitch.

By doing that, it doesn't really change much for the team, you're relying on a moment of brilliance from one of those two or for the opposition to double up on one of them and give space to another Spurs player. This is something that should be addressed in the summer, someone with the potential to change the game when he comes on.
 
Are you willing to list what you think are Pochs cons?

Thought not
He hasn't transformed Lamela into an effective and dangerous offensive midfielder
He hasn't found a midfield combination that can provide a more consistent and effective midfield screen for the defence
He seems to allow Vertonghen to make mistakes without sacking him to make you happy
He hasn't transformed Rose into a totally effective left back
He hasn't transformed Chadli into Gareth Bale
He hasn't persuaded Eriksen to be as efficient and effective as Modric
He doesn't listen to you during match threads for substitution guidance

Most of his problems are beyond his control, we have seen that he can get the team to perform to awesome levels - but he can't get them to do it for every game.
He can't rotate his players to rest them, because the alternatives are too awful to select

Why don't you switch to receive occasionally - instead of being on permanent transmit?

ie open your mind and not your mouth
 
The problem with the criticism at playing Soldado is what do you do when you're a goal down? The club has a lack of goalscorers (Ade?) available to change the game.

I agree that bringing Soldado on and then dropping Kane deeper doesn't really work, Kane needs to be at the head of the attack. So what do you do? It's tough.
If you're struggling to score and get the ball to Kane then you need to do something to get him more service. I'd think about sticking three on at the back and telling the fullbacks to absolutely leather their area with crosses to a striker that can actually score.
 
The problem with the criticism at playing Soldado is what do you do when you're a goal down? The club has a lack of goalscorers (Ade?) available to change the game.

I agree that bringing Soldado on and then dropping Kane deeper doesn't really work, Kane needs to be at the head of the attack. So what do you do? It's tough.
I would probably do what Pochettino already does, which is sub a wide AM, to give the attack more energy. And I would try Onomah out in that role. The kid seems pretty special, and giving him some impact sub opportunities might be a good way to give him a softer introduction to the Premier League.
 
I would probably do what Pochettino already does, which is sub a wide AM, to give the attack more energy. And I would try Onomah out in that role. The kid seems pretty special, and giving him some impact sub opportunities might be a good way to give him a softer introduction to the Premier League.
I'd also be sticking Mason in at AM and having Dembele behind him. Mason has good form in that position from his youth.
 
But it doesn't work. Our right side fails to create assists anywhere near the levels of centre or left. You stick him in at AM and whoever is on the left is pretty much the only place a goal will come from. Starting Dembele at AM = very few goals.

From a winning position maybe but we simply don't have the creativity on both wings to be breaking up the centre.
It worked great against Woolwich and West Brom. It's not about increasing our attack, it was about stopping the opposing team from doing a water-through-a-screen-door thing with Mason and Bentaleb.

I think Pochettino feels Harry's good enough at coming deep and creating chances for himself and others that playing Eriksen on the left and either Townsend or Lamela on the right is enough so long as the fast breaks being conceded by our midfield stop.

Ideally, we would have a better CM pairing and could play Eriksen as the 10. Against weaker teams we do. But with Bentaleb at ACON and both Mason and Stambouli not being rocks in midfield (I am not even going to discuss Paulinho) we needed some way to stop the bleeding. Moussa Dembele'ing all over the final third pulling the defense out of position seemed to do that.
 
:kaneear:

Any cons?

Anyone?
I'll bite.

Although I will say that he has his hands tied at times, I find the timeliness and selection of some substitutions questionable, especially when it comes to Stambouli. We have given up a lot of late goals and he has the ability to come into a game, break up an attack and has the pace and energy we need to quickly get active into a game. Coming on in the 85th minute doesn't give him anywhere enough time to make an impact.

I'm still not sure, at the moment, why Fazio seems to have lost his place to Dier and think that it has been partially to blame for our recent inability to keep a clean sheet and has allowed teams the ability to be more effective with aerial balls into the box.

Although I think he was just experimenting and, dare I suggest, rotating a little, Eriksen is not a strong player for us on the left unless his function is to pull back into the middle, and Dembele is not a CAM.
 
It worked great against Woolwich and West Brom. It's not about increasing our attack, it was about stopping the opposing team from doing a water-through-a-screen-door thing with Mason and Bentaleb.

I think Pochettino feels Harry's good enough at coming deep and creating chances for himself and others that playing Eriksen on the left and either Townsend or Lamela on the right is enough so long as the fast breaks being conceded by our midfield stop.

Ideally, we would have a better CM pairing and could play Eriksen as the 10. Against weaker teams we do. But with Bentaleb at ACON and both Mason and Stambouli not being rocks in midfield (I am not even going to discuss Paulinho) we needed some way to stop the bleeding. Moussa Dembele'ing all over the final third pulling the defense out of position seemed to do that.
I do get it, but Dembele is the better destroyer, Mason is the better creative... There's a pretty simple answer on how to break down the opposition and continue to create.

We still look like we're scratching our heads in the final third for large periods of games at the moment. Personally think he'll sort that out this summer, but with the players we have, I'm surprised the way he uses them sometimes.

Edit: how many times did you ever see Makelele, Mascharano, Viera or Busquets played in front of a creative player? As my poor wife always says to me "never mind love, it's not what you've got, it's how you use it".
 
My biggest con sammyspurs sammyspurs is that he wasn't born 20 years before so we could have installed him as boss in 1994 and won everything!!!!

Seriously biggest con maybe some of his substitutions are a bit out of whack he makes them a bit out of order sometimes, Stambouli should have been on earlier at weekend for example

Thing is sammy after last year the positives outweigh the negatives so much that it's very hard not to be so positive and come on here with a dig, I mean Martin Jol is a god at this club 50% because of the mess before him!
Agreed...I have said a good few times that his positives outweigh his negatives 10 to 1....glad to see some more people are ok talking about the "1" too though..!

:adethumbup:
 
I'll bite.

Although I will say that he has his hands tied at times, I find the timeliness and selection of some substitutions questionable, especially when it comes to Stambouli. We have given up a lot of late goals and he has the ability to come into a game, break up an attack and has the pace and energy we need to quickly get active into a game. Coming on in the 85th minute doesn't give him anywhere enough time to make an impact.

I'm still not sure, at the moment, why Fazio seems to have lost his place to Dier and think that it has been partially to blame for our recent inability to keep a clean sheet and has allowed teams the ability to be more effective with aerial balls into the box.

Although I think he was just experimenting and, dare I suggest, rotating a little, Eriksen is not a strong player for us on the left unless his function is to pull back into the middle, and Dembele is not a CAM.

Stambouli is a real mystery. I rate him highly actually.

Im also a Fazio fan, but Dier has been decent. Not sure, as you say, what started it though...
 
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