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Manager Mauricio Pochettino

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Juicy Sushi said:
Going by how the team was doing before Capello was fired, yes, we should have finished third. The numbers were not unsustainable.

The rotation issue is one where you want some players included who are worse healthy than our current players are when tired, Capoue and Stambouli aside, who may be out for off-pitch matters we don't know the details of.
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So Im being checked for expecting more rotation because there might be off pitch matters. Or, as equally, there might not be off pitch matters.

But you are perfectly ok to demand third from that team, with in your opinion, a lesser manager, and it cannot possibly be considered that he let the ball slip in the same period of time he thought he could be going to prison for a very long time, and was in and out of court fighting for his freedom, and the entire country and press wanted him to take over England the minute he was cleared.
 
ILSpur said:
Aside from Defoe coming back our way, do you really think that either Palacios or Keane really came down to Harry?
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Yes I do. You see, Harry was smart enough to only take the Spurs job on the condition we scrapped the DoF.
Not like AVB, who accepted it, then cried about players being signed over his head.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...976/Harry-Redknapp-lands-Wilson-Palacios.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/7861523.stm
 
 
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LLB Part Deux said:
TLDR alert.

On the day of his appointment I said "he's the right man to cement our top 6 finish" and, well, I guess that'll be the case.

We have had a poor season in terms of our general football. Barring the exceptional results against Chelsea and Woolwich (albeit a one goal margin) we've struggled to look the superior side against many opponents who have neither our resources or support. I absolutely don't buy in to the idea we have average players - we have good players playing below their capability (Fazio, Capoue, Soldado, Lamela, Adebayor etc) and absolutely should be targetting a top 4 finish, if not necessarily expecting it.

Defensively we are now marginally better off than we were under AVB for the same reasons - playing high line pressure football means leaving lots of room for counter attacks, which has the effect of making our defence look worse than they are (man for man). We don't necessarily give other teams more chances, but we certainly give them 'better' chances and if we didn't have Lloris I've no doubt we'd have been far worse off. We have conceeded 42 goals, double the amount of Southampton and more than Villa or Hull. That is pretty messed up.

Midfield is getting better (arguably) but there's a heavy burden on Mason and Bentaleb which they've done brilliantly to keep up, but expecting both of them to come from 'nowhere' into the class required is not reasonable. On the other hand we've got players in Capoue, Stambouli and Dembele who have been standout performers in weaker teams with better defensive records in their not too distant pasts. Offensively I fail to understand what we're trying to do - there seems to be no gameplan against teams that choke the creativity out of Eriksen and Kane (a la Chelsea and United in very clear examples). Chadli I believe has a future at the club but Townsend and Lamela are struggling to find effective opportunities in a system that doesn't suit lightweight runners/dribblers due to the compressed attacking space. In games where we aren't getting those opportunities then I feel that Adebayor and Kane up front could be devestating if Eriksen was shifted left, Chadli middle and Townsend made better use of his (potentially good) crossing ability. Can you imagine the panic that the physical presence of those 3 could induce amongst central defenders? Yet how often have we tried that?

As it stands though, we're easy to contain and our lack of convincing wins (+4 goal difference, even S'ton have +19) is testament to the fact that compressing space means being utterly transparent in our attacking. Note that our best games have come against teams that feel they are superior and have tried to play a more expansive game against us.

We absolutely don't deserve to be top 4 this season. Which means, IMO, that Poch hasn't done a particularly good job. Yeah, we've shown more fight and determination (thank god for goals in the last 5 mins eh?) but our quality is lacking. The reason it's lacking is because we reduce the size of the pitch with our play without having the players or the gameplan to exploit reduced space. To be fair to Poch, he absolutely needs another season to show us he understands our weaknesses and is able to buy well and adapt but for now all I'm seeing is a team with more grit, but absoltely no idea how to either defend or attack in the system we've set out to play. Yes we can look at that great win against Chelsea with optimism that it's a glimpse of our future, but it could so easily have been a completely different result on the day. We need to outplay teams again, learn how to crush them with superior football. I didn't like Redknapp the man, but I certainly miss the swagger we played with and the magic of a decent positive goal difference. Screw the high line pressure game - unless you're Barca, Spain or Bayern it simply doesn't work.
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Only just catching up on this thread so apologies for the late reply, but this was a brilliant post. I don't totally agree with all of it and I think you are being a bit harsh. But the way you argued each point is quality.

But condescending I know, it's just refreshing to read a critical post that makes points clearly and without being a dick about it.
 
jimmyriggle said:
Only just catching up on this thread so apologies for the late reply, but this was a brilliant post. I don't totally agree with all of it and I think you are being a bit harsh. But the way you argued each point is quality.

But condescending I know, it's just refreshing to read a critical post that makes points clearly and without being a dick about it.
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When our system works, it looks great and everyone's happy. When it doesn't , things are miserable

The question is whose fault is it when it's not working:
Are the players not good enough?
Is Poch not clever enough and is the system wrong?

I don't think Poch is a genius, but he's very good. The players are good, but we need better. It's a combination I think.
 
GloryGlory said:
When our system works, it looks great and everyone's happy. When it doesn't , things are miserable

The question is whose fault is it when it's not working:
Are the players not good enough?
Is Poch not clever enough and is the system wrong?

I don't think Poch is a genius, but he's very good. The players are good, but we need better. It's a combination I think.
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A pressing system also demands everyone working in a coordinated group. If one guys screws up the press, the whole thing can break down really fast (like we saw for the first Utd goal).

It takes a long time to train a squad to always make the correct coordinated movements, and some guys may never really get it.
 
Related to Juicy Sushi's point above, I wonder if our defending woes are down to more of a team thing rather than our defenders just being shit (i.e. lack of organisation, communication and coordinated covering). And this includes the roles and effectiveness of the 2 in central midfield (whether we need 1 of them to play as a more "pure" holding midfielder). Hope Poch can sort it out :pochfacepalm:
 
I think that while Jan, Dier and Fazio have all been in poor form lately, most of the woes come from a system issue. In a 4231 all the three guys behind the striker need to do their jobs - and they don't + Mason is too happy to play as a box-to-box while he should hold his position more.
 
Agree what has been said about it all looking honky dory when we're pressing like champs but when it falls apart it is shockingly shit with players getting lost. Thing is it's the first season. I know fuck all about coaching but henseems to have the right idea. It's a system where you need the exact player for each position. He's bacically doing the best with what he has.

This kind of shakeup will take the full 3 seasons. I think Levy and the board have agreed ee to give this guy a go with not too much interference as long as we don't get into a regulation battle. As long as we keep seeing improvements I'll be happy. I'd don't think our squads all that special especially for what Poch is after. A lot of our up coming stars are 20/21/22. Most of the Bale money was basically wasted also.

I worry sometimes we're to one dimensional but that should come with experience, Poch is young.

I truly believe as long as not too expensive , Poch will get who he wants this summer. Here's hoping he has the onions to make it happen.
 
love Poch. Gave permission for our players to cunt each other off if they're being cunts.

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KickHerInTheSponge said:
love Poch. Gave permission for our players to cunt each other off if they're being cunts.

11061241_577597049009845_4620826108197845667_n.jpg
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Funny thing is that he's right. Much better to see the players wound up and actually caring about the outcome of the match than not giving a fuck.

And let's face it, given our current position and the likelihood that Man City are about to get three points off Villa (not to mention that we seemingly don't even want Europa League next year), our season is done.
If the players still have fire in their bellies despite that, then credit to them.
 
Thin Lilywhite Duke said:
(not to mention that we seemingly don't even want Europa League next year)
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Deffo not. Poch basically said in the most respectful way possible "fuck the Europa".


"We need to prepare for a big summer, build a strong team and fight for the top four," Pochettino told BBC Sport.

"Our dream for our supporters and this club is that they deserve to fight for the top four and be in the Champions League."

Last week Pochettino said being in the Europa League had hindered his side's domestic campaign.

And while he concedes that another season in the competition would be far from ideal, the club will still take the Europa League seriously if they are in it.

"After my experiences of last year it's tough to play in the Europa League," he said. "I prefer to play in the Champions League but if you reach the Europa League it's good for the club.

"If we reach the Europa League next season, we must try and do better and fight for the top four and to try and win the Europa League, but it is not my dream."
 
I really like what Pochettino says and what he seems to believe in, I'm still not sure that he's all that as a coach though. But then, I'm usually not sure on the ability of coaches in general; it's so difficult to read what's going on behind the scenes and what they are actually doing.

A player is pretty easy to watch and have your opinion about, a coach is the opposite, too many parameters!

:chadliblow:
 
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