True, but lets cut Poch a break. Its his first time managing in the tournament, he has inherited a squad with a load of players that aren't suited for, or willing to play in, the style of football that he wants to play. I'd prefer to write this season off and give him the chance to impose his authority and style on the squad and aim for next season. If his biggest failure was expecting too much from a small crop of players, well, echoes of glory and all that.
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Manager Mauricio Pochettino
- Thread starter WHITE&BLUE
- Start date
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Same could be said for the people who thought they could do better than Tim, or Harry or Ramos....same for those who had a good laugh at LVG.
And those who think they could do a better job than Soldado, or Ade...
I quite agree. But I'm sitting here reading a load of shit from people calling it a 'shit season' and slamming Poch every other fucking day.
It's not been a shit season - just some fucking stupid cunts haven't set realistic expectations for themselves. Same old spursy nonsense to be honest, and it's boring as fuck.
If ANYONE actually advocates the removal of Poch at this stage, they can go fucking support someone else.
End of story, all I'm saying.
Agree. In the summer we need to get rid of a lot of shit and let Poch bring in 5 or 6 players who HE wants. Lets be honest, we are not going to get top 4. So, personally, I would happy finish out of a EL spot and let Poch build and mould a good young side.
People shouldn't be calling for his head, (I havent seen anyone) but criticising him is fine.
Bringing Adebayor on for me is a strange one, because I was under the impression he was completely frozen out of the squad... If he isnt... Why has he not been used, especially to give Kane a rest?
Bringing Adebayor on for me is a strange one, because I was under the impression he was completely frozen out of the squad... If he isnt... Why has he not been used, especially to give Kane a rest?
Because he can only name so many substitutes. Simples.
The fact he has selected Soldado ahead of him is a concern though.
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.
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.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS!
Stambouli was a completely unexpected deal. I don't know why he has been brought in, we already had a bunch of midfielders before that.
Vorm is happy as a second goalkeeper, better than Friedel.
Davies, Dier and Yedlin are all 21 years old. They are going to get better, Dier has been very good this season.
I don't know about Fazio. I do think he will get game time in the last couple of games.
Vorm is happy as a second goalkeeper, better than Friedel.
Davies, Dier and Yedlin are all 21 years old. They are going to get better, Dier has been very good this season.
I don't know about Fazio. I do think he will get game time in the last couple of games.
They could have been Baldini's????
In all fairness I'm probably being a little harsh on the attacking side of our game (which is statistically only inferior to the top 4, thanks to Kane and Eriksen) - but if the cost of opposition half possession is inevitably conceeding good quality chances to the oppositon, then you have to recognise that we need an utterly dominant attack in order to reliably score enough goals to balance out the risk of conceeding.
I always judge a team (every season I say the same thing) by their goal difference, not their points tally. At this point of the season our GD is +4. The mean average is exactly zero. The top 6 have +25 average. That's how much progress we need to make.
I always judge a team (every season I say the same thing) by their goal difference, not their points tally. At this point of the season our GD is +4. The mean average is exactly zero. The top 6 have +25 average. That's how much progress we need to make.
They were fucking Levy's!
Looking forward to Cretinous Goat's assessment of my standpoint. He's pretty much the benchmark of reasoned argument on this site.
You were very soft on our defensive frailties though.....
My assessment of your "standpoint" is that it's really fucking stupid.
There you go.
Love you, sweetcheeks
I like it when we dont abandon it after 20 minutes and look like shit and get played off the park.
Which happens too often for my liking...so in essence, Id be happy to play to our players strengths and abilities until we have a squad who the manager trusts.
But I guess that would mean a back up plan......