SquishyMcSquish
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- Jul 4, 2018
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It is not the first time a midfielder lost the ball in midfield. Dembele has lost it many time, but that never hampered his ability to play there and continued making those runs. As you stated, Pochettino had to improvise due to lack of squad depth and he did that in order to accomadate Vertonghen out wide to ‘do something different to change the game.’ Good managers are dynamic and don’t just have one plan. Pochettino showed such dynamism today and it would have worked out great had kolshieny not read Vertonghen cross. Of course it would have also happened that such changes cause spurs to lose, but great managers knows how and when to take risk. This move was a risk, but at the end it didn’t have a positive or negative affect on the result. However, if there was more minutes added, it might have had a positive outcome for the reason that rose as the central midfielder caused Toirera to have a red card. In my own opinion, that was a positive outcome if there was more minutes added. I didn’t see it as a poor tactical game as he did what he had to do not to get a defeat after team morale is at a very low after back to back defeat.
Dembele VERY RARELY lost the ball outside our box. Maybe a few times in his entire career at Spurs, he rarely lost the ball full stop let alone in such a dangerous position. Rose lost it twice in an area where you simply cannot give the ball away because he's simply not used to the role. Proper central midfielders know when to take risks and when to play it simple, and outside your own box is when you play simple football. Dembele used to go on his runs when he was deeper in to our own half.
Giving Rose credit because Torreira decided to steam in to him is again, a bit of a stretch. He performed the role poorly and we totally lost control of the game after we scored, partly because of giving the ball and fouls away far too cheaply which led to Arsenal being able to get on the front foot. Part of that was the football we were reduced to playing due to the presence of Llorente, and part of that was because Rose was positionally lost and playing CM like he was still a left back.
The second half was a tactical mess from Poch, of that I don't think there can be much doubt. It's no big deal and happens to all coaches (nobody gets it right all the time) and certainly doesn't undo all the fantastic work Pochettino has done at our football club, but it still was a mess. I'm almost tempted to say that moving Rose to CM was a statement from Pochettino that we badly need midfield investment.