A serious look at Mauricio Pochettino

SportingCP96

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Their squad has been squeezed to the max depth-wise and fatigue wise tbh.
What he has done with what he has especially in a injury crisis is phenomenal. Imagine a full fit spurs all season along with some new signings. He deserves the credit he has.
 

BlueHaze

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They have a decent first 11 but my do they have a shite squad. Who the feck were those lads he brought in? Results have not been looking as stable as usual for him lately but I think fatigue has caught up with them. I think it's a bit unfair to be overly critical considering what he has to work with.
 

Gomes

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Why does it feel like he is always starting the wrong way in bigger games? So often Spurs need to change the formation or tactics and then play much better in the second half.
 

el3mel

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Even though I enjoy mocking the hell out of him, it doesn't make sense doing that while playing in CL semi final and being 3rd in the league. It's still a pretty good season for them to be fair and honest.
 

Leftback99

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They always seems to have their first choice back 4/5 available, plus Eriksen and others at least. It's no worse than what Solskjaer has at his disposal but is getting criticised for not winning every game.
 

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They always seems to have their first choice back 4/5 available, plus Eriksen and others at least. It's no worse than what Solskjaer has at his disposal but is getting criticised for not winning every game.
Surely you aren't serious? Have you seen our injuries this season?
 

HailtotheKing

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Why does it feel like he is always starting the wrong way in bigger games? So often Spurs need to change the formation or tactics and then play much better in the second half.
Yeah, or he analyses the half and identifies how to combat the other team. He's awesome at that!
 

Amadaeus

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I feel bad for Pochettino, his team is not built to be in so many competition. He will most likely lose again this weekend in preparation for the return leg at Ajax.

One thing that does concern me about him, is why he keeps playing Llorente? He is arguably one of the worst striker in the league and his effectiveness is limited to hoofing the ball to him. Moreover, why doesn’t he trust Skipp anymore? He had some decent appearances this season and he might have been suited for this type of game.

Eitherway, I won’t write of Spurs in the next leg. They scored 3 at a much better City team and with the return of Son, Sissoko and maybe Winks, they will have a chance. If I was pochettino, I play Kane on crutches as well :lol: and maybe Aurier too.
 

balaks

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I feel bad for Pochettino, his team is not built to be in so many competition. He will most likely lose again this weekend in preparation for the return leg at Ajax.

One thing that does concern me about him, is why he keeps playing Llorente? He is arguably one of the worst striker in the league and his effectiveness is limited to hoofing the ball to him. Moreover, why doesn’t he trust Skipp anymore? He had some decent appearances this season and he might have been suited for this type of game.

Eitherway, I won’t write of Spurs in the next leg. They scored 3 at a much better City team and with the return of Son, Sissoko and maybe Winks, they will have a chance. If I was pochettino, I play Kane on crutches as well :lol: and maybe Aurier too.
Who else is there?
 

MalcolmTucker

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Why does it feel like he is always starting the wrong way in bigger games? So often Spurs need to change the formation or tactics and then play much better in the second half.
I rate Pochettino but this is a trend I've noticed too.
 

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Starting a game they need to win with a 3-5-2, that puts me massively off him.

He should have played Rose left wing and gone 4-3-3 although did change it when Vertonghen went off.
 

Bojan11

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What happened to the Spurs fullbacks? They used to be the key part of the attack. But now they do their best impression of Ashley Young.

Why doesn’t he start Davies ahead of Rose?
 

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Who else is there?
I would give it to Ali or Moura interchanging. Put Skipp in mid alongside Wanyama and free up Eriksen from so much defensive duty. Even though Ali probably isn’t that great with his back to goal, at least now you have a striker that can get in behind their defense and provide better interplay. Leave llorente on bench for Fellaini type of impact substitution.
 

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Whilst I won't criticise his player selection, his tactics were really poor tonight. Said in the match thread but he cost them the first half starting with a back 5. Surrendered the midfield battle and just invited Ajax on to them. Far too negative of mindset at home.
Also with Llorente, they needed to just punt the ball long to him more and let Moura and Ali run off him. You either play him and use him to his strengths or you drop him and play normal. Second leg will be much better with Son back, Moura's running caused a lot of issues and that was with llorente being immobile. Between the two of them next leg they should cause aa lot of issues for Ajaax.
 

bosnian_red

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Lost and got outplayed by a better side, though without their 2 best attacking players. Eriksen is class too but if he doesnt have the dynamic attacker to pass to or have someone make runs for him, cant do that much. People just have to realize this Ajax side are playing as well as any side has in the past 6-7 years. Brilliant in possession, brilliant at creating chances, and excellent defensively as a team. Their weakness is at set pieces, but in general, they are as good as any side in the world in actual performances. They might be young, but De Ligt is probably one of the top 5 CBs in the world, and De Jong is playing as well as any holding midfielder in the world. That's why Barca bought him already and why everyone is after De Ligt. It's not just potential. They're world class individually this season.
 

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Honestly I don't see it with him. He's a decent coach sure but he still hasn't won anything. Always loses big matches. A shite streak almost matching ours while they've played lesser teams. Yet Ole gets a lot of stick and he doesn't. No, he's supposed to be our saviour. Ok sure there's injuries. But are Eriksen, Alli, Sissoko, Llorente and Moura any worse than Pogba, Fred, McTominay, Lukaku and Martial? I think not. Different sure but similar in quality. Their back four are better. And Kane and Son are better forwards than anyone we have. Imagine if Poch didn't have them for an entire season. They'd not even be competing for the top four.
 

Enigma_87

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Whilst I won't criticise his player selection, his tactics were really poor tonight. Said in the match thread but he cost them the first half starting with a back 5. Surrendered the midfield battle and just invited Ajax on to them. Far too negative of mindset at home.
Also with Llorente, they needed to just punt the ball long to him more and let Moura and Ali run off him. You either play him and use him to his strengths or you drop him and play normal. Second leg will be much better with Son back, Moura's running caused a lot of issues and that was with llorente being immobile. Between the two of them next leg they should cause aa lot of issues for Ajaax.
Jose would get murdered for trying those tactics if it was us against Ajax, yet Poch keeps getting away with those back 5 in tough ties.
 

Leftback99

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Surely you aren't serious? Have you seen our injuries this season?
Yes i'm serious. Your back 4 is comfortably better than ours and more often than not available. Eriksen barely misses a game. Recent injuries in midfield just as disruptive as us losing Herrera and Matic recently. Kane injured fair enough but Son is still better than any of our forwards (granted both out tonight).
 

Ole’s Wheel

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twitter.com/utdarena/status/1123332908536815616?s=21


I don’t get the hype over Poch. Every year he has spells where the team is doing well and then they always crash. Has never had sustained consistency yet Ole has done better in his brief time here since he’s taken over.

Could care less. At least in Ole we have a manager who will be able to get results more or less similar to his and on top who has Red Devil blood pumping in his veins. Knowing the tradition and standards and will not settle for less than it. At least he’ll be allowed to be vicious and clear house if need be. He’s one of us and not an outsider who will be pushed around by the higher ups.
 

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Lost and got outplayed by a better side, though without their 2 best attacking players. Eriksen is class too but if he doesnt have the dynamic attacker to pass to or have someone make runs for him, cant do that much. People just have to realize this Ajax side are playing as well as any side has in the past 6-7 years. Brilliant in possession, brilliant at creating chances, and excellent defensively as a team. Their weakness is at set pieces, but in general, they are as good as any side in the world in actual performances. They might be young, but De Ligt is probably one of the top 5 CBs in the world, and De Jong is playing as well as any holding midfielder in the world. That's why Barca bought him already and why everyone is after De Ligt. It's not just potential. They're world class individually this season.
You stopped watching after 30 minutes?
 

Enigma_87

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You stopped watching after 30 minutes?
I did, what did they do in attack? After the 60th minute Ajax pulled back a bit inviting pressure and should have won with 2 goals at the end creating the best chance in the second half.
 

charlenefan

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tbh I'm sick and tired of reading Spurs fans complain about their injuries, against PSG we had both Martial and Lingard go off at half time, against Liverpool we lost Matic the day before the game and then Herrera, Mata and Lingard all in the first half plus playing almost the entire game with an injured Rashford who's been playing with an injury ever since. We went to PSG with a midfield of Andreas, Fred and McTominay. Injuries it could be argued has completely ruined our push under Ole

Injuries to players are part of football, just deal with it
 

Skills

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Jose would get murdered for trying those tactics if it was us against Ajax, yet Poch keeps getting away with those back 5 in tough ties.
Sounds a bit insulting to this Ajax team. It's a generational group of players who've already knocked out Real Madrid & Juventus.
 

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tbh I'm sick and tired of reading Spurs fans complain about their injuries, against PSG we had both Martial and Lingard go off at half time, against Liverpool we lost Matic the day before the game and then Herrera, Mata and Lingard all in the first half plus playing almost the entire game with an injured Rashford who's been playing with an injury ever since. We went to PSG with a midfield of Andreas, Fred and McTominay. Injuries it could be argued has completely ruined our push under Ole

Injuries to players are part of football, just deal with it
Whilst injuries are part of football, your comparison is terrible. United have one of the most expensive squads in world football and the quality of back up is much higher than Spurs.
 

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Sounds a bit insulting to this Ajax team. It's a generational group of players who've already knocked out Real Madrid & Juventus.
Don’t change the fact if he did the same he would be murdered here and by the media.
 

ArjenIsM3

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Jose would get murdered for trying those tactics if it was us against Ajax, yet Poch keeps getting away with those back 5 in tough ties.
Actually Jose used similar tactics against Ajax in the EL final and nobody cared because we won. Tactics similar to those Spurs employed after 35 mins though not before.
 

charlenefan

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Whilst injuries are part of football, your comparison is terrible. United have one of the most expensive squads in world football and the quality of back up is much higher than Spurs.
An expensive squad is irrelevant if that money has been spent poorly - which is 100% the case for us and as for our quality of backup being better than Spurs I'm not sure you'd find too many agreeing that the likes of Fred, Andreas and McTominay are of any sort of quality
 

Enigma_87

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Actually Jose used similar tactics against Ajax in the EL final and nobody cared because we won. Tactics similar to those Spurs employed after 35 mins though not before.
That's the problem. The injury forced Poch hand, not that he intended to turn things around.

Sounds a bit insulting to this Ajax team. It's a generational group of players who've already knocked out Real Madrid & Juventus.
That Ajax team killed Juve and Real on counters. The latter didn't surrender the midfield like Poch did today before Sissoko was introduced.
 

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I did, what did they do in attack? After the 60th minute Ajax pulled back a bit inviting pressure and should have won with 2 goals at the end creating the best chance in the second half.
Spurs gained backed control of the game and the competition was much more even, putting in more crosses and holding more possession. The chance Ajax created was on a counter, and to say a team that after 30 minutes decide to sit back outplayed a team that was more dominant for the rest of game isn’t accurate. But, maybe we see football differently. Maybe you believe a Mourinho team that sits back and gets dominated by the likes of Barcelona yet come out with a victory equates to Mourinho team outplaying Barcelona because they got victory. I am not going to say that your perspective is wrong, because that is how you decide to view football :lol:
 

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You should have probably done something in the Summer then? You know before stating the obvious at the end of the season
The comparison was between the injuries that Utd have had and Spurs - you respond by deflecting because you obviously were talking our your arse.
 

Enigma_87

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Spurs gained backed control of the game and the competition was much more even, putting in more crosses and holding more possession. The chance Ajax created was on a counter, and to say a team that after 30 minutes decide to sit back outplayed a team that was more dominant for the rest of game isn’t accurate. But, maybe we see football differently. Maybe you believe a Mourinho team that sits back and gets dominated by the likes of Barcelona yet come out with a victory equates to Mourinho team outplaying Barcelona because they got victory. I am not going to say that your perspective is wrong, because that is how you decide to view football :lol:
Wow, that's such Moyesque quote. Did they get to the byline much? :lol:

Spurs didn't outplay them till the last half an hour or so. They were hoofing balls to Llorente and generally pinned their hopes on set pieces. Hardly something innovative from Poch's point of view.
 

balaks

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Honestly I don't see it with him. He's a decent coach sure but he still hasn't won anything. Always loses big matches. A shite streak almost matching ours while they've played lesser teams. Yet Ole gets a lot of stick and he doesn't. No, he's supposed to be our saviour. Ok sure there's injuries. But are Eriksen, Alli, Sissoko, Llorente and Moura any worse than Pogba, Fred, McTominay, Lukaku and Martial? I think not. Different sure but similar in quality. Their back four are better. And Kane and Son are better forwards than anyone we have. Imagine if Poch didn't have them for an entire season. They'd not even be competing for the top four.
Mate at one point we had Danny Rose playing central midfield.
 

balaks

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I'm talking about injuries to KEY players. By the way you admitting we have suffered from injuries in no way lessens the impact injuries have had on Utd by the way - I acknowlege that also. It's not a black and white thing this.

Also you have uber crocks like Jones in your squad who probably makes up about 10 of those injuries alone.
 

ArjenIsM3

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Spurs gained backed control of the game and the competition was much more even, putting in more crosses and holding more possession. The chance Ajax created was on a counter, and to say a team that after 30 minutes decide to sit back outplayed a team that was more dominant for the rest of game isn’t accurate. But, maybe we see football differently. Maybe you believe a Mourinho team that sits back and gets dominated by the likes of Barcelona yet come out with a victory equates to Mourinho team outplaying Barcelona because they got victory. I am not going to say that your perspective is wrong, because that is how you decide to view football :lol:
The only reason Spurs got back control of the game was the Sissoko sub. Which was forced through injury. Not some Poch masterstroke. Pure "luck". You can bash Mourinho tactics all you want but the way you played after the Sissoko sub was a copy of Mourinho's tactics against Ajax in the EL final.
 

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Honestly I don't see it with him. He's a decent coach sure but he still hasn't won anything. Always loses big matches. A shite streak almost matching ours while they've played lesser teams. Yet Ole gets a lot of stick and he doesn't. No, he's supposed to be our saviour. Ok sure there's injuries. But are Eriksen, Alli, Sissoko, Llorente and Moura any worse than Pogba, Fred, McTominay, Lukaku and Martial? I think not. Different sure but similar in quality. Their back four are better. And Kane and Son are better forwards than anyone we have. Imagine if Poch didn't have them for an entire season. They'd not even be competing for the top four.
That's not true.