They matched Ajax in possession in the 2nd half.
We receded possession to Ajax in the EL final.
It was hardly the same. Spurs started in similar fashion to us though.
A serious look at Mauricio Pochettino
- Thread starter NotBrendanRodgers honest
- Start date
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
We receded possession to Ajax in the EL final.
It was hardly the same. Spurs started in similar fashion to us though.
I wish some people would recognize Ole is in pretty much the same predicament.
Utd have a vastly stronger squad than Spurs do.
In fairness to them outside their first 11 they do have a pretty shite squad. There's literally no quality on that bench at all.
Dont tell them that - they cant accept the obvious because in some way that makes Utd shite or something. Every discussion comes around to trying to suggest Ole or Utd are in a worse situation no matter what to try and justify god knows what to feck knows who. Some people cant accept we can talk about Spurs or any other team without in some way making them feel worse about Utd - I think they reckon we only bring this stuff up to make them look bad which is ridiculous because all we are doing is talking about our team. We arent the ones constantly bringing Utd into it.
I disagree with that. We have no real defense and no right side. Its terribly unbalanced.
I dont think Poch could have done better than Ole
I could have sworn they knocked out City two weeks ago and already exceeded expectation in the CL.
I'm not suggest Man Utd are worse off I'm saying you deal with it without using it as an excuse
Why does this ALWAYS have to come back to a 'poch vs ole' thing when I'm not talking about/comparing nor interested in Ole or fecking Utd when I'm talking about my own team.
Have you seen our bench in many of the games this season? Our squad is by no means much wider than yours.
Kane has played 28 games in PL this season - 39 in all comps - more than Martial for example.
Son more than 40. Eriksen more than 40. Toby more than 40. Moura more than 40.
You missed Son and Kane today? Boo fecking hoo, we started the return leg at PSG with Young, McTominay, Fred, Pereira and introduced Chong and Dalot in the second half with two other youngsters as options on the bench...
It is a valid excuse though, its clear for everybody to see we have suffered from injuries to key players which is difficult for us to deal with because we lack proper quality throughout the squad. Not sure why people are trying to argue against what is frankly, the truth.
Jeeze sorry man
I doubt Glaston would agree to that...
Our bench against PSG:
Romero, Rojo, Dalot, Chong, Garner, Gomes
Yea, much better
Think this is rather unfair. He’s done a brilliant job with next to no budget. This ‘he still hasn’t won anything’ line is getting tiresome. Neither has Ole, Klopp could still win nothing this season but they are miles ahead of us.
Sorry mate, dont mean to have a go it's just infuriating. It's a constant thing here - cant say anything about my own team in here without others bringing a comparison to Utd and getting all defensive.
Yeah that was rough for you guys - as I have said before - me talking about our weak squad and injuries in no way detracts from any injuries or problems Utd may have had this season. You do have a stronger squad though I'd say most people would accept that.I doubt Glaston would agree to that...
Our bench against PSG:
Romero, Rojo, Dalot, Chong, Garner, Gomes
Yea, much better
So did we. Changes nothing. Let's look at Spurs record against top 6 PL sides since December yeah? (All comps)
Arsenal 4-2 Spurs
Arsenal 0-2 Spurs
Spurs 1-0 Chelsea
Spurs 0-1 United
Chelsea 2-1 Spurs
Chelsea 2-0 Spurs
Spurs 1-1 Arsenal
Liverpool 2-1 Spurs
Spurs 1-0 City
City 4-3 Spurs
City 1-0 Spurs
Played 11.
W3D1L7.
Apart from City who doesn't lack proper quality throughout their squad though? As I've already highlighted we ourselves had a similar injury 'crisis' where we lost our entire midfield (like Spurs did at the start of the game tonight) and we had to bring in the players I mentioned and forget their price tag because that's a separate issue those players quality aren't massively different to what Spurs have in reserve
We had Alexis and Martial on the bench on Sunday. Tottenhamn fans would probably love to have that opportunity.I doubt Glaston would agree to that...
Our bench against PSG:
Romero, Rojo, Dalot, Chong, Garner, Gomes
Yea, much better
They're just names, much like those in the starting XI
Compare Lukaku's performance on Sunday with Llorente's tonight and there's not a lot of difference, just one club was stupid enough to pay 75m for their big oaf whereas the other got him for peanuts
This is also getting tiresome. Spurs have spent about 250m pounds since Poch took over. Let's not exaggerate that as well.
To me you have better first 11, better attacking options and much better defensive options. We might have more squad options, but the quality isn't there when you look at them individually.
Our problems at the back and especially CB's is a much bigger issue than Kane and Son missing an occasional game.
You should've reinforced in the Summer (as we should've) but in reality is our squad as a whole better than yours?
What did they create? Especially from open play. Some half chances from set pieces, not sure if they had a shot on target from open play. Ajax meanwhile had the chances to score 2 more while never even looking like they'd concede a chance and looking a threat every time they attacked.
I highly doubt given the current version of Alexis.
I think it is yeah. You regularly have the likes of Sanchez, Martial and Mata on the bench for example. We have Ben Davies, Skipp and Llorente usually.
Sanchez is pretty much done. He hasn't contributed to our game at all this season apart from odd showing. His paycheck would be the biggest obstacle to offload him, otherwise the club would pretty much have done it IMO.
Mata is pretty useful I give you that, but Martial isn't a bench option but rather our best forward when on form. Lukaku is pale comparison to Kane and Eriksen has comfortably outperformed Pogba this season. Your defense is much better than ours and you actually have a right flank compared to Young and no one for us..
Wonder if they'll start hoofball early in the second leg cause it's pretty clear Ajax are the better 'football' side.
Tactics were badly wrong at the start and he got lucky that the injury forced the formation rejig. This is not the first time it’s happened in a big game and is a slightly worrying trend for Pochettino, but you cannot deny Ajax played fantastically well this evening.
These are just good "names" but the reality is two of them are washed out and the other one sulks most of time.
Started with the wrong formation tonight which he went onto admit, maybe his hand was forced somewhat with the injuries but I think had Sissoko been fit to start we would have started with the 4-2-3-1 like we did with City.
But I think I can't blame him too much, injuries have really fecked us and not just any injuries Key ones as well. Winks and Sissoko made up the base of our midfield against City and they stemmed the flow of attacks getting to the front men which only allowed City to have 2 shots.
Also Kane or Son meant no quality in the final 3rd through either hold up play or pace, Dele was shifted into deeper midfield where he doesn't play well anyway.
Tactics were a bit meh but it's kinda understandable considering the circumstances, we literally had nothing else and the bench was actually laughable...brining on Davies and Foyth when you're chasing a goal in a CL semi final just shows you how depleted we are at the moment.
But I think I can't blame him too much, injuries have really fecked us and not just any injuries Key ones as well. Winks and Sissoko made up the base of our midfield against City and they stemmed the flow of attacks getting to the front men which only allowed City to have 2 shots.
Also Kane or Son meant no quality in the final 3rd through either hold up play or pace, Dele was shifted into deeper midfield where he doesn't play well anyway.
Tactics were a bit meh but it's kinda understandable considering the circumstances, we literally had nothing else and the bench was actually laughable...brining on Davies and Foyth when you're chasing a goal in a CL semi final just shows you how depleted we are at the moment.
3rd in the League and reached the CL SF - Spurs have the 6th highest budget in the EPL.
What exactly are the expectations for this team? If you "don't see it with him", do you think that other coaches would yield better results?
Yes Moyes was known for his possession based footballWow, that's such Moyesque quote. Did they get to the byline much?
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.
. Plus with Llorente as their striker, that was there only option. They had multiple good chances as well to score from those set pieces and crosses. If you think that, then you didn’t watch the game. The moment, Sissoko came on and Pochettino went with two in the back, the tide changed to Spurs favor.Pochettino was already planning to make such change in formation prior to Vertonghen injury. If he didn’t, he would have put on another defender on like Forsyth instead of Sissoko. You know Llorente was their striker??? Have you seen him play? That sort of football is the only way to make him relevant on the pitch.
Most of their chances came from crosses as I mentioned due to having the limited Llorente upfront. Other than that, I will have to relook at the moment that they were dominant. I remembered a good chance they had with Ali where he volleyed the shot straight at Onana. Plus, another chance where Rose was free on the the wings and the defenders blocked his shot. He should have pushed the ball forward and draw the penalty instead. I m quite sure that there were more non-crosses, and set piece opportunities.
I really despise how this thread is bumped every time Spurs have even the slightest wobble.
Fair enough if they’ve had a complete capitulation but we’re talking a narrow loss in the first leg of a Champions League final, at a time when we’re in complete disarray.
If the implication is that this makes Poch an overrated manager then we really are a bunch of sad bastards.
Fair enough if they’ve had a complete capitulation but we’re talking a narrow loss in the first leg of a Champions League final, at a time when we’re in complete disarray.
If the implication is that this makes Poch an overrated manager then we really are a bunch of sad bastards.
The thing is people always mention how little Spurs have spent but they got Kane for free. If you don’t get a Kane from your academy that’s £200m you need to spend. It’s why we spent so much on Lukaku etc to try to fill that gap.
The thing is - the injury forced his hand and wasn't some kind of brilliant tactics. If he didn't introduce Sissoko he might have been 2-0 down at HT. He should've been 2-0 down at FT even with him, but that's another matter. Spurs were utterly clueless in the final third last night.Yes Moyes was known for his possession based football
They spent 250m under Poch. Hardly nothing.
Didn't Pochettino and his staff get the tactic's board out last night on the touchline because they didn't have an answer? Not saying there's anything wrong with going back the board and scratching your head but can you imagine this place and the press if that was a select few managers from other teams?
So Sir Alex doesn't deserve much credit for United's dominance in the 90's because he got the entire class of 92 "free". Or for that matter, Pep got messi "free", so he also doesn't deserve much recognition for his work at Barca.
The weird rationales that get posted here are truly mind boggling.
In one of the interviews he gave yesterday, it seemed that he actually admitted his choice to play with three defenders and giving Ajax the pressing advantage was a mistake.
Then he went on to acknowledge the substitution and subsequent change in system worked to the advantage of Tottenham. But it didn't seem like it was a planned move, nor a conscious decision to change it. It seemed like he just did whatever with Rose and Sissoko based on who was available to replace Vertonghen.
He really seemed to have made the assessment in advance that sitting back and countering would be a workable strategy against Ajax. To me it appeared he hadn't anticipated it might backfire at all. Despite all the probably scouted matches in which this Ajax utterly dominated against such sitting back teams.
That says a lot to me about his analytical qualities, because anyone could tell you that Ajax throughout the years always has had most problems against teams that make it a physical match first and foremost, unless they were even better at pressing than Ajax.
I'm not sure he realised this till his team got more physical, or that he actually ordered them to do so.
Then he went on to acknowledge the substitution and subsequent change in system worked to the advantage of Tottenham. But it didn't seem like it was a planned move, nor a conscious decision to change it. It seemed like he just did whatever with Rose and Sissoko based on who was available to replace Vertonghen.
He really seemed to have made the assessment in advance that sitting back and countering would be a workable strategy against Ajax. To me it appeared he hadn't anticipated it might backfire at all. Despite all the probably scouted matches in which this Ajax utterly dominated against such sitting back teams.
That says a lot to me about his analytical qualities, because anyone could tell you that Ajax throughout the years always has had most problems against teams that make it a physical match first and foremost, unless they were even better at pressing than Ajax.
I'm not sure he realised this till his team got more physical, or that he actually ordered them to do so.
It's would be hilarious if it wasn't so pathetic.
Yep, he got it badly wrong and if that was Solskjaer the forum would be going crazy.
I wonder how/if he would have changed things, or whether the injury was pure luck. Before that point they were being dominated.