A serious look at Mauricio Pochettino

charlenefan

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Everyone since Fergie hasn't been able to handle Man United. Maybe its become too big a job for one man. What do we think about teaming Poch with Ole as a two man team ??
Only way that works is if Ole is moved upstairs (i.e. Technical Director role)
 

LilyWhiteSpur

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He doesn't seem happy at Spurs. We'd be giving him the chance to manage the biggest club in the world... just tell him he can only bring one of his staff, and send Carrick to manage the reserves or under 21's
He has a very close group of staff who have followed him from Espanyol, if he wants to join United he will I can see the draw no doubt I just don't think he will, especially in a joint managerial team with Ole. He clearly isn't happy.
 

balaks

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If Poch leaves I honestly think he will take a break from football for at least 6 months - he looks burnt out to me and is highly unlikely to want to go straight into another job.
 

roonster09

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If Poch leaves I honestly think he will take a break from football for at least 6 months - he looks burnt out to me and is highly unlikely to want to go straight into another job.
I think it depends on when he will get a break. If he is sacked mid season then yeah, he might wait for 6 months before signing up with any other club. If he is sacked at the end of the season then can see him taking other job without wasting much time.
 

TMDaines

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Kane was a £10 million striker when Poch started.
You’re missing the point entirely. The point is Spurs have had one of, if not the best, non-Messi/Ronaldo centre forward in the world up top for the last three years, with what almost unanimously has been appraised as a incredibly talented supporting cast and players that we’re told are worth a lot in the market.

What would spending much more bring? If you had had solely Janssen and Llorente up front during that period, you can could quite rightly look at Spurs and see a glaring error where investment was needed. Of course a well directed Spurs have a lower net spend, as they are the one English side to have had a legitimate world class striker comes through their ranks. That’s saving you somewhere between £100-200m once you account for his going price, plus the likelihood that you’ll likely need to move out other strikers that don’t deliver.

If Poch ends up elsewhere, he isn’t having a better option than Kane with all the money in the world at his disposal.

People want to have their cake and eat it with the analysis of Spurs, where individually they are great and clearly better than those players at United and Arsenal, their manager is apparently also top top, yet supposedly it is just the lack of investment that is the sole cause of their continual inability to deliver.
 

LilyWhiteSpur

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You’re missing the point entirely. The point is Spurs have had one of, if not the best, non-Messi/Ronaldo centre forward in the world up top for the last three years, with what almost unanimously has been appraised as a incredibly talented supporting cast and players that we’re told are worth a lot in the market.

What would spending much more bring? If you had had solely Janssen and Llorente up front during that period, you can could quite rightly look at Spurs and see a glaring error where investment was needed. Of course a well directed Spurs have a lower net spend, as they are the one English side to have had a legitimate world class striker comes through their ranks. That’s saving you somewhere between £100-200m once you account for his going price, plus the likelihood that you’ll likely need to move out other strikers that don’t deliver.

If Poch ends up elsewhere, he isn’t having a better option than Kane with all the money in the world at his disposal.

People want to have their cake and eat it with the analysis of Spurs, where individually they are great and clearly better than those players at United and Arsenal, their manager is apparently also top top, yet supposedly it is just the lack of investment that is the sole cause of their continual inability to deliver.
I have to agree with most of what you said, we have had the opportunities in the FA Cup, League and the CL but simply haven't capitalised on them.
 

balaks

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You’re missing the point entirely. The point is Spurs have had one of, if not the best, non-Messi/Ronaldo centre forward in the world up top for the last three years, with what almost unanimously has been appraised as a incredibly talented supporting cast and players that we’re told are worth a lot in the market.

What would spending much more bring? If you had had solely Janssen and Llorente up front during that period, you can could quite rightly look at Spurs and see a glaring error where investment was needed. Of course a well directed Spurs have a lower net spend, as they are the one English side to have had a legitimate world class striker comes through their ranks. That’s saving you somewhere between £100-200m once you account for his going price, plus the likelihood that you’ll likely need to move out other strikers that don’t deliver.

If Poch ends up elsewhere, he isn’t having a better option than Kane with all the money in the world at his disposal.

People want to have their cake and eat it with the analysis of Spurs, where individually they are great and clearly better than those players at United and Arsenal, their manager is apparently also top top, yet supposedly it is just the lack of investment that is the sole cause of their continual inability to deliver.
I take your point however having a world class striker does not make a great team. There are areas of the team that need investment and our squad (although improved) still is fairly light in comparison with the other top 4/6 sides.
 

ReddBalls

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I don't get posts like this. Kane developed into a top striker, and it was just a "coincidence" that Poch was manager during the reign and that it was the other smaller clubs that were responsible for his development. But if Kane fails, it's Poch's fault for ruining him? :houllier:
Nah. Kane would, given his personality and talent, be great at any other club in the Premier League. Do you think Moyes as an Everton manager was responsible for Rooney turning out to be an all time great and consequently be the arcitecht behind his fall as a Manchester United manager?
 

cjj

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I don't think he goes to Levy and says I want these players in this window. He more or less works with what he is given.
He does, and says it in his diary/book thing, in press conferences. Has said it for years.


He does, however, seem to conveniently distance from/gravitate to certain signings in line with their form, and a lot of the fanbase bite on it. Basically if they're crap signings then it'll be "typical Levy buy", if they do well it's "well done Poch".

For the most part, other staff at the club are involved - like David Pleat, who pushed for and apparently scouted Dele.
 

mwake

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Nah it's obvious Poch is a great manager but unlike kloop he hasn't had the advantage of going to his board and demanding cash to fill in those quality gaps. That is probably one crucial difference between Klopp and Poch. Klopp was able to get those two world class players to finish off his work whilst Poch has been restricted until this season. But it seems like unrest has developed as they came so close to capping off a great season. If Liverpool had lost that game wouldn't Klopp be struggling with trying to settle the minds of the plsyers. I think that final didn't help either.
 

Dec9003

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Solskjaer went through against league one opposition, Pochettino went out against league two oppposition.
Based on this its clear who the better manager is.
Poch doesn't know how to coach penalties.
 

Scroto Baggins

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Spurs needed to sort out the players that were on board with the project and those that wanted out. Eriksen has looked pretty much rubbish every time I've seen some highlights of Spurs recently, just isnt interested any more.

Eriksen and Alderweireld needed to be moved on and replaced, they are not signing new contracts, get over it and move on. Rose needed to be moved on, I guess the replacement was Sessegnon. Wanyama needed to go, or Dier, one of those two. They should have got the Dybala deal over the line as Eriksen's replacement, move Dier back to CB to replace Alderweireld, Dier is a bang average CM that offers nothing going forward, alright squad player, sure. Or go buy another dedicated CB, thought they might go for Ake or Lascelles or something.

Im actually curious about what Levy's stance will be, I think Poch has some credits in the tank but any more Newcastle at home losses and they will fast evaporate. The draws away to City and Arsenal can be forgiven, both are tough to go and get points, Spurs are probably happy with draws tbf. The loss to Leicester with some VAR intervention was amusing but a draw for that game would have been a fair result. And again Leicester this season will be no easy place to go get points.
 

Beachryan

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Football squads are about cycles. An absolutely tiny number of managers make it through more than 1. It's just too difficult to do.

If I were Poch I'd be taking the year off, waiting for Madrid to combust.
 

passing-wind

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I don't want this bottler nowhere near Trafford. He's damaged goods in the PL.

If Ole had Erikssen and Kane we'd be third or second by now.
On what basis can this comparison be valid. Given that not one of our outfield players have improved under Solskjaer how would Eriksen benefit playing for him ? How would Kane benefit playing for him, thus far Martial and Rashford looked better under a negative minded Mourinho then anything under Ole. It's embarrassing Solskjaer is easily one of the worst managers in the league, doesn't matter what players he has at his disposal he's a bang average coach.
 

Champ

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Ok, so the dressing room unrest appears to be between Vertonghen and Eriksen, which has snowballed to the whole team,
Seems the spurs dressing room is toxic and Poch cannot get it under control, he's tried ostracizing Vertonghen with no joy, tried reducing Eriksens influence with no joy.
Could be a long road back from here.
 

SquishyMcSquish

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Spurs needed to sort out the players that were on board with the project and those that wanted out. Eriksen has looked pretty much rubbish every time I've seen some highlights of Spurs recently, just isnt interested any more.

Eriksen and Alderweireld needed to be moved on and replaced, they are not signing new contracts, get over it and move on. Rose needed to be moved on, I guess the replacement was Sessegnon. Wanyama needed to go, or Dier, one of those two. They should have got the Dybala deal over the line as Eriksen's replacement, move Dier back to CB to replace Alderweireld, Dier is a bang average CM that offers nothing going forward, alright squad player, sure. Or go buy another dedicated CB, thought they might go for Ake or Lascelles or something.

Im actually curious about what Levy's stance will be, I think Poch has some credits in the tank but any more Newcastle at home losses and they will fast evaporate. The draws away to City and Arsenal can be forgiven, both are tough to go and get points, Spurs are probably happy with draws tbf. The loss to Leicester with some VAR intervention was amusing but a draw for that game would have been a fair result. And again Leicester this season will be no easy place to go get points.
We tried. Offered both a contract, and clearly would have allowed Eriksen to leave in the summer. Eriksen refused to go to any club which bid for him and Toby too looks like he chose to see out his contract. It's hard to replace two key players on big wages before you've even been able to sell them.
 

1966

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Even as someone who has a soft spot for Spurs, the more I think about it, the more overrated I think Poch is.

He was DOA until he was forced by the ineptitude of Soldado and Adebayor to accidentally uncover one of the world's best strikers sitting right under his nose. While some of his teammates could already see that Kane should be starting, Poch refused to play him in the league until he had to throw a hail mary to avoid an imminent sacking. His league record was truly dire before he started playing Kane.

Kane's goals saved Poch's job in the latter's first season and he's been cruising at a steady altitude with the elite team he stumbled upon ever since. Kane has rarely, if ever, contributed less than a third of the team's league and overall goals in any given season (more often ~40%). With a newfound goal machine in the team, things were almost bound to improve in the way they did.

Poch effectively took a top 6 team and turned them into a top 4 team. But this event coincided with (and more clearly temporally correlated with) the emergence of Kane, who can make the difference between top 6 and top 4 himself. Note, also, that Spurs' other (future) world class players were themselves experiencing expected improvement simultaneously.

More recently, Poch has had to deal with turbulence in a squad that has been riddled with regression, hasn't continued any natural growth into the players' peaks (having mostly already reached them) and that has lost key and underappreciated players (e.g. Dembele). And he's failed most of these tests with whatever the opposite of flying colours is. As soon as he had to meet serious challenges that couldn't be solved by the players themselves, he began to flag.

Almost all of the variance in the quality of Spurs over the past half-decade or so can be explained by natural variance in the individual quality and intrinsic nature of the squad personnel, which is indicative of a manager who actually has had limited influence over the total quality of his club's football.

He might be good at optimising youth, or at least/more likely giving them a chance, and I get the feeling that he's a good motivator of players who submit to him as leader (which will have grown harder as his stars became world class while he retained his minimal personal pedigree). I see him as a manager with a scattered, restricted collection of positive attributes, notable negatives (e.g. in-game tactics and subs) and a record that is not altogether special when filtered through the lens of external variables: a manager that has more or less performed to par for his entire Spurs career until this year. I believe there exist other managers who could've already won a PL and a CL with the same players.
 
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1966

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On what basis can this comparison be valid. Given that not one of our outfield players have improved under Solskjaer how would Eriksen benefit playing for him ? How would Kane benefit playing for him, thus far Martial and Rashford looked better under a negative minded Mourinho then anything under Ole. It's embarrassing Solskjaer is easily one of the worst managers in the league, doesn't matter what players he has at his disposal he's a bang average coach.
That doesn't make much sense to me. Kane + motivated Eriksen would immediately make your team much better regardless of who was managing it. It's not like Ole can magically suck all the ability out of those players, even if his tactics and coaching are shite (which I'm not sure about).
 

1966

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We tried. Offered both a contract, and clearly would have allowed Eriksen to leave in the summer. Eriksen refused to go to any club which bid for him and Toby too looks like he chose to see out his contract. It's hard to replace two key players on big wages before you've even been able to sell them.
I find the Eriksen reality check intriguing and significant in the current context of Spurs. It has become clear that none of the top clubs he expected to be queuing up for him are overly interested. I imagine he's feeling rather down in purely footballing terms at the moment. (On the mitigating side, his personal life is in a great place)

Eriksen's redundancy to the titans of world football has really laid waste to the semi-popular misconception, especially among less clued-in supporters of other clubs, that he's Spurs' best, most significant and most valuable player. Nope, he already found his level at Spurs, in a team where, when he applies himself, his skills can yield phenomenal stats for him by playing alongside the likes of Son and clinical Kane. He wouldn't have enjoyed quite the same notable number of assists for the past five seasons if he didn't have Kane to pass to.

If Kane wanted to leave, he would not have the same experience as Eriksen. That's why I find it quite easy to believe that Levy really did leak a hint at a 250m price tag on Kane that effectively takes him off the market (another potential warning sign of bleak times ahead imo). Levy and the entire Spurs hierarchy understand who their true star is. I don't blame them for wanting to keep him at all costs but I hope things don't devolve to such a point that Kane is left with the completely undeserved choice of either downing tools for a move from the club he's been so loyal to or else suffering mediocrity around him for the rest of his career.
 
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SquishyMcSquish

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I find the Eriksen reality check intriguing and significant in the current context of Spurs. It has become clear that none of the top clubs he expected to be queuing up for him are overly interested. I imagine he's feeling rather down in purely footballing terms at the moment. (On the mitigating side, his personal life is in a great place)

Eriksen's redundancy to the titans of world football has really laid waste to the semi-popular misconception, especially among less clued-in supporters of other clubs, that he's Spurs' best, most significant and most valuable player. Nope, he already found his level at Spurs, in a team where, when he applies himself, his skills can yield phenomenal stats for him by playing alongside the likes of Son and clinical Kane. He wouldn't have enjoyed quite the same notable number of assists for the past five seasons if he didn't have Kane to pass to.

If Kane wanted to leave, he would not have the same experience as Eriksen. That's why I find it quite easy to believe that Levy really did leak a hint at a 250m price tag on Kane that effectively takes him off the market (another potential warning sign of bleak times ahead imo). Levy and the entire Spurs hierarchy understand who their true star is. I don't blame them for wanting to keep him at all costs but I hope things don't devolve to such a point that Kane is left with the completely undeserved choice of either downing tools for a move from the club he's been so loyal to or else suffering mediocrity around him for the rest of his career.
Eriksen has always been highly overrated on here. Great technician, but far too often inconsistent and for some reason escapes the criticism others receive for going missing on the bigger occasions. Far too often when you want everything going through your most creative midfielder, Eriksen is nowhere to be seen. Was simply bullied out of the CL final and that's not the first big game where he's simply hid in the background and allowed other, less technical midfielders to pick up the torch.

He can be a wonderful player to watch on his day, has moments of genius in him and is great for unpicking locks when you're up against teams who sit back. But he's not the kind of player an elite side goes all out to make the lynchpin of their team, he's certainly no better than Coutinho or Isco who Barca and Madrid already possess, so I don't know why he ever expected them to come rushing for him at a big fee. On a free they'll all be interested as a top level player who adds goal/assists for a low investment, but for 70-80m AND high wages? No, he was never going to be a priority.

Agree about Kane. Everyone would be all over him if he was ever demanding to leave. He's a much rarer breed of player, a genuine top level and complete centre forward who can link up player, hold the ball up, is strong in the air and an incredible finisher in and around the box .. as well as being one of the most reliable penalty takers around and boasting a fantastic range of passing. Pretty much every team in the world could do with a player like him in their team, whereas players like Eriksen are far more common, and not everyone plays with an AM. I'm not happy he's leaving, we will struggle to replace his quality, but I don't think we should ever have been offering him stupid money (like 400k a week) to try and make him stay. He's not worth that.

As for Kane and potentially leaving, if he came to the club and said he wanted to go elsewhere and win trophies, I would hope that the club would respect his wishes. Obviously I would hope the club try and convince him to stay, but if his heart is set on going then we shouldn't try and block it, although that's not to say we shouldn't be unfairly compensated .. any club that wants Kane should be paying a tremendously large fee. Probably not 250m tremendous (though I think Levy would accept less) but certainly something a huge amount of money.
 

Scroto Baggins

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Agree about Kane. Everyone would be all over him if he was ever demanding to leave. He's a much rarer breed of player, a genuine top level and complete centre forward who can link up player, hold the ball up, is strong in the air and an incredible finisher in and around the box .. as well as being one of the most reliable penalty takers around and boasting a fantastic range of passing. Pretty much every team in the world could do with a player like him in their team, whereas players like Eriksen are far more common, and not everyone plays with an AM. I'm not happy he's leaving, we will struggle to replace his quality, but I don't think we should ever have been offering him stupid money (like 400k a week) to try and make him stay. He's not worth that.
Teams all over Europe would be interested in Kane if he became available. Only maybe PSG not interested because they have Mbappe.

Kane and Aguero are absolute freaks, their goals to game ratio is the best that has been seen in the PL era. Some players can post really good goals to games ratio over a season or two, these guys have been doing it their entire careers. The only person with the same kind of goal return as them in the PL era with the same kind of longevity is Thierry Henry. Aguero is 0.70 goals/game, Kane 0.69/game, Henry 0.68/game. After that you have Shearer on 0.59. Of course you have the likes of Mo Salah and say Jesus posting great goals to games ratios, but lets see if they can keep those stats going over a career.

And no offense to Spurs but Kane plays in a team several levels below City.
 

1966

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Teams all over Europe would be interested in Kane if he became available. Only maybe PSG not interested because they have Mbappe.

Kane and Aguero are absolute freaks, their goals to game ratio is the best that has been seen in the PL era. Some players can post really good goals to games ratio over a season or two, these guys have been doing it their entire careers. The only person with the same kind of goal return as them in the PL era with the same kind of longevity is Thierry Henry. Aguero is 0.70 goals/game, Kane 0.69/game, Henry 0.68/game. After that you have Shearer on 0.59. Of course you have the likes of Mo Salah and say Jesus posting great goals to games ratios, but lets see if they can keep those stats going over a career.

And no offense to Spurs but Kane plays in a team several levels below City.
This is exactly why Kane's achievements are almost superhuman and why I believe comparisons with Aguero are nonsense (i.e. that the stats are actually more to Kane's credit than the converse). Kane hasn't benefited from being part of an Invincibles team or the best team the league has ever seen. He's posting PL GOAT numbers in a team that rarely even challenges for the league (if you count any of Spurs' 2010s seasons as "challenging" for it, which I don't particularly).
 

LoneStar

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Not sure if he has what it takes to take us back to the top, but no doubt, he's a far better manager than Ole. Though that's not very high standard praise tbf.
 

SquishyMcSquish

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Teams all over Europe would be interested in Kane if he became available. Only maybe PSG not interested because they have Mbappe.

Kane and Aguero are absolute freaks, their goals to game ratio is the best that has been seen in the PL era. Some players can post really good goals to games ratio over a season or two, these guys have been doing it their entire careers. The only person with the same kind of goal return as them in the PL era with the same kind of longevity is Thierry Henry. Aguero is 0.70 goals/game, Kane 0.69/game, Henry 0.68/game. After that you have Shearer on 0.59. Of course you have the likes of Mo Salah and say Jesus posting great goals to games ratios, but lets see if they can keep those stats going over a career.

And no offense to Spurs but Kane plays in a team several levels below City.

None taken, it's just a fact. Better coached, better players across the pitch, and more strength in depth .. there's a reason they finish so many points ahead of us!

City can score 5 goals against a team within 20 minutes, as a team they're a chance creation machine and being a forward in that side must be a joy playing ahead of B.Silva, De Bruyne, Silva etc. Obviously their forwards are all mega talented in their own right, but playing in such a well coached attacking side, alongside other players who are just as good or even better than you, that's only going to boost you as a player if you have the right attitude.

Kane would smash goals in for fun at City, it would be stupid. He wouldn't have to drop deep like he does now so could just focus on getting in the box and doing what he does best, and the threats around him would give him so much more freedom.
 

Lee565

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Cant be a coincidence that ever since he was being heavily linked with the United job spurs's form went down the drain outside of the champions league run.
 

cjj

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Cant be a coincidence that ever since he was being heavily linked with the United job spurs's form went down the drain outside of the champions league run.
That and Real.

It seems like he has said for years that he was never leaving, then from January he started giving stupid contradictory answers to it all, hinting that he'd leave if he won the CL.

Seems to me he's abused the trust of his players, and that's what has affected team morale.
 
Tottenham 2:7 Bayern Munich

slored1

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His time is surely up now. Can't set up a defense anymore, the players are surely not inspired the same way they used to be.
 

cyberman

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He's done.
Here's the thing, does Levy fire him knowing he's likely to end up at Utd or play silly buggers to get the 32 odd million off of his next club?