A bit of an interesting point brought up on the Sunday Supplement this morning, two Journo's argueing whether we are a better team or not now. Personally i believe tactically we've improved, especially with team selection/substitutes. Certain players really excelling under Poche, Jay Rod being a perfect example. Statistically we're also slightly better off in terms of points per game and other key stats in matches. I also believe it could be even better, minus the poor performance against QPR we should have picked up more points from the games we've played, Wigan and Norwich especially.
Well at the very least, I fail to see how anyone could argue that we're a weaker team now. But my answer to the question is a big fat yes.
Small sample size so far (but then, so is Nige's Prem experience) but yes, comfortably better, in my eyes.
MP has got more out of each player and they weren't poor before. It's certainly more exciting to watch and I'm sure the players are loving it...must feel a bit more like the Championship where we kept winning. I have the feeling now that, although we won't win every game, we are capable of winning every game. The team must share that view as well.
Yes, absolutely no doubt about it. If Nigel was in charge, we would not have beaten City, Liverpool and Chelsea. Maybe one of them, but not all three.
We were pretty **** at the start of the season and have improved a lot since then. Pochettino has taken the team to another level, we aren't as idealistic and formulaic as we were under Adkins I feel we play the ball on its merits and aren't afraid of doing a bit of dirty work. The most significant thing as everyone will say is Pochettino has brought in a far more effective press, and couple that with a high line we are far harder to break down. I feel we still lack two quick centrebacks to be properly secure at the back but Jos and Maya seem to have pulled the high line off well enough on Saturday. If we didn't have the recovery speed of Clyne and Shaw we would have conceded a few though.
We were improving under Nigel at the time of his departure, but, yes the performances and results under MP have been very impressive..it is a bit of an unknown to say how far Nigel could've taken us, but i'm very confident of our future now...I'm still going for an 11th place finish with 45 points and then next season, the sky's the limit.
Spoke to an overseas friend recently who only listens to internet radio and he is still in the throws of.. oh, they shouldn't have sacked Nigel, this new bloke can't even speak English and he hasn't done any better than Adkins did. I pointed out to him that Saints are playing with much more urgency now, blah, blah, high pressing game, etc... He was surprised that Pochettino has no problems communicating with the players, and also that he can speak English, but understandably isn't confident enough to use it in front of national media. Finally, I told him that, despite that fact that Nigel got the club promoted twice in two seasons, Saints are a better side now with Pochettino and he needed to let the bitterness go, because Cortese has actually played another blinder. I also recommended he get himself an annual Saints Player subscription, because things are going to get even more exciting from here on in. His last word on the subject was... Oh..! If it's not apparent, I voted Yes.
We have improved across the team under Pochettino. At the start of the season we were leaking goals like water, and this slowly improved under Nigel, but who would have thought we would keep a clean sheet in the second half yesterday having brought SKD on? Likewise, the midfield is a match for any team in the Prem, and our strikers are visibly growing in confidence with every game.
I think we can only answer this question next season, assuming we stay up. It will be interesting to see after the new boss has been in for a few months whether teams get wise to our tactics or not.
Sadly I think we are better Other than the obvious high press game we are playing and a number of individuals that have improved noticeably in recent weeks, MP use of subs to counteract the opposition tactics or to change our own game has been first class...something NA couldn't get to grips with. Still love NA though!
Other teams may get wise to it, but we've come on a bit if other teams have to change their game plan to cope with us. It's a compliment.
I agree , yes we are better under MP , but we had no plan B against QPR ( IMHO ) , time will tell but at the moment I am Quite positive .
Why sadly?! Southamtpon FC is bigger than one manager. He did a good job, and we thank him for that, but we are better now!
Nigel is set in stone as a Saints hero...didn't carry on till he failed (as all managers do eventually).
