Interesting. I'll disagree, though, and say we need one plan for the teams who will play football with us (four or six at home, and six or eight or so away, maybe?--our Plan A: we generally did well against these teams last year); one plan for most of the other teams, who parked the bus (Plan B), and one (which we just saw) for the top four away.
I think with our left side, its reasonably effective. Eriksen and Kane will pop up in the inside left channel and Chadli has the physical stature and finishing ability to provide a notable presence in the centre when the other two rotate out. And both our LBs are reasonably good at getting forward to provide an outside option most of the time. Where the system falls down is on the right, because Townsend is maddeningly inconsistent and has poor decision making, and Lamela comes inside and congests the space too much because nobody wants to rotate out to the right midfield position. That wouldn't matter too much if the RBs could provide width, but last season Walker was very poor indeed and the rest of the time we were stuck with Dier or Chiriches playing out of position, or Naughton who was pretty average. Hopefully this season Walker improves and Trippier provides a strong alternative to him, and we strengthen the right midfield position or Lamela suddenly becomes capable of playing to a world class standard in Pochettino's system (unlikely). I think at Southampton Poch used a right midfielder who held the width and stretched the defence's game out that way, so I'm surprised we don't see a proper winger out there. Maybe we lack one Poch is willing to trust and use? As it is we definitely lack pace in behind and the ability to go past a man though (Kane and Eriksen can beat a man or two but neither is blessed with electric pace), apart from when Rose is at LB and when one of the RBs is actually playing well, and that is what I think we're trying to fix with Berahino, N'Jie and Yarmolenko all being either very quick, skilful enough to beat a man, or both, from wide midfield/striker positions. I harbour hopes that Pritchard might be able to make an impact with some guile too, but we shall have to see how he does when he presumably gets his chances in the cup/EL games.
Their team cost about £210m and ours about £70m. They brought on subs worth £60m to our £30m. The match was actually quite even so which manager got the better out of his squad?
Pochettino had no real choice as Soldado was a passenger and Adebayor wasn't an option last year so the emergence of Kane was due to his own development and taking his chance as a player. We had already seen him start to produce under Sherwood towards the end of the previous season. If Sherwood was manager last year, Kane would still have played to the same level so I can't see how Pochettino can be overly praised for Kane, other then picking a player in form? I can credit Pochettino for in general being brave enough to bring through kids, such as Mason who isn't a kid as such, but that was a brave decision and Poch does believe in playing kids. in AVB's first season, for much of it we would struggle in games but Bale would produce magic. With Pochettino last year we would struggle but Kane (or Eriksen) would save the team from a draw or defeat. The reason I have an issue is because I see flaws in Pochettinos setup, the football is dull and he looks clueless at times. Under Redknapp he would have the team playing exciting football when we had Crouch/Defoe/Jenas/Hudd/Palacios/Lennon it wasn't all about Bale/Modric/VDV and Redknapp would also make changes to help the team get out of tricky situations, and he also helped the team have confidence to play attacking football but some fans choose to remember his final 4-5 months but ignoring all the great work he done in the previous 3 and half years. Pochettino struggles with making subs to change a game. He is a nice guy and I don't dislike him on the same level as AVB (who I viewed as a snake) but I don't rate him as a manager (for us) and I find his style of play tedious and I hope he isn't at the club for much longer.
We miss King immensely even though he could not play a full season towards the end his influence was still there. Harry kept it simple but he was fortunate to have the four heavyweights in his team. Having said that he always had a clear idea what type of player he needed, the best example IMO was getting first Palacious and then later Parker adding the needed grit to the team. This is the kind of player that AVB and MP seem to miss out on. Whether because they don't think it's needed or they just can't source one I'm not sure. It's not apparent to me that we are up to speed with what is happening on our doorstep as regards players are we missing out?
Yes, but it's an over simplified argument. It was one game in isolation - the first of the season. And the cost of players isn't always a yardstick for how effective they will be. Utd's best players at times have been a snip - Irwin, Vidic, Cantona, Schmeichel - to name four.
Rose tinted spectacle warning! We often criticised Harry for his tactics or his selection there were many debates on here on match threads. The big change came with the CL exploits of Bale but for a long time when ever Lennon was out we looked lifless. And don't talk to me about Crouch and bypassing all the talent in midfield including Modric VDV and Bale that was clueless tactics. Harry made plenty of ricks as well it'wasn't all exciting football by any means.
Their wage bill is also more than double ours, going by the last released details. That's for the 13/14 season too, so the difference is probably closer to treble now.
Those six other players you mention cost £7.5m on average which means they cost more than the average player Pochettino had on the pitch on Saturday. Harry did really well in his first two and a half seasons but the team he had at the end should have performed much better and he left no players as legacy at all. His signings were quick fixes mostly. I've really nothing against Harry but he is no sort of genius as was demonstrated by QPR. I'm not qualified to see flaws in set ups or I would be earning a couple of million a year managing a PL team. If its so easy I suggest you apply.
All managers make mistakes with tactics, when I have said Redknapp never made mistakes? That is the issue as when you praise Redknapp, you simply can't praise him as a manager without fans wanting you to discuss mistakes he made, while if you slate Poch for his mistakes, the excuse is that he is young and we're taking a chance, I'm not interested in the excuses regarding Pochettino. Crouch formed a good partnership with VDV at times, one that I'm sure you will remember played its part, while Crouch scored the goal to get us top four. You can't argue with the impact of Redknapps signings, as he knew what to do with players, and in his final season remember he signed Adebayor (while fans vented their anger) and he also had to deal with Modric wanting out, not an easy situation for any manager. Also remember fans slated Redknapp for sticking with Bale during his "jinx" period, lets not pretend fans knew better then Redknapp as when it comes down to what took place, Redknapp will go down as our longest serving premier league manager, only premier league manager to finish top four (twice), only spurs manager to manage in the champions league and also the spurs manager that played the most exciting football in PL era (at least). If fans can't see how his style of management was a positive (overall) then they aren't being honest with themselves!
He has taken spurs, west ham and portsmouth to their highest premier league finishes so I'm sure he won't be concerned with what happened at qpr, while he did have them promoted, but take note that Hughes also fell flat on his face at qpr but went on to take Stoke to their highest premier league finish. QPR have real issues as a club and that has been proven by both Hughes and Redknapp facing problems. But I look forward to seeing if Ramsey can get them promoted as he hasn't a hope in hell.
Bale and Modric progressed from underperforming failures to top class players under 'Arry. He signed vdV for a song, Parker was an inspired signing..... need I go on?
He does for that one. It all happened very late on deadline day. He wasn' offered to us till about 9.30 p.m. For
I think Levy must have signed VDV without discussing it with Redknapp or asking him for his opinion on the player and if the manager wanted to sign him, Makes complete sense. Also as Levy was pictured with Verts, I would guess that Levy scouted Verts, watched him during games, noted his qualities as a player and was 100% responsible for the deal.
I don't believe this for one second. If your chairman is choosing players without the approval of the manager, there's a big problem. As Cloughie said: "Football hooligans? Well, there are 92 chairmen for a start."
If I remember correctly, Harry himself admitted as much. As for chairman choosing players, it's still going on at Newcastle. Or it was before Schteeve was hired.
Our fans believe what they choose to believe with transfers as I've read a few tell us the ins and outs of the Soldado deal, As if they have any idea of the actual fee or breakdown, they haven't a clue of what the actual deal was.
