It's been the same concerns in his previous jobs, that's what some don't understand, this is Pochettino, he isn't changing as a manager. The less excitable Saint fans understand his flaws as while he done a decent job there, same concerns, no variety in tactical /team setup, clueless to react to how a game changes. His management will be remembered for being in the right place, right time for '' developing'' young players but if Sherwood was our manager then same young players would have developed so it's more Pochettino has a reputation for trusting in youth (which is why he was hired) , yet his flaws as a manager are ignored and developing young players won't keep him in a job long term.
That's because we've had pretty much the same players since AVB's reign up until now. Over the course of last season, the likes of Paulinho, Capoue, Chiriches, Soldado, Adebayor, Kaboul, Dembele and Ekotto all lost their places in the first XI/ squad. Kane, Mason, Bentaleb are now fully fledged first team players (as is Dier I'd say), we have a new first team CB and a battle at RB, Chadli and Eriksen are proven goalscoring midfielders, what we're lacking is a bit of pace out wide which hopefully N'Jie (or Berahino if he signs) will bring. That massive change in playing personnel is going to need time getting into a rhythm.
Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean 'I don't understand'. It is not really possible to say that he has flaws as a manager on such a short track record. You've come to a judgement based on too little data and the wrong analysis as far as I can see. However it is quite likely that history will prove you 'right' as the chance of us getting top four is actually quite low given where we are starting from. But if three or four of the youngsters turn into players of the class of King, Modric and Bale then we'll see whether he is up to the job of building on that.
You summed up why I gave Pochettino a very good grade for his first year in charge. I don’t really see the "same old Spurs" point. I think a great deal has changed. Spurs are the youngest team in the league. They didn’t used to be. They were also one of the fittest and one of hardest working. That’s a change as well. We got four points from our main rivals and from West Ham, and three from Chelsea. More changes. Incapable of a Plan B? What was that that bottled up Man U for 90 minutes, then, in the spot we got thoroughly outplayed last year? We got a loss and a draw where we should have had a draw and win in our first two games. Is this the same old Spurs? If so, then it wasn’t same old Spurs last year, when we got better results than we deserved to, as a general rule. If Pochettino is so incapable of late game substitutions and changing tactics, why did we get more points from losing positions than almost anyone else in the league last year? I’ll grant you, it is the same old Spurs in the sense that we still don’t have the resources to make it all likely we’ll make the CL, and for that matter that we will always continue to have some disappointing games, but that’s hardly Pochettino’s fault. We were crap from the moment we took the lead, if you ask me, against Stoke. To me, that’s exactly the kind of switching off you expect a young team to do. Their average age is, what, 24?. They’re going to make mistakes due to inexperience. If they don’t learn from them, then blame Pochettino. Pochettino may very well have a bad year this year. He may, for all I know, be shown to be out of his depth. He’ll get plenty of criticism from me if he does, and in fact has gotten a fair amount already. But what I see so far is a coach who has really done quite well in his first year, and whose main fault is failing to meet unrealistic expectations.
I doubt any of us are qualified to judge whether Pochettino will be successful or not. But true supporters should get behind him and back him, not look for unsubstantiated flaws. Let's have opinions and discussion not assertions of truth with no basis in fact.
I remember some fans commenting they wanted us to lose when AVB was here, to accelerate his sacking, I'm not at that stage, as I'm not hoping for Pochettino to fail (to be proved right) I'm merely commenting on his flaws and commenting on a manager I personally have never believed was the right choice. So while I openly admit I will pick the guy up on the mistakes he makes, saying "true supporters" is cheap, as some fans on here don't make much effort to watch games (which is their choice), but i wouldn't view them as not being true supporters, while I know one of the most vocal fans against Poch is SC, unless he isn't a true supporter being a season ticket holder?
From the discussions on here i'd say most people who post make an effort to watch most of the games. Not watching ALL the games simply means you probably have a life other than Spurs.
OK it was an over the top phrase, but if Pochettino is to succeed he needs the biggest following wind possible, so I'd rather see constructive points than lists of mistakes.
Spurm you missed the point there as it was in reply to Power making cheap shots because he has an issue with fans commenting on the managers flaws, as we're all true supporters regardless of if we attend games (or not) , if we watch all games (or not), of if we rate the manager (or not).
If it didn't keep happening, I'd find that a lot easier to buy. We just cannot seem to learn to dig in and grind out a result. Being great for 70 mins ain't enough! Not when you give away a two goal lead, and almost lose the game as well
No worries Power, but I'm not claiming to be some sort of expert on managers, even if I did call Pulis being manager of the year (before any other fan)
I still wonder if we are paying for the utterly stupidd preseason, maybe we are just not there physically yet. Would explain the dip at the end of games. I don't recall Kane struggling much last season at the end of games, for example, but he looked shot when he went off on Saturday.
What is success? If it is staying in touch with the five clubs favoured by the media, the match officials and the Premier League with nowhere near their financial resources then all the mangers for the last ten years have been successful. If it is winning most of the games whilst playing exciting and entertaining football then not since 1961 and Bill. Back then we could compete with almost anyone in attracting players. Until we can compete like that again, possibly when the new stadium is paid for, I think the former is what I would call success. Our best chance of getting to the CL at the moment is probably via the Europa League so those managers that go down that route are to be applauded. Harry got us to CL once at a time when we had three world class players for the only time in many years. The most likely way that that will happen again is via our own academy or very astute scouting abroad, which appears to be the route that we are following. Pochettino looks as if he buys into that so not only do I think he is successful now, I also think he will become more successful in the future.
Is that really the case from last season though? We won a shed load of points from the latter part of games which suggests to me we had a bit of grit last season and never said die. We messed up against Stoke, no doubting that but that was from an individual mistake and a freak goal, I fail to see how that can be blamed on Poch.
Not the first time I've seen you refer to Stoke's equaliser as a freak goal SoS. Must say I haven't watched it again because it would only send my blood pressure to sky high levels, but in real game time, I saw that as a pretty decent cross into the box which neither Toby or Verts wanted to go for and clear. The guy who wanted the ball most was the Stoke player. This defensive frailty was there all last season, so at what point do we blame Poch then ?
Its something that's been happening for years and years. We either cannot close a game out and end up hanging on, as we did at the weekend. Or we huff and puff, can't get a goal, and then give away a stupid goal at the other end - as happened several times last season. Several of the last minute wins we got last season were from Eriksen set pieces, not from any creative outlet. I'm not sure it's all down to M.P. - Levy certainly bears more than his share of blame for the hiring and firing debacles of the last few years, and M.P. Has to work with what he's got. My concern about him is that he seems very much a plan A man, if that isn't working, he looks lost. I guess what frustrates more than anything is, whoever the manager is, we just never seem to learn. As even the pundits say, 'same old Spurs!'
