Transfer thread for 2016-17 season

Agreed. But it is a fine line indeed before you turn into a Fabio Cappello.

The conspiracy-theorist in me believes that this is the reason we don't really have any senior 'leaders' in the squad whatsoever, and our captain is about as vocal as a Charlie Chaplin flick. I sometimes feel that Poch sees such players as a potential threat to his authority, and therefore steers clear as a matter of policy.

 

Rose clearly hasnt suffered though.

And Benny and his relationship with Adebayore was a pain in the ass.

 

Whatever. It clearly works. Tbh, I can't believe im reading this crap ! Poch is the messiah. End of.

 

As it is with touchline apparel and facial hair, so it is with player management.
to the man who is consistent across all facets of his day job.

 

I think that the really successful managers are control freaks. They won't put up with those who won't apply their talents to the manager's directions and the benefit of the whole. My way or the highway? Well, benevolent dictatorship is the most effective form of government. Let that slip and everybody has licence to 'go their own way'. For team sports, especially with young players, that is often what's required to get the best from them. Fergie (MP's role model) scared the living crap out of some of his young charges, so did Cloughie and Jock Stein. It wasn't that they weren't decent people but that was the persona they adopted to extract the best out of their team. It worked for them.

If the odd player is sacrificed like Fergie did with Sharpe, Ince, Stam and Keane, to make us successful, then so be it. The fact that Bentaleb is now complaining about our support of the team shows he's prepared to find someone else to blame for his failings. It's Adebayor all over again and he'd be best advised to drop it PDQ if he wants a decent career. If you're on the bench it's because someone else is doing your job better than you, not because the fans are crap.

 

This is going to sound like a horrible comparison, but I don't think that they're that different.
Pochettino has a slight age advantage and a massive experience one, though.
He's developing more strings to his tactical bow and we seem to have a Plan B and C, but their basic game is fairly similar.

Both managers use the fullbacks for width, play with a double-pivot in midfield as their first choice and have narrow wingers.
They favour a high defensive line, emphasise defensive strength and don't allow dissent in the ranks.
The press was virtually absent from Villas-Boas' system though, while it's the main focus of Pochettino's.
The former defender seems to prefer slightly more attacking sides, too.

Give Villas-Boas six years though and he might be where our manager is now.
I don't think that he's the write-off that many have described him as, though he's burning lots of bridges at the moment.
There are far worse managers that pick up endless jobs, in my opinion.

 

When the silverware starts to arrive in greater increments than once a decade as managed by his forebears, I might agree with you.

The 'messiah' label is bandied about far too cheaply in football. We heard it for Hoddle, Redknapp some idiots were even calling AVB a messiah after his first season!

The omens are certainly superb for Poch and I do strongly believe that he will become our best PL manager by a country mile. However, it is counter-intuitive to argue that something is 'clearly working' when we have no idea how much better it could be working. Some call it 'crap', I prefer 'intelligent debate', but subtle differences such as:

A) More patience with youngsters
B) A 'proper' captain
C) More experienced players in the squad to guide the youth

Could well end up bringing even more success than we're currently seeing. I firmly believe that with a player with the presence of a Ledley or a Daws in the squad last year, we would've pushed Leicester all the way and probably won the league.

 

You think Pochettino's impatient with youth?

 

That in and of itself is a massive difference PNP that surely ends the comparison?

The 'press' system directly impacts how you utilise almost half the team.

Our FB's now cover much more ground and are much more attacking than they were under AVB, which is...

...because the DM is trained to drop into a CB position and form a '3', which in turn allows for...

...One of your wide AM to regularly cut inside and 'become' a second striker a la Son and Alli...

...Which in turn gives your actual striker license to drop deep into almost a number 10 position, a la Kane.

AVB's first season was essentially 10 people moving out of Bale's way. His second season showed very little of the above, and thus exposed him as tactically rigid, one-dimensional and incapable of getting the best out of his players.

I do however have infinite sympathy for the way the man was hung out to dry by Baldini's Travelling Circus.

 

Almost certainly losing Michael Dawson cost us the league

 

In terms of giving them opportunities? Absolutely not.

In terms of giving them a chance at redemption for immature mistakes? Absolutely.

 

Mate, how many daft things has Alli done ? he punched a ****ing defender during a league game last season ffs !!

 

"a player with the presence of a Ledley or a Daws in the team"

Is clearly not the same as saying 'with Michael Dawson back in the team', no matter how many emojis you print after it.

 

Correct. But nothing aimed at his own coaching staff.

I'm not quite sure why my opinions have got you so worked up over this?

Shall we call it a night before one of us says something that would usually be said to a fan of a rival team?

 

It's a major difference and it makes the high line a lot less susceptible to balls over the top, which Villas-Boas got done by repeatedly.
I can think of a number of examples from his days at Chelsea alone.

I'm surprised that more hasn't been made of our holding player turning the defence into a three, to be honest.
It does seem to be a major reason why we don't concede very often, but it's overlooked quite a bit.
Dier is a natural there, for obvious reasons, but Wanyama's adapted quickly, probably because of his previous work with Pochettino.

Villas-Boas is still very young though, so he's got time to develop his tactics.
He lacks Pochettino's experience as a player and I think that our current manager uses that well, at times.
Emulating Bielsa's search for perfection is admirable, but tricky.

 

Wow !!

You're worse than Lamela stealing the ball from poor Sonny.

 

To me, Poch is a complete natural as a football manager, whereas AVB needs a manual. And he picked a really rubbish manual.

 

I think that it depends upon the nature of the mistake, though I accept your point.
A player can be underwhelming on the pitch, but still be in his good books.
Poor behaviour or a crap attitude seem to be unforgivable sins, though. I'm not sure that's bad.

 

Perhaps. But I have never and would never refer to a fellow Spurs' opinion as 'crap'. Especially not on a forum whose slogan is 'Comment, Debate, Create'.