His demeanour has changed so much over the last 12 months, and the start of this season especially it’s gotten even worse. He tinkered with leaving with certain comments to the press after the CL final, then he bemoaned the European transfer window for our slow start, now he’s saying players didn’t adhere to his game plan... not that I think anyone could actually tell what that game plan was?! It’s is as if he’s going down the José route of trying to get himself sacked.
I get why he is annoyed but it seems to be a rich complaining about players not following a plan. 1. There were 5 changes to Saturday's win over palace, and 3 players who are not match fit started (Dele, Davies and Ndombele) yet he complained that we did not play like we did on saturday. 2. After the Arsenal game EVERY spurs fan hoped we woud NEVER see sanchez play as a full back again...yet Pochettino ignored what was and is patently obvious to EVERYONE else and plays him as one. What part of the plan was this ever going help be a successful match? Pochettino has been behaving very differently in the past few months. His comments about quitting, his moaning in press conferences and now publically blaming players after those team selections and formations. Personally, I don't like what I am hearing when he speaks. He has done a very good jobs at spurs but tbh he looks and sounds disinterested in spurs and more interested in himself...a bit like Eriksen if I am being really honest. Saturday worked because Son and Lamela hunted down the ball and harrassed the palace defence while Aurier and Rose hugged the touchline widening the pitch. Sissoko and winks won the ball in midfield and due to the space were able to find Eriksen and Kane to start attacks Dropping 5 of those 6 players is why we did not follow on from where we left off on Saturday. It has nothing to do with players not following a plan and everything to do with too many changes requiring 3 unfit players to play imho.
Well, you should have at least seen an outline of it at the start before they supposedly deviated from the Meisterplan. Unless it was “let’s give the ball away and concede an early goal” it escaped me!
Actually Sanchez had a much better game at full back than Davies, when the winger who was skinning Davies switched sides he was totally ineffective. Eriksen was the only real problem last night. If he had played close to his normal form we would have won easily. We have played three away matches so far this season at Man C, Arsenal and Olympiakos and are undefeated. This would have been a miracle pre Poch.
I wonder just what happened in the aftermath of the CL final. Ahead of yesterday's game he brought up for the 4th or 5th time how upset and hurt he was. Trippier said openly that things had happened behind the scenes over the summer and I wonder if certain things were said or words exchanged in the heat of the moment that drove a bit of a wedge between manager and players. Other than Hugo, Winks, Son, Lamela, Sissoko and perhaps Davies no-one is giving the distinct impression of being entirely happy at the club. I'd hoped Palace would be the first step away from the inexplicable misery of the summer but we are now back to square one and have a really tough away game on the horizon. What's noteworthy about yesterday is how scathing the reaction has been. From our own camp but also from pundits (Rio, Lineker, Hoddle, Brown) who are usually really positive in their comments about us. The footballing world is starting to notice that the mask has been slipping. We've known it since January. The way we've started this season has brought it to general attention.
Think player rotation is one of the most difficult tasks for a manager. Clearly needed with so many fixtures coming up, but can often disrupt playing performance. Fringe players need to play but may well look rusty with so few games. Always relish the really big game when the clear best XI is selected.
Perhaps Pochettino should book some Fergie time, to learn from a past master of the discipline. Yesterday was too important to play a weakened starting XI, with round pegs in square holes (Sanchez etc) .
Fergie used to plan rotations quite a long time ahead but even United in their heyday used to stutter at times because of rotation.
At the business end of the PL season, he so often got it right. Several less than stellar players, with sufficient game time in their legs to be able to put a shift in without weakening the overall potency of the team (getting the results while resting others) .
Another point about squad rotation. There are usually 7 euro spots for English teams and normally it's the big 6 plus one who fill them. The big 6 have squads to cater with the extra euro games, although the quality varies. The 7th team usually struggles to cope with the extra games, witness Wolves this season.
Plus Eriksen needs to GET OUT..he's just stinking the place up. He lost the ball 22 times last night...let's not ignore this. Isolated, that's fine but he's not been interested for a very long time and i won't cheer that twat on anymore...even if he turns in a performance...our best player my arse...I can't stand men with no heart. Just **** off you manic depressive twat.
Ultimately working for a chairman who has bagged 1 trophy in his tenure doesn't bode well for anyone with any ambitions to win things. For all the ENIC lovers...we are currently witnessing our worst trophy drought since the 60's. As much as I like to dig Poch out I can't totally blame him for his crappy attitude. He's probably had enough of Levy's tongue twisters during meetings and is emotionally stuck between a rock and a hard place. Yeah, it wasn't Levy who picked the team however something has happened and no one admits it, apart from Trippier who left the club, go figure
Success for ENIC is top 4 That pays the bills and allows the club to keep investing in training grounds and new stadiums. Eventually you hope they will take the next step and say trophies too but atm top 4 alone is the aim.
Interesting to compare 2 investment companies, FSG at Liverpool and ENIC at Spurs. Water under the bridge now. FSG took the strategic decision to develop Anfield at pretty modest cost rather than the previous plan for a new ground, leaving more resources for the team. ENIC invested hugely in the new WHL, with around a third coming from current income, leaving less for team spending. Liverpool strategy better in the short/medium term, maybe Spurs better long term, although of course in the long term we're all dead.
I think Poch has a big decision to make now,if Eriksen heart isn't in it does he drop him now and plan for a future without him or does he stick with him knowing that in January he will probably be gone anyway and then have to plan without him from then on.over to you poch....
I don’t think the option to develop WHL was valid though was it. Realistically it had to be knocked down and a new stadium built.