Baldini has gone (no surprise there) The club are shifting the duds (well the ones that we can find buyers for that is) but again no surprise, as was always on the cards, some fans believed we should wait for players to come good, you don't wait for duds to come good, you get rid and reinvest, so for that I can't be too critical of the club as while mistakes have been made, they have removed Baldini and are removing the players that clearly have no future. Hopefully we can get rid of the biggest dud, Pochettino, as he simply isn't right for this club, all I see is a young manager, a nice guy, out of his depth and creating an uninspiring rigid team, much like what spurcat typed, but my opinion was the same when it was first announced Pochettino was going to be our manager, he isn't right for us and I haven't seen anything so far to suggest he could be, and I will only change my mind if Chadli is crowned world player of the year under his guidance. The club agreeing to play the Audi cup just confirms what I have always thought of ENIC and Levy. I just hope Harry Kane can have a fantastic season (to at least give us some excitement), as looking at our upcoming fixtures, we have Stoke, Leicester, Everton, Sunderland & Palace. If Kane is the player of last year then he has a run of games against defences that will give you chances, and much like last year that would mean Kanes form would allow Pochettino to be viewed as doing ok, on the basis Kane is scoring goals to hide the flaws and that is all Pochettino is, an average manager that needs Kane to keep him in a job.
I have to agree with this, and with the earlier posting by O.S. Apart from we seem - at the moment, anyway - to be more solid defensively, it's like Groundhog Day. Same old lack,of ideas, creativity, ability to alter game plan according to circumstances, etc. Last season we scored 58 and conceded 53. I can see us conceding less this season. But can I see us scoring more? At the moment, no!
I've always been a Pochettino advocate so far and I just about think I still am. I think we have to persevere with him for at least another whole season, maybe 2. He's done some quite good things for this club so far, even if he is not without his flaws. I understand your concerns about those flaws though, because I think I share many of the worries. I just think I'm more willing to give him some more time, which I know you might describe as being happy with mediocrity, which is fair enough because it maybe is that - but time will tell who is right I suppose. Somewhat conversely, although I think Poch should be given some more time, I think the opposite about the last serious dud on the team - Lamela, who I think we should be rid of now. The squad still needs work but there are some causes for optimism, even if we're not entirely where we should be. On the pre-season, having the Audi Cup games when they were was a farce, as was going to the US after the post-season tour. Levy clearly saw some $$ with the new stadium approaching and couldn't resist, no matter the impact on the football and the UK fans.
Unless Poch does an AVB or a Ramos, then he will be given time, I and others may not rate him but the club have removed Baldini and are shifting players to make way for Pochettinos targets, so that tells us that he is going to be given time, unless he really screws up. Pochettino just has to finish 6th and have a season with Kane/Eriksen producing and if he somehow gets Lamela to produce then he may be given a 10 year contract! But the part re the audi cup, for that decision, all the fans that travelled to the Utd game should receive some sort of reimbursement for travelling to watch a team that was unprepared for the start of the season
To those saying Pochettino is the wrong man. Please tell me who you think we should have, but please be realistic.
If it was down to me, we wouldn't have been in the position to hire a young manager out of his depth. Levy is the one who sacks/hires manager, therefore he is the one who dictates when we can look for a manager but I said at the time I never wanted Pochettino, and all my reasons why have proved to be correct so all I can hope is that when Pochettino is sacked, a more suitable manager will be available. I look back to the arsenal game away in Pochettino's first season, saying he didn't have a plan B and everyone saying yes he does, look at the team getting pinned back and hitting on the break, now all I hear from fans is "Pochettino doesn't have a plan b". I know Pochettino as a manager (obviously not personally, as we don't go out for lunch or coffee) but I know what he is capable of, and he isn't right for this club.
The one thing we agree on is a lack of leadership on the field, and I would say character. As full of luck as games are, the winners are the ones who hold their nerve better. Competitors fall repeatedly at the same hurdles because they lack belief. While it’s true that young players get over the hurdles progressively as they mature, we have been going one step forward and two steps back, on balance, or at best two and two, from the moment we beat Arsenal, and that has to change. I would have preferred a non-systematic coach, and couldn’t understand why Dier started yesterday. But improving our awful defending looked like job one at the start of the season. We seem to have done so rather spectacularly in our first game, as we addressed the big problem of a sterile attack last year, I may be crazy but think the team has benefited from continuity instead of looking for another quick fix, and everything together gives me hope Pochettino can address other problems successfully...pending further results. Put another way, as I said before, a squad this young ought to improve markedly over last year, and whether they do or not should determine Pochettino’s fate.
DIer is no more of a DM then Kaboul was, or Ledley King was, although King did have an outstanding game there for England, but the one positive you can take is that Pochettino is at least aware the team needs a DM, instead of being stubborn to the point he plays Mason/Bentaleb and ignores the gaping holes it leaves for the opposition. He is trying to fix issues and I remember him saying he wanted players with premier league experience and the manager should have control over transfers, so he has learnt from the Redknapp way, just a pity the football is crap and he can't get Adebayor focused, but lets see who this new striker is, as the club may well surprise us....
After 2 midweek fixtures, against probably the most expensively assembled team in the EPL, who looked dull and toothless. We were slow, with silly mistakes, as you usually do just out of preseason. And we lost 1-0? To United? Away? Stop the gloom guys it really isn't the end of the world. Don't call for the manager's head after game 1. Who are we - Arsenal? xD
My point exactly. Wait for game two. If the season ended this week, we’d finish above Arsenal, and they’d get relegated. I can only pray the final table will be half as satisfying.
If stoke beat us (which is possible), Kane struggles, Chadli is too busy gelling his hair and we reach the city game in disarray before Aguero and Silva take us to the cleaners, then the Pochettino out thread will be created, but hopefully over the coming games, the team will wake up, Kane, Eriksen and Chadli will light up the league and Pochettino will continue to wear his suit and the team will look just as sharp and thats even without our new striker banging in the goals.
I think he is probably the right man, but I acknowledge his flaws and they concern me. Dier is a CB who can do a job at RB or CM. He's totally unsuited to midfield when up against a team willing to regularly put pressure on him because he's used to receiving the ball facing the game with his head up, not getting the ball with his back to the goal and runners arriving to pressure him. He's probably a good choice there against teams who will sit back as him dropping into defence will allow the creative players to so their thing freely, but otherwise, keep him at CB and buy a proper DM. Leadership on the field needs to be developed or bought in. Preferably the latter at this stage, and pronto.
Thanks SD. Good luck beating that joker SOS in the fantasy football league, he has got far too cocky after reading the fantasy football thread.
I think we do need a Plan A and a Plan B. But in a very different way to what most seem to think. We ought to put Plan A into effect when playing the 14 teams in the league who have worse players than us. Plan A should be safety first and rely on our players being better than the opposition. We should put Plan B into effect when playing the five teams who have better players than us. We should then take more risks in the hope that we will score early on and can go back to Plan A.
We need to take risks in appointing a manager because we've only got the 6th best squad and our aim is to come fourth. There is essentially no difference in outcome for us if we are 6th or 16th so there is no danger in trying out a younger manager. Pochettino has been there only one season and came one place higher than we ought to have expected with the youngest team in the league. How that shows he is out of his depth I can't imagine.
AVB was out of his depth as spurs manager and that was proved to be the case regardless of his first season when Bale helped cover up his flaws. The same applies to Pochettino whos flaws have been covered up by Kane. Pochetinno is fortunate in that he hasn't lost his star player and is being allowed to manage his second season without a DOF (another failed DOF) but Pochettino isn't capable of building a team that will finish top four, nor is he tactically astute. Harry Kane won us 24 points with his goals last season, fantastic for us and him, but considering for most of the season our football was awful and the team struggled then if you replace Kane with Soldado then we would have finished below Swansea. There is no top four finish under our current owners, that is all in the past due to the club needing an experienced manager to show them to finish top four the club have to be managed in a certain way, this current way will only result in young players coming through and 6th/5th at best but you can forget about top four as its in the past.
Redknapp had a flair team with speedy wingers and played to its strengths. And that was pleasing on the eye. Pochettino doesn't have those players available to him and is much more of a pragmatist anyway. He has a number of players, who were not his signings, who he wants to play in a certain way, which may not be best suited to them. He wants to play a tight 4-5-1, which becomes a 4-2-3-1 when you have the ball with Eriksen as a #10 and Chadli and Lamela as inside forwards. But unless they play as orthodox wingers, their pace is nullified and there is no pace from midfield either. None of the midfielders will run beyond the forwards. So the style can become quite slow paced, which enables the opposition to get men behind the ball. You then rely on Eriksen producing something special or Kane getting a yard of space and burying the chances he gets (which both did to timely effect on many occasions last season). Perhaps what Pochettino needs to do, especially at home (and van Gaal should do too) is allow the two outside forwards to play with more freedom and in particular, to run at and beyond defenders and put in crosses from wide areas. There is too much trying to retain the ball and pass through and around teams at a slow pace, which is ineffective.
The whole point about being a manager is getting the best out of the players. Pochettino trusted Kane and was rewarded. According to you he had a squad of duds and kids. Do you think he got more or less points than an average manager would have from that squad? As for AVB he had essentially Harry's squad less Modric and got more points. Harry had us playing the best football I've seen us play for 30 years or more, but he did have King, Modric and Bale at his disposal plus Van der Vaart and he signed nobody in four years who could replace any of those.
