Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Watford

I didn't see the first half but Aurier looked decent in the second half to me.

 

In the first half his crossing was diabolical, with him either aiming crosses at some 8ft tall bloke in the area nobody could see or helping Watford run down the clock by putting them out for goal kicks

 

OK so there is some hope then if he improved in the second half. He has not had much game time and received abuse and bad press. Yes he has made bad decisions but maybe he just needs confidence like the rest of the team.

 

What an absolute mess of a post.

Right, first of all, I literally said in my initial comment that I hadn't seen if there were other incidents. The only reason I mentioned the Vertonghen challenge was because it was being posted on Twitter left, right and centre. I was also trying to make a wider point about the application of VAR. That being said, having reviewed the highlights on Sky Sports YouTube channel, I think the challenge on Rose should have been a penalty too. So I guess it's evens there.

Secondly, if you don't think the Vertonghen challenge warranted a penalty, then that's your opinion. But please do not patronise me with this whole "Typical Gooner" bullshit when there were a plethora of fans of other clubs, analysts and pundits who thought it was also a penalty. It isn't just me who held that view.

Thirdly, you haven't been posting on here long enough to say that I'm "pretending" like I'm trying to be reasonable. I post on here fairly regularly and I rarely, if ever, WUM. I'm sure there are plenty of Spurs posters here that can vouch for me on that.

 

I am sure most of our posters respect your interesting and thoughtful posts.

 

A brief summary of the replies in Ricky Sack's feed
"We demand entertaining football!!!"

Another brief summary of what Ricky Sack's followers have been saying for weeks
"We want Steptonho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So, errm...what is it that you want?

 

A brain transplant?

 

...I'll resist the obvious wisecrack

 

I don’t any longer I’m afraid.

Poor selections, poor formations, zero tactical nous (always reactive, never proactive), poor comments to media (how many things has he blamed so far?!) and quite frankly I’m sick of having to watch the football we’ve witnessed for the past 15 or so months.

I don’t think he’s cut out for managing a side with experienced players and higher expectations. I think he prefers working with an underdog mentality and a young squad who can run about a lot - which is exciting but ultimately lacks an end game.

 

Your second point is the most salient here and it’s something I’ve been coming round to as well - Poch has undoubtedly proven himself as a ‘turnaround’ manager who can take a team of underperforming players, preferably youngsters, and make them better. He’s unproven at managing senior players and I don’t think he’s helped in this case that he’s ‘grown up’ with this group at Spurs so probably doesn’t feel he can be as ruthless with some of them as he was with the likes of the Kaboul Cabal when he came into the club. That sense of loyalty and closeness, combined with his hands being tied for various reasons in the transfer market, haven’t helped the stagnation.

I’m at a loss for what to do now. I admire and respect Poch for what he has done for the club and where he has taken this group but I can’t help but think that the time to make a change, if we were going to, would have been over the international break and our schedule for the coming months makes it hard.

 

Another game, another mess.

5-3-2 in the first half was fairly ridiculous, but the placement of our forwards after the break was just bizarre.
Son is fine on the right, as he can play anywhere across the front effectively, but our other options aren't as versatile.
Moura in the middle and Kane on the left, though? What the **** is that?

The timewasting rules need to be enforced or removed.
We always get the same performance from Foster and nothing ever happens.
Yesterday was embarrassingly blatant and people don't pay to watch that ****.

 

Yeah I agree, it’s a bitter pill to swallow as Poch has been my favourite manager in my lifetime but as I’ve said many times in the past, you can’t allow sentiment to cloud your judgement and unfortunately things are just getting too bad in my opinion to the point where I think someone new needs to bring something fresh to the table.

It feels like we’re at the periods we had with Jol and Harry. Managers who were great for us but seemingly took us as far as they could. Ironically, someone like Harry could be really good for this set of players at the moment, because unlike Poch, he seemed to prefer working with the older generation of players.

 

There are very few managers who can do both, really. Maybe Pep and Klopp stand out right now but it’s worth nothing that they’ve also been able to shape their squads with much more freedom than Poch has in recent years, especially Pep.

Like you say though it’s not just the motivational side that Poch seems to now lack, any sense of a coherent (or at least effective) gameplan seems to have gone out of the window. We’ve abandoned the press, even situationally, all our players seem to be static when they receive the ball rather than looking to get on a run or being on the half turn to send the ball ‘round the corner’, and generally we just don’t seem to be in a rush to do anything. There’s little movement on or off the ball, it seems. The players are too far apart as well which seems like a weird thing to say but it means that we’re always switching the play or playing longer passes rather than dynamic 1-2s in the middle of the park to open up some space to play into. It’s all so slow and static. I can’t think that a coach of Poch’s calibre is instructing them to play that way.

 

Why would you change for a manager more suited for an aging squad when several of the older players will move on in Jan/Next summer?

We have a manager capable of molding young players to play beyond their means and grow into great players. We will only sign more youthful potential players. Sure Mourinho might come in and win a league cup before Levy upsets him and he spreads his toxicity throughout the club.

I'd rather hand another 100mil to Poch than any other manager I can think of. Just needs to limp to the transfer window.

 

Surely our formation was 3-4-3 at the start? Even with Rose missing the crossfield ball one of the three backs ought to have picked up the Watford runner for the goal.
We have given a goal a game away for about 20 matches through daft individual mistakes. I don't know why and don't know the solution.

 

There was definitely booing at half time. One guy near me felt it necessary to shout "Aurier, get off the field you useless ****" when Aurier got close enough to hear him. Not sure what that is supposed to achieve.

 

I think that there would've been booing at the end too, but the ref somehow managed to **** that up and confuse everyone.

 

I think all that you describe is not the result of coaching or tactics it's about confidence. Results have gone wrong for a whole variety of reasons, injuries is not insignificant, pressure, the CL league run and now new players. Not forgetting the speculation around individual players futures with Spurs. Now while I would be all for bringing in Harry Redknapp for a confidence boost to the players, I even suggested it a couple of weeks ago, to talk of getting rid of the best manager we have had for years is just crazy. As usual fans go on about tactics as they always have, but seriously do you really think they have a greater understanding of what is required at Spurs atm than the man who for the last 5 years has watched them and trained them on a daily basis?
Now I can't see why he picks Rose but why should I be able to see why unless I knew the reasons behind it. I don't. I would pick Davies, but I have no idea if he is fit enough or if there other reasons to play Rose. Other reasons? Yes things like mind set, further disruption to fragile egos. I along with millions of fans have no idea about these issues because like them I am not working with the team. This is why we have a manager and in the end we can only judge by the results and for the last 5 years Pochettino has achieved better results than anyone, ANYONE since Burkinshaw and Nicholson. So after 9 games into a new season let's sack him .

 

Son's reaction to Watford's goal:


Was pretty similar to my own and that of most of the stadium, funnily enough.

 

That's what he needs...and that's not a 100 mill generated by selling his current assets. He needs ENIC to show some ambition for the game.

Won't work though because that won't be happening.