I’ve also been very frustrated with Pochettino’s tendency not to repeat choices that worked. But it’s been a manic depressive year. Good: At our best, we play better football than we have since Bale left. The academy products are shining. Eriksen is on track to becoming a big player. He may already be a big player. Vertonghen has turned over a new leaf. I swear I’m starting to like him. Townsend is better as well. We suddenly have two good fullbacks on both sides. (I’ve gotten to think Chiriches is a strangely effective RB.) We’re doing very well against teams around our level (Everton, Swansea, Southampton, Arsenal, Newcastle) We’ve got three players scoring. The players are in good shape, and are often very energetic. Pochettino’s rotation policy would seem hard to improve. Some of his subs have been inspired as well, like Mason. It’s a very young team, and looking more and more like quite a talented one. We’re only two points behind Arsenal. We’re still in all the cups. The away support Bad We can’t beat the teams we’re supposed to beat/we don’t have a clue about what to do when teams sit back. We’re awful at home. We play too narrowly (till the Newcastle game). Pochettino seems to have learning issues. Pochettino’s lack of enthusiasm can be contagious. Sometimes the players are completely lethargic. We’re very vulnerable defensively. It doesn’t seem to occur very often to our CBs and DBs to get between the ball and Lloris. Our points total is quite poor. The home support in the PL The question in the end is whether Pochettino is right to sacrifice points to get the team playing his system properly. I would have said very likely no, until very recently. Now I’m not so sure. Eriksen in the middle running the show seems to help so much. We’ve generally been decent about getting forward reasonably quickly, which does a lot to explain why we’re nowhere near as toothless as under AVB. Lennon may be hurt. In any case, Townsend is actually okay on the right, inverted winger or no. He keeps defenders on the right reasonably busy, which is the main thing. That’s all Eriksen, Chadli and Kane need to score. I would still say I wished we hadn’t sacked Sherwood. But Pochettino may--may--be starting to change my mind.
Ivory Coast striker that plays for CSKA Moscow. Scored 3 times against City in their two Champions League games this season. Seems to score a lot of goals when he plays, but doesn't play a ton of games in every campaign, for some reason.
It is funny how completely lethargic our players have looked in a couple of games against weaker teams, Palace being the latest. Maybe Pochettino needs to finish his pre-game talks with Redknapp’s advice to Pavulychenko.
