Spurs; thank god for other failures, and then there is Pochettino.

[Glenn R]

Spurs; thank god for other failures, and then there is Pochettino.

   In my last article we had just drawn against Sunderland (a match we should have won), this then was followed by a Europa goalless draw against Partizan Belgrade, at their FK Partizan Stadium. That was an okish result and we played reasonably well. Saying that we had 64% of the possession so maybe we should have expected something better. Then we moved on to a team that was struggling at the bottom of the table, WBA. As I sat ready and waiting for the massacre to begin, I said to the guy next to me, at the match, “If we can’t beat them we might as well go home.” Well we did go home, but after the match, and with our heads held down. We had 62% of the possession and nothing to show for it. We had one shot to their four. We are talking about a team that was at the bottom of the table without a win to their name (that is up and until they met us, that is). What went wrong? The lone striker up front had failed us again; in particularly Adebayor. A total waste of space. Why we didn’t buy another striker before the season began, God only knows. If it wasn’t for the other teams performing badly (apart from Ars*nal, who won that weekend) we might have written off our chances of ending the season in the top four.

   Our next match was against the Championships leading team, Nottingham Forest, in the Capital one cup. Spurs put a good team together for this match (9 changes from the WBA game), but it didn’t show in the first half. Nottingham Forest played well and deserved to be on equal footing with a Premier League team (who on paper should have been far superior). The second half started well (for Forest). They went a goal up (Grant in 61 minutes). We hung our heads down again, thinking, “Here we go again”. A phrase that is starting to become too familiar for us of late. Then a couple of inspired substitutions by Pochettino. Mason for Stambouli and Kane for Paulinho (both in the 64th minute). Eight minutes later Mason scored, followed by Soldado 11 minutes after Mason spectacular goal. Kane, the other substitution, scored for Spurs in the 90th minute. Forest was finally dead and buried.

   After the match Pochettino said "We always believed that we can come back into the game, always believed that it was possible to recover the result. Now I am happy, happy for the players because it was a great effort. Never in doubt. Going 1-0 down was difficult, but we got a great reaction, an important reaction for our supporters, who encouraged us and backed us. It was great after the result. We won and I am happy for the players." 

   Pochettino had made 11 changes from the WBA game. Soldado is a player that works better up front with another striker. Mason showed his potential and worked well behind the two strikers. So the logical conclusion should have been to put Kane and Soldado up front with Mason in midfield. I would probably have also used Fazio and Stambouli for the up and coming game against our old adversary.

   Along comes Saturday and the cap-shooters (or, as some may call them, “The Gunners”). What did Maurice Pochettino do? Well, he included Mason (great), but dropped Kane and Able (sorry, Soldado) in favour of Adebayor. Which I couldn’t understand. Soldado had scored two goals this season. Kane also had scored two goals (three if you count the own goal). Both times they scored their goals when they were together in the same team. What does that tell you? That those two together are a lot better than Adebayor alone. There was also no room for Kazio and Stambouli. The team he picked was Lloris, Vertonghen, Naughton, Kaboul, Rose (Dier - 83’), Capoue, Chadli (Bentaleb - 80' ), Mason, Lamela, Eriksen (Lennon - 62') and Adebayor. For that what did we get? Well, putting the draw to one side for a moment, we got 31% of the possession to Ars*nal’s 69%. They had six goals on target to our four, but we got a draw.

  Mauricio Pochettino had said after the game: "I think it is a good result for us. Maybe Ars*nal controlled the game and had the ball more than us but we played well and defended well. We scored a great goal. This is our philosophy, which is difficult to keep for 90 minutes at the moment, but we are on our way."

   Were we lucky or was it just down to good defending? Whichever way you look at it our problems are still up front. Why is he staying faithful to Adebayor? He has a track record of blowing hot and cold; he is well passed his sell by date. Soldado is not a player that plays alone up front. He works well with another striker (that would be Kane, not Adebayor). In the Forest game Pochettino made an inspiring substitution, as I said. But for one of the most important games of the season he decides to stick with Adebayor. AVB eventually dropped him because of his attitude. He started well with Sherwood and then withered with time. So nothing unusual there then. Maybe we should look back at Pochettino’s comments, after the Ars*nal game, when he said, “We scored a great goal. This is our philosophy, which is difficult to keep for 90 minutes at the moment, but we are on our way." The word that sticks out is “philosophy”. Whatever he does have in his mind doesn’t include Kane and Able, therefore he is stuck with Adebayor. Now I don’t have a problem with that, providing we are winning. But we are staggering. Whatever he has planned, he needs to sort it out, and sort it out quickly.

   The teams that are candidates for possible top four positions are Chelsea, City, Liverpool, Everton, United (maybe), and the Arse. I am quite confident in saying that Chelsea and City will be there. That leaves two places and five teams (including us) fighting for those two positions. Yesterday the Arse, Liverpool, and Everton drew, while United won. Liverpool and Everton are below us, while United have the same points as us. Ars*nal is two points above us in fourth. This would mean, apart from Chelsea & City, that the other teams have obliged us with getting poor results (so far). We are relying too much on the other teams to drop points. If it wasn’t for those teams we would have been considered a write off for the rest of our season.

   Our next two matches are going to be very interesting games. Besiktas in the Europa match and Pochettino’s old team Southampton, who are doing quite well at the moment. Both matches will be at White Hart Lane. Then we move on to some serious s**t; City, away. Lose the first two at home, then God help us against City, is all I can say.
 
   A personal message to Maurice Pochettino; For God’s sake get your philosophy right or you will end up like AVB and the lacklustre Tim Sherwood, and we don’t want that, you don’t want that! Getting your philosophy right halfway through the season and then shouting “Eureka, I’ve found the right mixture for Spurs to Premier league domination,” while the rest of the teams’ have passed you/ us by and we are mid-table or worse, won’t give your philosophy Brownie points! What it could end up giving you is a quick swift kick up the arse-nal and into outer space and oblivion. Or am I being unfair and the finger shouldn’t be pointed at you, but higher up the food chain and you are doing the best with a bad job lot, just like your predecessors?

[RSS61]

Good points raised Voice. I seem to think it boils down to a similar problem that AVB experienced, in that Poch really doesn't have the players he needs to play the kind of football that he wants to, ie passing out from the back, quick movement through a midfield that gets up with and supports a lone striker, who then doesn't keep missing, and who are prepared to immediately track back and regain possession when it breaks down.
All of which begs the question : What conversation did Poch, and AVB before him, have with Levy about what the club expects, what the manager expects, and which players are needed to achieve those goals. Something is seriously not working with this Levy / Baldini / Manager system.
The fact that we are still linked with Schneiderlin and Rodrigues would indicate that if given the time, and the players he wants, then Poch might have some chance of turning things around.
I hope for one that he is given all he needs. I do realise that getting the players we need is never going to be easy in this greed filled, instant success football world we all live in.

[Paul Finch]

        Not a bad piece Voice, unfortunately you have joined the Adebayor knockers, you can't blame Ade, he works hard and tries to bring other players into the game, for him to operate effectively he needs support and at the moment he has NONE, simply because our MIDFIELD is non-existent, against both WBA and the Arse... when the defence was under pressure all they did was hoof the ball out in the general direction of Ade, hoping he could hold off 2 defenders if, again I say IF, the ball did in fact reach him, and in most cases it didn't, and as a consequence it went straight back, thus putting our defence under even more pressure. How can you possibly expect him to hold the ball, when he has to keep 2 defenders at bay, while our midfield catches up to him, I would say in most cases it is virtually impossible. Whilst I think Mason is certainly a player for the future, last weeks game was not the right game to give him his PL debut, not when we have a player of Stambouli's quality, who I might add, wasn't even on the bench. I sometimes really don't understand some of Poch's  selections and substitutions. Just my opinion. 

[RiffHard]

...when we have a player of Stambouli's quality, who I might add, wasn't even on the bench. I sometimes really don't understand some of Poch's  selections and substitutions.

Maybe Stambouli et al are Baldini's signings?

[dimexi]

...when we have a player of Stambouli's quality, who I might add, wasn't even on the bench. I sometimes really don't understand some of Poch's  selections and substitutions.

Maybe Stambouli et al are Baldini's signings?

That would make sense!

[Glenn R]

        Not a bad piece Voice, unfortunately you have joined the Adebayor knockers, you can't blame Ade, he works hard and tries to bring other players into the game, for him to operate effectively he needs support and at the moment he has NONE, simply because our MIDFIELD is non-existent, against both WBA and the Arse... when the defence was under pressure all they did was hoof the ball out in the general direction of Ade, hoping he could hold off 2 defenders if, again I say IF, the ball did in fact reach him, and in most cases it didn't, and as a consequence it went straight back, thus putting our defence under even more pressure. How can you possibly expect him to hold the ball, when he has to keep 2 defenders at bay, while our midfield catches up to him, I would say in most cases it is virtually impossible. Whilst I think Mason is certainly a player for the future, last weeks game was not the right game to give him his PL debut, not when we have a player of Stambouli's quality, who I might add, wasn't even on the bench. I sometimes really don't understand some of Poch's  selections and substitutions. Just my opinion. 

Thanks. I don’t think it is a case of joining Ade’s knockers, but just looking at the facts. Concerning him and AVB; he (Ade) admitted that he didn’t play to his full potential and let his family down. Under Sherwood he started strong and faded. Under Pochettino he has only scored one goal. However, Kane and Soldado – together have done better. Now the argument could be that he isn’t getting the ball (which is a fair point) and I did say that no matter who is up front so long as we score.

Anyway, on another note; if you believe the papers we will be buying a striker in the transfer window.

[Glenn R]

Good points raised Voice. I seem to think it boils down to a similar problem that AVB experienced, in that Poch really doesn't have the players he needs to play the kind of football that he wants to, ie passing out from the back, quick movement through a midfield that gets up with and supports a lone striker, who then doesn't keep missing, and who are prepared to immediately track back and regain possession when it breaks down.

That is a good point. the Players Pochettino has, or at least most of them, he inherited. That is why he needs to be given time.

[Spursx]

An interesting article above but I don't think we should be judging Pochettino at the moment. He has just arrived so I expect him to take some time to settle in. He also has to build his team and when I say his team I mean the players he brings in, not those that he inherited.

As for one or two strikers up front or whether we have the right strikers, again I shall wait and see. We have only played a handful of games so  it is too early to judge. That is my opinion.

[spursjoolz]

An interesting article above but I don't think we should be judging Pochettino at the moment. He has just arrived so I expect him to take some time to settle in. He also has to build his team and when I say his team I mean the players he brings in, not those that he inherited.

As for one or two strikers up front or whether we have the right strikers, again I shall wait and see. We have only played a handful of games so  it is too early to judge. That is my opinion.

Time to settle down? Would December 31st be long enough? We should see a difference by then and start the new year on the front foot. The Ars*nal draw was unexpected and we need 3 points on both home games this week.  If, as you say, we have the strikers, the it shoudn't be a problem. As long as Pochettino knows what is is doing, we could also finish the year on a high, but I am not so sure!

[Blackjack]

Most of this I agree with except for the Ade part and Sherwood part, firstly Soldado would have had the same problem as Ade upfront against Ars*nal or anyone else as yes the one upfront is absolutly ridiculous!, unless we have Messi or Bale back!, we used to be a team with lightning pace but now a snail could catch us when we break!, Lennon has lost a yard of pace Chadli for a winger has none, Erricksen  Paulihno, Cappoue Dembelle Bentaleb have none , Townsend has but ofton we only see glimses of his potential and he cuts inside then theirs our record signing Lamela!, who for a winger is very slow, he has no physical strength but is gifted technialy!, but is he really what we need?, when you look at those crop off players you see good defensive midfielders with a few attacking ones that need the ball to feet and like to play slow moving football!, which is where we are now, Erricksen and Lamela are the technical players we have to make our team tick but with out two upfront they are usually in areas that dont hurt other teams because we have either given the ball away in our half or we have won possession back in our half and their is no out let as Ade is being marked by two or three defenders on the half way line!, yes Voice you are right we should be playing Kane in a two upfront formation with Ade or Soldado playing 4-4-2, Kane with his work rate chases the ball down in the opponents half putting pressure on them and giving uus opputunities to win the ball back and keep other teams on the back foot, we also then as we saw in the Forrest game give the other striker(Soldado ) liscense to roam dragging defenders out of position creating space for our midfield players to move into. Tim Sherwood when he took charge went straight back to 4-4-2 and after it taking us something like 8 or 9 games to score 15-17 goals with AVB we scored that in about 5 with Tim, we where playing much more attack minded system and our league results with him where the highest percentage of ANY MANANGER who has managed  Spurs in the premier league!, so to sack him was nothing but stupid but alas that is history now, anyway Pochettino comes in saying we are going to close teams down high up the pitch, play fast flowing football blah blah blah and what happens we play one upfront, play in our own half, have some lovely passing and possesion but NO cutting edge!, we Dont close teams down in their half and we look a million miles away from the top 4, we are top 7 at best and yet again have gone backwards.

[Glenn R]

An interesting article above but I don't think we should be judging Pochettino at the moment. He has just arrived so I expect him to take some time to settle in. He also has to build his team and when I say his team I mean the players he brings in, not those that he inherited.

As for one or two strikers up front or whether we have the right strikers, again I shall wait and see. We have only played a handful of games so  it is too early to judge. That is my opinion.

Time to settle down? Would December 31st be long enough? We should see a difference by then and start the new year on the front foot. The Ars*nal draw was unexpected and we need 3 points on both home games this week.  If, as you say, we have the strikers, the it shoudn't be a problem. As long as Pochettino knows what is is doing, we could also finish the year on a high, but I am not so sure!

It took Alex Ferguson 5 years to settle down and look what he achieved. So I doubt the 31st will be long enough.

[Blackjack]

Lol yeah and MU nearly got relegated in his first season in charge! alas those days are well gone!, its quick success or bye bye now and our club has been one of the worst for sacking managers in the last 20 years!, what I still cannot get my head round is why we never brought in any players of real pace!, we let Welbeck slip if there ever was a deal in the first place but that transfer was a prime example!, Ars*nal got a real bargain there at half the price Lamela cost us!, alot of it must be blamed on our scouts who I think must be of kindergarden intellegance! and a Chairmen that manages the buissness of the club well but does not see the real bigger picture!, we have really dropped of the pace and short of some players with Bolts speed coming in we are only going to keep fading untill we eventually start fighting just to get into the Europe let alone the CL.

[spursjoolz]

An interesting article above but I don't think we should be judging Pochettino at the moment. He has just arrived so I expect him to take some time to settle in. He also has to build his team and when I say his team I mean the players he brings in, not those that he inherited.

As for one or two strikers up front or whether we have the right strikers, again I shall wait and see. We have only played a handful of games so  it is too early to judge. That is my opinion.

Time to settle down? Would December 31st be long enough? We should see a difference by then and start the new year on the front foot. The Ars*nal draw was unexpected and we need 3 points on both home games this week.  If, as you say, we have the strikers, the it shoudn't be a problem. As long as Pochettino knows what is is doing, we could also finish the year on a high, but I am not so sure!

It took Alex Ferguson 5 years to settle down and look what he achieved. So I doubt the 31st will be long enough.

It would be a grave error to compare SAF with MP (!) even at this early stage.  I don't think any of us is daft enough to believe that, should we be on the blink of relegation at the end of the season, Pochettino would still be in charge next season.

[Spursx]

An interesting article above but I don't think we should be judging Pochettino at the moment. He has just arrived so I expect him to take some time to settle in. He also has to build his team and when I say his team I mean the players he brings in, not those that he inherited.

As for one or two strikers up front or whether we have the right strikers, again I shall wait and see. We have only played a handful of games so  it is too early to judge. That is my opinion.

Time to settle down? Would December 31st be long enough? We should see a difference by then and start the new year on the front foot. The Ars*nal draw was unexpected and we need 3 points on both home games this week.  If, as you say, we have the strikers, the it shoudn't be a problem. As long as Pochettino knows what is is doing, we could also finish the year on a high, but I am not so sure!

I don't know. But we just can't keep sacking managers.

[Glenn R]

An interesting article above but I don't think we should be judging Pochettino at the moment. He has just arrived so I expect him to take some time to settle in. He also has to build his team and when I say his team I mean the players he brings in, not those that he inherited.

As for one or two strikers up front or whether we have the right strikers, again I shall wait and see. We have only played a handful of games so  it is too early to judge. That is my opinion.

Time to settle down? Would December 31st be long enough? We should see a difference by then and start the new year on the front foot. The Ars*nal draw was unexpected and we need 3 points on both home games this week.  If, as you say, we have the strikers, the it shoudn't be a problem. As long as Pochettino knows what is is doing, we could also finish the year on a high, but I am not so sure!

I don't know. But we just can't keep sacking managers.

I agree. We've had 9 managers under Levy. We need to give Pochettino time.