Mauricio Pochettino - Sacked

[indianspur]

Now the players have to stay an extra day in italy. I'm sure after losing they would rather get the heck outta there

Surely the players would have been better off coming home tonight and preparing for the final over here

 

[Joesh]

Well it seems Poch has put all his eggs in the league cup final basket so on Sunday we will see if he was right to

I still would have played our strongest team in Florence tonight, done our best to win, and played the same team on Sunday barring any injuries. The players are young, fit, confident, sometimes they just have to cope and get used to playing big games in close proximity to each other. That's life, they are well looked after, well rewarded.

Gutted we have gone out tonight without offering our best side.

I have to agree, what we are left with is ifs and buts. If we are celebrating an unlikely cup win Sunday, maybe all this will be forgotten though.

 

[Eriktheviking]

Disagree completely. So easy to be the 20/20 expert...

So playing half strength teams in the last 3 games has got us 2 draws and a loss. I don't understand this, why not play full strength 2 games and a second string for 1, which gives more chance of winning 2 out of 3. It's akin to going undefeated by drawing 10 games in a row but I'd rather win 4 out of 10 to get more points.

Poch is now in a position, rightly or wrongly, where this season is now hanging on one game at the end of February.

 

[DTA]

So playing half strength teams in the last 3 games has got us 2 draws and a loss. I don't understand this, why not play full strength 2 games and a second string for 1, which gives more chance of winning 2 out of 3. It's akin to going undefeated by drawing 10 games in a row but I'd rather win 4 out of 10 to get more points.

Poch is now in a position, rightly or wrongly, where this season is now hanging on one game at the end of February.

Don't think it's that bad dude, he is young for a manager and will make mistakes, if we lose on Sunday as long as we don't fall away in the league, it would still have been a good season, and this is coming from someone who wanted Fsw as manager and was somewhat critical of pouch for a while.

 

[Eriktheviking]

Don't think it's that bad dude, he is young for a manager and will make mistakes, if we lose on Sunday as long as we don't fall away in the league, it would still have been a good season, and this is coming from someone who wanted Fsw as manager and was somewhat critical of pouch for a while.

It's basics though, it's always basics. No clear plan or route and silly errors that fudge us over. Lack of vision or forethought. It's like me having 3 tasks to do in 2 days, completing a third of each rather than finishing 2 completely.

 

[milo]

Now the players have to stay an extra day in italy. I'm sure after losing they would rather get the heck outta there

Surely the players would have been better off coming home tonight and preparing for the final over here

Presumably the coaching team have decided that a full days rest ahead of the cup final will be of more benefit. I assume that we will do a warm down and preparation tomorrow, fly back after training and then keep it very light on Saturday. Given the number of games that we have played and how little time we have had between the two games, this does not seem to be an unreasonable approach to me.

 

[milo]

It's basics though, it's always basics. No clear plan or route and silly errors that fudge us over. Lack of vision or forethought. It's like me having 3 tasks to do in 2 days, completing a third of each rather than finishing 2 completely.

What vision do you think that we are lacking? I think that we have a very clear game plan and this has been one of the big improvements that we have seen this season.

 

[DTA]

What vision do you think that we are lacking? I think that we have a very clear game plan and this has been one of the big improvements that we have seen this season.

I would agree with this, although inconsistently

 

[NWND]

So playing half strength teams in the last 3 games has got us 2 draws and a loss. I don't understand this, why not play full strength 2 games and a second string for 1, which gives more chance of winning 2 out of 3. It's akin to going undefeated by drawing 10 games in a row but I'd rather win 4 out of 10 to get more points.

Poch is now in a position, rightly or wrongly, where this season is now hanging on one game at the end of February.

It isn't though is it? Poch has totally reinvented our style of play and the atmosphere at the club and in the stands. We've gone from push overs against the big clubs in the league to tough opponents and played a high tempo entertaining game. Its barely his squad and he's brought some good young players into the team while weeding out those who weren't pulling their weight. Its a successful first season for me providing we don't nose dive in the league. Not everything is hanging on one game. Very melodramatic! Can't win them all we have a small squad. Not in terms of numbers but in terms of players with the right mentality and skill set to play Poch's style

 

[milo]

So playing half strength teams in the last 3 games has got us 2 draws and a loss. I don't understand this, why not play full strength 2 games and a second string for 1, which gives more chance of winning 2 out of 3. It's akin to going undefeated by drawing 10 games in a row but I'd rather win 4 out of 10 to get more points.

Poch is now in a position, rightly or wrongly, where this season is now hanging on one game at the end of February.

But you do not know if we would have won those games even if we had played a full strength team. We also do not have the benefit of all of the fitness information that our coaching team get from training.

It seems to me that our managers get slated when they don't rotate and we lose and slated when we do and lose. The only constant is that after the event some posters will claim that they should have taken the opposite approach.

90% of teams season is over before February and it was not so long ago when we were in this group. Whatever happens on Sunday we will still be pushing for a European place again.

 

[milo]

I would agree with this, although inconsistently

It is not often that a change is implemented with immediate and consistent results, especially with largely the same personnel.

 

[DTA]

It is not often that a change is implemented with immediate and consistent results, especially with largely the same personnel.

It's a fair point

 

[Eriktheviking]

What vision do you think that we are lacking? I think that we have a very clear game plan and this has been one of the big improvements that we have seen this season.

We simply don't pick our battles. We have plan A and no plan B. If we don't play our best 11 we are pushovers. We are the same old Tottenham in that I know exactly when a brick performance is coming. Yes we have improved and poch is getting there but in games where we need to perform we don't. Let downs all the time.

 

[milo]

We simply don't pick our battles. We have plan A and no plan B. If we don't play our best 11 we are pushovers. We are the same old Tottenham in that I know exactly when a crud performance is coming. Yes we have improved and poch is getting there but in games where we need to perform we don't. Let downs all the time.

So which of our last few games should we have prioritised?

 

[Eriktheviking]

Either West Ham or both legs of the Europa. Or 1st leg of the Euopa (try get a decent lead to take to 2nd leg) and West Ham, leaving a second string to play the 2nd leg.

Instead we have tried to be a jack of all trades, master of none.

 

[Cochise]

I'd have liked to have seen the same. Full strength side for the home tie and Wham, a weeks rest for most of them whilst the 2nd string defend a lead against Fiorentina.

 

[tynesidespur]

Either West Ham or both legs of the Europa. Or 1st leg of the Euopa (try get a decent lead to take to 2nd leg) and West Ham, leaving a second string to play the 2nd leg.

I personally would've gone with the last option. Play full strength team in 1st leg and go for it. Same against West Ham. Send a shadow squad over there tonight. Regardless of the 1st leg score I would not have sent over anymore than 2 starters for the cup final. If, with a full strength team we'd still drawn the 1st leg I would've stuck to that and effectively thrown the tie. That said, with the amount of possession and chances we had in the first half last week, I'm sure that Harry Kane & the like would've had us in a comfortable position. Being clinical is absolutely key in cup football. Soldado is the complete antithesis to that!

What we've ended up doing is somewhere between the 2. Some players have been rested, others have played between 30 and 90 mins. The end result is we have neither gone out all guns blazing nor rested key players and so are not in a great position for Sunday.

Its Poch's decision and I hope he comes up trumps on Sunday just not the way I think it should've been done.

 

[milo]

Either West Ham or both legs of the Europa. Or 1st leg of the Euopa (try get a decent lead to take to 2nd leg) and West Ham, leaving a second string to play the 2nd leg.

Instead we have tried to be a jack of all trades, master of none.

This is what you said you thought we should prioritise back at the beginning of the year. Are you suggesting that we should have played a scratch side in the games that were not the priority fixtures rather than mixing it up?

It's all about winning things so imho getting to the League Cup Final is imperative, once there it is the performance on the day that determines it. After that I'd say PL, EL, FAC.

 

[Eriktheviking]

This is what you said you thought we should prioritise back at the beginning of the year. Are you suggesting that we should have played a scratch side in the games that were not the priority fixtures rather than mixing it up?

Yes. Stop this half and half brick, either play the best side available for your priority games and play the second string for the others taking into account timing. It's unfortunate that the cup final is so close to the EL second leg but fudge it, put everything into the cup final, give the players a week off to prepare properly for it. No doubt Levy has had his say and said EL is more important than the cup final as it could get us in the CL and make him more money.

 

[milo]

Yes. Stop this half and half crud, either play the best side available for your priority games and play the second string for the others taking into account timing. It's unfortunate that the cup final is so close to the EL second leg but fudge it, put everything into the cup final, give the players a week off to prepare properly for it. No doubt Levy has had his say and said EL is more important than the cup final as it could get us in the CL and make him more money.

So you would have been ok with us lining up today or last Sunday like this? Presumably, if the cup final is your priority then it would have been the two Europa games than you would have preferred to have fielded scratch sides in.

Vorm

Chiriches Fazio Kaboul Davies

Capoue Stambouli

Townsend Paulinho Chadli

Soldado