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Morgan Schneiderlin

Pochettino played with two holding midfielders at Southampton, Schneiderlin and Wanyama.
He changed formation a bit when they got injuries, but it was always down to the positioning, role and type of the front four.
4 at the back, attacking full backs, two holding midfielders, for most part one up front was always the case.
Holding midfielders aren't pure defensive anchors, and they can move forward to interchange with one of the more attacking midfielders.
Think he'll look for more complete players in the holding roles, Schneiderlin is perfect for Pochettino and I think Capoue will also be well liked by our new boss
 
From L'Equipe. Apparently. Interview with Morgan.

You spoke about pressing earlier, does Pochettino like to isolate the player in possession, or does he prefer playing 1v1 all across the field?

First of all, we have to close the central zones. He keeps saying it’s the heart of play and there’s always more options from the central zones: switches of play etc…

He emphasises on blocking passing lanes. Anyway when I do press, I try to leave the worst passing option possible to the opponent.

Pochettino asks us not to give the opponent the choice. But it requires a massive amount of work from a collective point of view. It’s not surprising after six or seven months working on it that we’re now able to harass and fully imbalance some of the teams we face.

We couldn’t do that from the start as it’s a massive work put in at training.

He wants us to recover the ball as high as possible, so for that it’s usually up to a forward to trigger the pressing ; so then we’ve to follow.

Personally, I sometimes have to leave my zone to help on one side if a winger who was out of position because he was in a forward zone and couldn’t fall back in time.

I’m the closest to the ball to intervene so then even if I’m tired, I’m kicking my ass. So then, the winger has to fill my zone and then we switch positions.

This is the basic philosophy.

We have precise drills and patterns depending of the situation. On goal kicks, if they attack from the right side etc.

Pochettino is all about detail, really. I recall that he showed us from the start that a meter or half a meter could block two passing lanes in midfield.

We just had to move a step ahead or orientating our body a given way to face the opponent in order to put him into trouble


How is all that implemented on daily basis at training?

You’re ought to know we play a 11v11 game every Wednesday. It’s often against the reserves, or the academy ; youths basically but intensity is maximal.

The staff implements several patterns of play depending of the situations. And as we changed the system – because Pochettino likes to play with a 10 and a lone striker – because Osvaldo and Lambert are both out and out forwards, it requires adaptation

We work on patterns to get the ball out from the back on goal kicks: the last two games, both CM had to get to both angles of the penalty box while the two CB had to spread to both sides of the box.

Full backs have to get close to the byline and the midway line. The purpose is to get the ball out from the back on ground and not hoofing the ball on Lambert.

If the pass toward Wanyama isn’t possible, we have the two center backs. If opponents close us down, so then both full backs are unmarked in a free zone. The aim is to find them as soon as possible in order to write off the most opposing players as we can.

If ever we don’t have a short option, that means that the opponent has closed us down as a team ans so then we’ve to play long on Lambert because it will be 1v1 in the air. But we often change that pattern because opponents adapts after a couple of games.


While attacking, there’s also the will to pass the ball on the floor and stretch opposing defences. Hence how crucial is your role as you’re a specialist to switch the play?

We must know how to oxygenate play, dictating the rhythm, surprise the opponent. Pochettino asks me to switch the play often because he likes that.

He wants us to develop a genuine playing identity. Even falling back as a team is necessary, he gives us license to attack. He wants his full backs to get into attacking positions, put under pressure opponent’s wingers. We always have to scan around.
 
Great read. That is coaching. Conveying his ideas to the players. The fact that it sounds like Schneiderlein got it is huge credit to Pochettino. I think perhaps AVBs difficulty was not being able to convey his ideas well. And if he was then maybe he needed to be more flexible in his tactics.

A serious question. What do you think training with Tim Sherwood was like?
 
Very expensive for us unless Pochetinno really believes that Capoue, Sandro, Dembele, Paulinho, Bentaleb, Veljovic and Holtby all lack the necessary qualities to make a decent deep lying DM/playmaker.

If this is the fulcrum of his vision and he feels he needs him then I hope the club backs him and gets his player for him.

It would mean we move on some of our surplus midfielders. We have so many
 
LutonSpurs said:
Very expensive for us unless Pochetinno really believes that Capoue, Sandro, Dembele, Paulinho, Bentaleb, Veljovic and Holtby all lack the necessary qualities to make a decent deep lying DM/playmaker.

If this is the fulcrum of his vision and he feels he needs him then I hope the club backs him and gets his player for him.

It would mean we move on some of our surplus midfielders. We have so many
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I'd still like to see Capoue or Bentaleb as the 'sitter/passer' type player, alongside Sandro/Dembele as the box-to-box tackler/presser/general cause of chaos player. You could go more attacking by having Holtby as the partner for Capoue/Bentaleb.
 
the dza said:
I'd still like to see Capoue or Bentaleb as the 'sitter/passer' type player, alongside Sandro/Dembele as the box-to-box tackler/presser/general cause of chaos player. You could go more attacking by having Holtby as the partner for Capoue/Bentaleb.
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Other than Holtby and Bentaleb none of them transition the ball forward quickly enough for what I understand the Poch system needs. Unless Pochetinno can coach them in to this I can see why he wants Morgan.
 
Capoue looked the part against Toronto, I thought. But again, preseason, Toronto... hard to tell.
 
Cochise said:
Clasie would cost £6-8 million??
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Clasie is a good passer and may well adapt to this role. I think the difficulty for Poch is that the two DMs need to be positionally aware and be able to receive the ball in tight situations and move it forward accurately and quickly.
These sort of players are rare, Clasie may well learn but Morgan has learnt, hence I can see why Poch would want him. Most of our players do not have the tools to do this although Mason seemed most comfortable with it.
Of course, Hudd might be particularly suited to this role and before people say he would not be able to keep up the tempo, the drills I saw, required the three behind the striker to press, the DMs had to read the play, cover and pick-off the ball. Hence, Mason looked good, and so would Hudd. Shame unlikely to happen.
 
Hemant said:
Clasie is a good passer and may well adapt to this role. I think the difficulty for Poch is that the two DMs need to be positionally aware and be able to receive the ball in tight situations and move it forward accurately and quickly.
These sort of players are rare, Clasie may well learn but Morgan has learnt, hence I can see why Poch would want him. Most of our players do not have the tools to do this although Mason seemed most comfortable with it.
Of course, Hudd might be particularly suited to this role and before people say he would not be able to keep up the tempo, the drills I saw, required the three behind the striker to press, the DMs had to read the play, cover and pick-off the ball. Hence, Mason looked good, and so would Hudd. Shame unlikely to happen.
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They also had to receive the ball from the keeper or defenders. It is this aspect which I think will cost us goals as not only is losing the ball in your own third dangerous but centrally usually means a goal to the opposition.
 
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