Mauricio Pochettino - Sacked

[Robspur12]

He got utterly schooled by Guardiola today, for one. Like watching a red-nosed five-year-old trying to outplay Magnus Carlsen at chess.

But what's worse, he refused to correct his own mistake. And that's saddening to see. He got it badly, badly wrong starting Trippier against Sane - it was obvious, brutally obvious, at half-time. If Trippier was left for dead, he was utterly *useless* - no pace, no strength, no positioning. He was out of the game with one ball in behind him - no recovery possible. This was obvious. To *everyone*. At half time. From the dullest dimwit of a spectator like me to all the smartest people in attendance - *everyone* was watching it happen, seeing it happen.

Poch saw it - he's too smart not to have seen it.

And he did *nothing*. Refused, point-blank, to sub Trippier off, to correct that imbalance that was seeing us concede chances again, and again, and again down the right hand side.

Chance, after chance down the right. No change.

2-0, from a move down the right. No change.

Chance, after chance down the right. No change.

3-0, from a move down the right. No change.

Time, after time, after time.

No change.

Poch hates subs - hates them, for reasons I can't fathom. But I also thinks he hates being proven wrong, to the extent that he won't change something when being taught a footballing lesson as a result of his own damn errors. Too stubborn for that ,clearly.

And that is desperately, desperately disappointing. He's talented. He's young. He's one to keep.

But he is arrogantly, carelessly stubborn, to the point where his occasional tactical ineptitude clearly becomes a point of pride that he refuses to account for because, as I mentioned, he hates subs. And it showed, brutally, today.

Didn't he "school" guardiola last season when Emirates Marketing Project didn't have the key elements of their squad like we didn't today?

 

[DubaiSpur]

Didn't he "school" guardiola last season when Emirates Marketing Project didn't have the key elements of their squad like we didn't today?

He absolutely did, although I don't remember if Guardiola was actually missing anyone. When I think of that game, I think 'first eleven versus first eleven', with Poch giving Guardiola an unpleasant shock after his light introduction to the Premier League.

In the year since, Guardiola has bought well, trained his team well and grown as a manager. And my point was (and remains) that despite having a squad also dealing with injuries, much like ours was, Guardiola would not have made the schoolboy mistake of putting Trippier up against the fastest player in the league when trying to match the opposition in an open game - and nor would he have stubbornly refused to change that even when the whole world was being shown just how foolish a decision that was.

Poch was outclassed, outthought and left puffing his cheeks today. It happens. What's important is that, in the future, I hope he seriously reconsiders this strange, dogged reluctance to use any subs before the 89th minute, or change a game when it's clearly going horribly, horribly wrong. Pride is secondary - pragmatism is key.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

He absolutely did, although I don't remember if Guardiola was actually missing anyone. When I think of that game, I think 'first eleven versus first eleven', with Poch giving Guardiola an unpleasant shock after his light introduction to the Premier League.

In the year since, Guardiola has bought well, trained his team well and grown as a manager. And my point was (and remains) that despite having a squad also dealing with injuries, much like ours was, Guardiola would not have made the schoolboy mistake of putting Trippier up against the fastest player in the league when trying to match the opposition in an open game - and nor would he have stubbornly refused to change that even when the whole world was being shown just how foolish a decision that was.

Poch was outclassed, outthought and left puffing his cheeks today. It happens. What's important is that, in the future, I hope he seriously reconsiders this strange, dogged reluctance to use any subs before the 89th minute, or change a game when it's clearly going horribly, horribly wrong. Pride is secondary - pragmatism is key.

I assume you mean the game at the Kane when we missed Kane and tore them up?

 

[90291Spur]

Time for Poch to dig deep and improve. He’s been bloody buggery brilliant for us up until this bumpy recent patch. I know we are missing key players and have some seriously out of form, but this is where we rely on our Head coach to sort things out.

 

[Legohamster]

Time for Poch to dig deep and improve. He’s been bloody buggery brilliant for us up until this bumpy recent patch. I know we are missing key players and have some seriously out of form, but this is where we rely on our Head coach to sort things out.

He needs to come up with a new tactic for these away games, nothing wrong with a bit of bus parking despite what is said on here.....

 

[the goat]

I don't think Poch has an idea about tactics, he realied on players fitness to get us there,
we need to play long ball sometime, but that needs practice so the attackers know roughly where the ball will be hit to,
why has Hugo not improved his kicking, he has never been able to kick the ball where he wants it to go, so why in training has he not been made to practice kicking day in day out,
a coaches role is to improve players, I don't think poch is doing that
why isn't Foyth getting 10-15 mins in so games, he could have had 20mins against Stoke we were 4-0 up then, we may need Foyth at some point, he did the same last year with Wimmer (yes wimmer was poor, but without ptch time how will he get experience)

 

[Gazza]

I don't think Poch has an idea about tactics, he realied on players fitness to get us there,
we need to play long ball sometime, but that needs practice so the attackers know roughly where the ball will be hit to,
why has Hugo not improved his kicking, he has never been able to kick the ball where he wants it to go, so why in training has he not been made to practice kicking day in day out,
a coaches role is to improve players, I don't think poch is doing that
why isn't Foyth getting 10-15 mins in so games, he could have had 20mins against Stoke we were 4-0 up then, we may need Foyth at some point, he did the same last year with Wimmer (yes wimmer was poor, but without ptch time how will he get experience)

That's quality.

 

[Lemonade Money]

What annoyed me was if we're having trouble playing out from lloris, resulting in vertonghen booting it upfield under pressure, why doesn't lloris kick upfield without pressure, and Kane has at least a chance to get on the end? If we're going to give the ball to city, do it in their half not ours.
Dele needs dropping, and brought back slowly, as blind faith is not working.

 

[the goat]

What annoyed me was if we're having trouble playing out from lloris, resulting in vertonghen booting it upfield under pressure, why doesn't lloris kick upfield without pressure, and Kane has at least a chance to get on the end? If we're going to give the ball to city, do it in their half not ours.
Dele needs dropping, and brought back slowly, as blind faith is not working.

because Lloris can't kick the ball where he wants it to go, no-ones sure where the ball is going when hugo kicks it so our players don't have an advantage over their players,
but when you practice, everyone knows if Diers hits it he will get the ball roughly here, Jan will put the ball here, hugo will put it here or here, giving our attackers time to fool defenders to go to wrong place

 

[lurker of old]

What annoyed me was if we're having trouble playing out from lloris, resulting in vertonghen booting it upfield under pressure, why doesn't lloris kick upfield without pressure, and Kane has at least a chance to get on the end?
I say this every time I watch us play. Hugo has the worst, least powerful kick of any goalkeeper I can remember. Great stopper but can't kick for toffee, drives me nuts.....

 

[Maltese Falcon]

Like all of you I am raw from yesterday. I love Poch and above all love his honesty. He is the anti-Mourinho and we are so lucky to have him. I do wish however he is a touch more pragmatic and flexible. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but yesterday's game to me had three critical factors:
1. City are miles better than us as they are miles better than any other PL team. Playing them at their game would only have succeeded if every player had a perfect game and City had a mare.
2. If there was a game when three at the back was essential, it was this one.
3. We needed the paciest fullbacks we posses.

Of course, losing two out of three central defenders was a killer. However, there was still the option of a back five of:

Rose - Davies - Vertonghen - Dier - Aurier

The other thing was that the game was crying for a similar approach as that at the Bernabeu. We did it once and we could have had a go at doing it again...

 

[NaijaSpurs]

Poch was outclassed, outthought and left puffing his cheeks today. It happens. What's important is that, in the future, I hope he seriously reconsiders this strange, dogged reluctance to use any subs before the 89th minute, or change a game when it's clearly going horribly, horribly wrong. Pride is secondary - pragmatism is key.

Did you actually see our bench with included a goalkeeper and 3 defenders? Contrary to what a lot of people think our squad i snot as good as you think, especially with a few injuries/suspension. There is a gulf in class and ability between City and every other club in the league so I do not think the problem is with Poch

 

[AdamB]

Personally I dont think 3 at the back yesterday was the answer in the slightest. With Sane and Sterling playing quite wide, it would have led to our wing backs dropping deep and being more like 5 at the back. Going with a back 4 wasnt the problem yesterday - the performance was the issue

 

[harr1984]

Did you actually see our bench with included a goalkeeper and 3 defenders? Contrary to what a lot of people think our squad i snot as good as you think, especially with a few injuries/suspension. There is a gulf in class and ability between City and every other club in the league so I do not think the problem is with Poch

Our bench still had Lamela and Llorente on it which would have allowed us to change tactics and the way we played. Not having the same strength on bench as City is not an excuse for not changing things tactically or personnel wise. Was West Ham’s team a stronger one than ours? No, yet they gave City much more of a game, not to mention other teams of late....

 

[Gazza]

Our bench still had Lamela and Llorente on it which would have allowed us to change tactics and the way we played. Not having the same strength on bench as City is not an excuse for not changing things tactically or personnel wise. Was West Ham’s team a stronger one than ours? No, yet they gave City much more of a game, not to mention other teams of late....

Lol

One coming back from over a year out and the other desperately short of form and confidence, are going to change the game?

 

[harr1984]

Lol

One coming back from over a year out and the other desperately short of form and confidence, are going to change the game?

What are you talking about Lamela has showed himself to be as creative as ever since he’s come back he’s showed more than Dele has since the Real Madrid game. As for Llorente he should have been bought on for us to play a longer ball game as playing through City didn’t work and was never going to. But yeah, you keep ‘loling’....

 

[NaijaSpurs]

Our bench still had Lamela and Llorente on it which would have allowed us to change tactics and the way we played. Not having the same strength on bench as City is not an excuse for not changing things tactically or personnel wise. Was West Ham’s team a stronger one than ours? No, yet they gave City much more of a game, not to mention other teams of late....

What has Llorente really done this season to make you think he would have been the difference against City? Which leaves us with Lamela, a player who has been out for well over a year as our only possible difference maker - therein lies the rub

 

[harr1984]

What has Llorente really done this season to make you think he would have been the difference against City? Which leaves us with Lamela, a player who has been out for well over a year as our only possible difference maker - therein lies the rub

Like I said he would have allowed us to go long, with him and Kane dropping off. Lamela was creative before he got injured, and has showed himself to still be creative since returning - don’t see what the fact he was out for a year has to do with anything, he has showed himself to still be an attacking threat. Would it of made enough of a difference? Who knows. But what we was doing was clearly not working from an early stage and something should have been changed - even if not the personnel just how we was setup to play, anyone with half a brain cell could tell we was going to get pulled apart the way we was playing....

 

[NaijaSpurs]

anyone with half a brain cell could tell we was going to get pulled apart the way we was playing....

Are you insinuating that Poch does not have even half a brain cell?

We were getting pulled apart because almost every single player was playing below par in comparison to the opposition, we would have had to make about 8 or 9 changes yesterday to have had a chance of getting anything from that match

 

[harr1984]

Are you insinuating that Poch does not have even half a brain cell?

We were getting pulled apart because almost every single player was playing below par in comparison to the opposition, we would have had to make about 8 or 9 changes yesterday to have had a chance of getting anything from that match

Not at all, but I do think Poch is stubborn in instances such as this.

So you admit that almost every player was below par, yet it was better to let them play all game rather than at least TRY and change SOMETHING. Ok then, we will have to agree to disagree on this one.....