Mauricio Pochettino

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The message in the dressing room is to start the game as if we have just rolled out of bed.

Tbf, we actually came out of the blocks ok against Villa; just got suckered pretty quickly and spent a long time to bounce back.

Many said vs City; not to concede early was essential so I can forgive a cautious start in that one....

....Not that I don't agree that it's generally become a bit of a theme tho.
 
Yes, it came as a tremendous relief to me not to concede inside the first 10 mins. Somewhat undone by the referee warning Danny Rose about time-wasting in the 18th minute, mind you, but we can't have it all.

That was prime Ben Foster from Rose... Absolute piss-take!
 
Getting a bit weary of Poch's continual "poor me" schtick:


“We’re in a process where every season is: rebuild the team. I am so happy because that makes us stronger and be creative. But of course it’s tough.

Considering he's only been forced to sell one RB in five years and this season we had a stellar window (described by Statsbomb for example as one of the best two in the PL) that's some grade A whining for a guy who prefixed it with:

“I’m not complaining, only that I try to describe the truth and some people struggle to understand what the project is at Tottenham.

As far as the window goes, why can't the PL prevent sales as well as purchases on the PL deadline ?
What annoys me about his complaining in this particular piece is he cites Woolwich as not bedding young players in when they quite clearly have been and are. Chelsea's hand has been forced but they're using youngsters now too as are Man United, Liverpool have been too with TAA and Gomez. In fact only City haven't with Foden being the exception.

He's gotta stop complaining, I'll caveat that statement with we don't always see the full context of what he's saying because we don't see the questions but it is starting to wear a bit...
 
He's gotta stop complaining, I'll caveat that statement with we don't always see the full context of what he's saying because we don't see the questions but it is starting to wear a bit...
Have a heart, Steve. He is only getting £8m a year to coach us how to defend set pieces, turn up for games in the right frame of mind and refrain from selecting Sissoko.
 
I haven't read the past couple pages so this may be off trend, but do others feel we have struggled to find a real groove offensively, especially last season.

Watched the title chasing season highlights, thanks Totti Totti for reminding me, and kind of miss that speed in attack.

I may be forgetting some great performances, but I do feel we have been lacking some flow.

Thoughts?

Edit: not a "were fucked" post fyi. Just interested in the broad and differing opinions on this forum.
 
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Poch gets a point at Man City but that's not good enough ... we're already doomed to loose to woolwich according to the usual bunch of miseries ... frankly why do some of you bother?

Page after page about the endless suffering Spurs cause you, is it some kind of purgatory?

Four points from two games and statistically the toughest game of the year already played, feck I'm overjoyed with that, bring on woolwich we've got nothing to fear
 
I haven't read the past couple pages so this may be off trend, but do others feel we have struggled to find a real groove offensively, especially last season.

Watched the title chasing season highlights, thanks Totti Totti for reminding me, and kind of miss that speed in attack.

I may be forgetting some great performances, but I do feel we have been lacking some flow.

Thoughts?
While that is true, I think part of it is teams underestimated us a bit more back then. Pretty much every team besides Liverpool and City that plays us at WHL nowadays sets up parking the bus while that wasn't really true a couple years ago. Also the main factor is we had prime Rose and Walker bombing forward from full back who were phenomenal at that time, as well as Dele and Eriksen both in great form in that season. I think this year we will get the closest style of football to that season since then, in fact I see our defence being the main issue - clearly we want to be more creative considering Ndombele and Winks are our CM's and both of them are at their best on the ball rather than defensively.
 
While that is true, I think part of it is teams underestimated us a bit more back then. Pretty much every team besides Liverpool and City that plays us at WHL nowadays sets up parking the bus while that wasn't really true a couple years ago. Also the main factor is we had prime Rose and Walker bombing forward from full back who were phenomenal at that time, as well as Dele and Eriksen both in great form in that season. I think this year we will get the closest style of football to that season since then, in fact I see our defence being the main issue - clearly we want to be more creative considering Ndombele and Winks are our CM's and both of them are at their best on the ball rather than defensively.

The fbs were a real game changer as they did what City just did to us, open up the center of the park. There was a lot of room for KDB and company to run into because of the width and high position of sterling, Silva, Walker and sometimes the blond Ukrainian. I think you are right in that the threat of wide pace has hindered our flow, which also makes parking the bus a bit easier.
 
The fbs were a real game changer as they did what City just did to us, open up the center of the park. There was a lot of room for KDB and company to run into because of the width and high position of sterling, Silva, Walker and sometimes the blond Ukrainian. I think you are right in that the threat of wide pace has hindered our flow, which also makes parking the bus a bit easier.

Yup there's no doubt that our game has changed, but is that down to weaker personnel? or the fact that opposition teams wise up?

KW's last season at Spurs he managed 33 games and had 5 assists, hardly earth shattering numbers, however the space he and Rose created by dragging players out wide allowed our forwards to bang in 86 goals it was our most productive season ever. But other teams all took note ...

You don't score from the corner flag, well not often, so when faced with a superior side a whole lot of teams will now play 4-5-1 or even 5-4-1 just so the central area remains covered.

Now we regularly face two banks of four/five, our fullbacks are faced with a midfield wide player as well as an opposing fullback, teams central midfield players and defenders almost never get drawn out wide. That doesn't only happen to us it the same issue faced by all the top sides ... Liverpool, City and now Woolwich cope by having a third striker who plays wide doubling up on the fullback and allowing their own fullbacks to be more productive. It's what Son does well for us but what both Lamela and Lucas fail to do ... it's what I reckon Lo Celso, Ndombele, Sessegnon and even GKN could do for us this season ... it's what Sterling, KDB and Silva do for City and what Firmino, Mane and Salah do for Liverpool

Having just a pair of great attacking fullback is fine, but they need the support of wide midfield or wide strikers in these days of park-the-bus ... pretty sure that's the evolution Poch is seeking with our signings, it will be interesting to see how this season's tactics develop against that double parked bus ....
 
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