When Poch came, he had a young squad which he managed to get to respect each other and to pull in the same direction. He instilled a clear off-the-pitch and on-the-pitch philosophy and a way of playing that at that time was quite extraordinary in the PL. He got the players to pull together and he got the very best out of most of them.
The squad was fresh, energetic, young and eager. We played aggressive, fantastic, offensive football. Somewhat naive, perhaps, against the big clubs, but it provided mostly very good results.
I think our downfall came partly from our too early success, partly from our lack of new blood, and partly from our attempts to eliminate the naivety.
Our good results were well deserved. They came from excellent collective and individual performances. The football we played, and the work by Poch and his staff with the players, made most of our lads play as if they were among the very best in the world intheir positions. That, in turn, gave them and us expectations. Many of our players, we know, started dreaming of greener pastures: It started with Rose, Walker and Alderweireld, as far as I know, but also spread to Eriksen and probably others. Poch has struggled to handle the egos - which is to be expected in a "smaller club", with less exposure and, more importantly, a smaller wage budget.
Additionally, the success came at a cost in terms of exposure, pressure, and wear. We all remember the fun bromance that we got to witness from Dele and Dier in Dele's first, very impressive season. Bigger, smarter clubs would, or at least should, protect their young, inexperienced stars from media exposure. We threw Dele and Dier head first into the limelight. I believe they have both suffered from it since, and that the over-exposure is part of the reason they have both declined as footballers ever since.
However, the wear may have been an even more important factor. Our young squad has been rather small - or at least it has appeared to be when looking at how our first eleven has been rushed back from injuries and been very rarely rested. Additionally, due to our and their success, many of them have become crucial players for their national teams, and went on to bring their national teams success in the latest world cup, which have caused additional wear not matched by any other club in the world.
Whether it be the result of handling the players with regards to fatigue, or a result of changes to deal with the naivety of our early Poch era high press, our approach to football has changed over the last few years.
I think it was in 17/18 that I first clearly recognised us park the bus and counter in the CL against Real Madrid. It provided us some great results. However, it looked to me as success at a great cost. It looked apparent that we had worked on adding that approach to our game, to give us another way to win games - a plan B. A lot of fans wanted us to become better against the big teams and to develop a game plan that would be efficient against the giants, a desire probably matched by Poch and his boys. That, however, clearly diminishes the strength and efficiency of our plan A.
We have also seen a result of the desire to have other ways of playing in our player transfers. We've bought fast, tricky wingers, and we've bought big, strong attackers. We've included midfielders with a passing game, unable to really dominate the middle of the park.
This has led to us being able to grind out some results, to steal a few points here and there, and even to reach a Champions League final. Was it for the best, though?
In my opinion, clearly no. Instead of getting players in with other skillsets to provide alternatives to our first eleven, we should have gone for players who could fill the roles of our first eleven. Backup instead of alternatives. Players to challenge, instead of players to be used if we needed another game plan.
We should have perfected our style of football, instead of developing four different, semi-efficient styles and strategies. It seems to be a commonly accepted idea, that teams need to know how to play different styles, different formations, to match up to and beat different opponents. Sure, I can agree that sometimes a gameplan may need some tweaks to get a result. But who are the most succesful? Generally, the most succesful are the teams that have a clear approach to the game, a way ofplaying that they just do so well that they make themselves very hard to stop.
Look at Liverpool and City, at Barca under Guardiola, and at certain lesser clubs like Burnley. They focus on playing their style of football, and they let their opponents have to deal with that. That is what we did under Poch up until the summer of '17 (mostly). That allowed our players to get comfortable in and clearly know their role.
Now, our game plan is far less consistent, as is our quality of football (which often feels non-existant). Our players, suffering from fatigue, and over-exposure over time, also suffers from having to deal with inconsistent game plans.
I do believe in Poch, I like Poch, but he has to get back his energy, his confidence and his original one game plan. We need to be Spurs - a team that others have to deal with, that will come at you - not just another clubs that adapts to get a result.
We need to get rid of the bad apples and start fresh. With OUR style of attractive football. The transition will be tough, we, as fans, need to support our management through it.
