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Mauricio Pochettino - Sacked

Normally it’s the hope that kills ya, but it’s the lack of even having hope atm that’s making me les miserabl’e.

We really won’t do anything this season...and perhaps I’ve become a little accustomed or spoilt in recent times to us actually challenging for honours that’s the reason I keep launching my toys out of the pram because I realise we are nowhere near that atm.

But seriously, we don’t look like we can buy a league win at present.
 
Normally it’s the hope that kills ya, but it’s the lack of even having hope atm that’s making me les miserabl’e.

We really won’t do anything this season...and perhaps I’ve become a little accustomed or spoilt in recent times to us actually challenging for honours that’s the reason I keep launching my toys out of the pram because I realise we are nowhere near that atm.

But seriously, we don’t look like we can buy a league win at present.

It is the lack of a plan that gets me at the moment. It feels like the club has no direction at the moment.
 
It is the lack of a plan that gets me at the moment. It feels like the club has no direction at the moment.

I’ve been a Poch defender but I’m being tested at the moment. We are ambling through matches, it’s as though the players are just waiting for a change in the management structure and personnel. It’s no longer a short term blip and when he’s picking Eriksen it makes it unforgivable.
 
I seem to remember he still picked Kaboul and Adebayor in his 1st season for awhile before gradually phasing them out. I assume Eriksen is still a hugely popular figure, likewise Rose etc.
Maybe it’s not just as simple as alienating these players and potentially others right off the cuff and instead a gradual removal.
 
I hope Bayern come in for him now Kovac has been fired so we can part on good terms and remember the good times. We may even get a couple of quid, although nowhere near that which we would have got at the end of last season.
I imagine Bayern already have someone steeped in German football ready
 
Bottom line - a third of the way through the season, we a closer to relegation zone than to top 4.
Poch is paid to get results.
He isn't getting them.
Thanks for all the fantastic building - you have helped propel this club forwards.
Time for a change.

6m a year and he has turned into a sulky Mourinho.
 
19 fudging years and people think it's just a few things wrong?

I can't speak for anyone else but I think that the issue is that we didn't rebuild from a position of strength. Our failure to move on and replace players that the manager doesn't want over the last two summers has caused this problem. We've gone from having the best fullbacks in the league to them being the weakest players in our first team. Our first choice centre backs have aged rapidly and can't play together anymore. And our playmaker can't play anymore. Sort this out and we'll be fine but these are all things that Poch has been clear he wanted addressed.
 
I can't speak for anyone else but I think that the issue is that we didn't rebuild from a position of strength. Our failure to move on and replace players that the manager doesn't want over the last two summers has caused this problem. We've gone from having the best fullbacks in the league to them being the weakest players in our first team. Our first choice centre backs have aged rapidly and can't play together anymore. And our playmaker can't play anymore. Sort this out and we'll be fine but these are all things that Poch has been clear he wanted addressed.

That’s all fine and I agree completely but that still doesn’t excuse the performances and results in 2019. I posted before challenging someone to name a decent team we have beaten in the league this year. No one replied. I actually looked it up and the teams we have beaten so far in 2019;

Cardiff
Fulham
Leicester
Huddersfield
Palace x2
Soton
Villa

The only decent team out of those lot are Leicester and we were totally outplayed in that game, they even missed a penalty.

We still have enough quality in the squad to be doing better than we are. Certainly too much to be:

Losing 7-2 at home
Losing 3-0 at Brighton
Scraping a draw at home to Watford
Losing 1-0 to Saudi Sportswashing Machine
Keeping just one solitary clean sheet this season against the most negative manager in the league
 
I can't speak for anyone else but I think that the issue is that we didn't rebuild from a position of strength. Our failure to move on and replace players that the manager doesn't want over the last two summers has caused this problem. We've gone from having the best fullbacks in the league to them being the weakest players in our first team. Our first choice centre backs have aged rapidly and can't play together anymore. And our playmaker can't play anymore. Sort this out and we'll be fine but these are all things that Poch has been clear he wanted addressed.

I agree with all those things but he is not helping himself playing players so out of form or passed it.

Also his tactics have been awful in so many games and his increasingly difficult and odd behaviour.

Levy wanted his Wenger and I fear he got him, just without the titles. Because he is now like late era Wenger.
 
I agree with all those things but he is not helping himself playing players so out of form or passed it.

Also his tactics have been awful in so many games and his increasingly difficult and odd behaviour.

I agree. In mitigation I would say that he has always been slow to integrate players and the issue would've been less pronounced if the rebuilding had been started last season. Our tactics, at least last season, were pragmatic in trying to get the best out of the players that he had available. The issue is that they were a lot worse than his best teams with us.
 
I can't speak for anyone else but I think that the issue is that we didn't rebuild from a position of strength. Our failure to move on and replace players that the manager doesn't want over the last two summers has caused this problem. We've gone from having the best fullbacks in the league to them being the weakest players in our first team. Our first choice centre backs have aged rapidly and can't play together anymore. And our playmaker can't play anymore. Sort this out and we'll be fine but these are all things that Poch has been clear he wanted addressed.

He has huge influence on how it’s addressed, he’s also in the unique ability to scheme around his perceived holes in the squad, we have other cb’s purchased at his say so for great cost, formations which protect less adventurous fb’s are available, lastly, if five years into a system the whole thing is still reliant on one player, that’s bad.
 
I was looking at our form last season to see where we trailed off

TAFBDt1.png


I was wondering was there an international break between that Dortmund and Burnley games. But no that was a FA week we had off.
But that Burnley game was the Mike Dean game where Poch completely lost his brick at the end.
We have it seems never recovered from that moment.
 
He has huge influence on how it’s addressed, he’s also in the unique ability to scheme around his perceived holes in the squad, we have other cb’s purchased at his say so for great cost, formations which protect less adventurous fb’s are available, lastly, if five years into a system the whole thing is still reliant on one player, that’s bad.

His options of bringing in new players are limited if the chairman won't sell unwanted players. I think that he has tried to come up with formations/tactics to cover our weaknesses, with considerable success but at the cost of us playing fudging awful football. If we want to play free flowing, attacking football, we need our new signings up to speed and in the first team, better fullbacks and a new centre back.
 
My view of his performance today

Team selection
- Gazza, Aurier, Sanchez, Toby, Davies, N'dombele, Sissoko, Son, Lucas (once Kane was out) were correct.
- Dele & Eriksen together make no sense, both badly out of form, we basically start a game struggling, pick one, replace the other with Lo Celso

Subs
- N'dombele off first made no fudging sense .. none unless the guy was fudging dead
- Replacing Aurier actually made sense, looked quite affected by incident
- 3rd Sub was a disaster, too late (101 minutes), didn't help bring fresh legs or protect the lead or just add calmness, instead super late, debut player after we already threw away the lead.

Leadership
- Didn't really see any change after HT, didn't see any attempt to settle the players (other than the Foyth sub which I agreed with)

Honestly, more of the same, nothing we haven't seen repeatedly in this and last season.
 
I was looking at our form last season to see where we trailed off

TAFBDt1.png


I was wondering was there an international break between that Dortmund and Burnley games. But no that was a FA week we had off.
But that Burnley game was the Mike Dean game where Poch completely lost his brick at the end.
We have it seems never recovered from that moment.

Wolves and Burnley were the two catalysts in my opinion. Both games when people outside of the club started to seriously talk us up as title contenders. And we did what we always do when that happens, we didn’t turn up. This team just doesn’t know how to handle it when we’re on people’s radar. We operate better when we fly under the radar and when we have no pressure. The CL semi final is the quintessential example. First leg, big game at home, outplayed, outsmarted tactically. Shown up essentially. 2nd leg, out of the game seemingly, had no option but to throw the kitchen sink at it.

Poch went full Bill Gallas against Burnley. Full blown meltdown. It’s odd how one game can effect a team so much but to me that was ultimately the one that knocked the club for six.
 
My view of his performance today

Team selection
- Gazza, Aurier, Sanchez, Toby, Davies, N'dombele, Sissoko, Son, Lucas (once Kane was out) were correct.
- Dele & Eriksen together make no sense, both badly out of form, we basically start a game struggling, pick one, replace the other with Lo Celso

Subs
- N'dombele off first made no fudging sense .. none unless the guy was fudging dead
- Replacing Aurier actually made sense, looked quite affected by incident
- 3rd Sub was a disaster, too late (101 minutes), didn't help bring fresh legs or protect the lead or just add calmness, instead super late, debut player after we already threw away the lead.

Leadership
- Didn't really see any change after HT, didn't see any attempt to settle the players (other than the Foyth sub which I agreed with)

Honestly, more of the same, nothing we haven't seen repeatedly in this and last season.
I can understand Dele. He is still scoring and playing ok. Eriksen is awful though and don't understand why he stays on for so long. Felt Dier should have been on a lot earlier and especially once Son was sent off.
 
He has huge influence on how it’s addressed, he’s also in the unique ability to scheme around his perceived holes in the squad, we have other cb’s purchased at his say so for great cost, formations which protect less adventurous fb’s are available, lastly, if five years into a system the whole thing is still reliant on one player, that’s bad.
The system is reliant on fast attacking full backs (like Liverpool), a press resistant midfielder to move the ball forward, a defensive midfielder to shield the defence and a creative number 9/10.

All top managers have systems that require certain key players. Poch is no different. We have Full backs which are not as good as previously, Skipp, Winks and Sissoko replacing Wanyama, Dembele and Uber Dier. We have a shell of a player in Eriksen.

Ndombele is replacing Dembele, Lo Celso will replace Eriksen eventually but needs time. So we are still short one or two players. I have seen improvement in our defending on the last 3 games which is a start. Poch needs to find a way of compensating for Eriksen's drop in performance.
 
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