bingo.

we reportedly had a number of options last summer, and it just seemed like we made a decision on the cheap, primarily because we believed he could get the team playing better than the sum of their parts, as was the perception of his time at Southampton. I'm not one of the mob that thinks Levy is to blame for everything, but I was skeptical of the decision at the time given the reported other candidates for the job, and I'm even more so now.

http://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/footbal...on/news/35159/ here is a Southampton supporter's appraisal of his tenure there from last summer when he first left them. whether or not anyone agrees with my point of view, there's no denying that there's a lot of merit in some of what is being said


by all means, let him be given time. I'm not advocating him being sacked now, but I really don't think it's unjustified to think he is in over his head here.

Plenty judged Sherwood on half a season with pretty much the same squad and couldn't wait to see the back of him so why should Poch get different treatment?

As pee has pointed out, Southampton fans were saying Poch was a one trick pony and so it seems he is.

Take Kane, Eriksen and Lloris out of our squad and it's decidedly average. Remove Vertonghen, Bentaleb and possibly Mason and it's flaky in the extreme and I wouldn't like to say where it would finish over a full season but at least bottom half would be my guess.

Such success as we've had this season has been on the back of Lloris being good all season and the other five above having good spells with Kane longer and better than the rest. Over the last couple of months some of those players have been missing and others have suffered a loss of form with even Kane taking a dip in the last couple of weeks. One or two should have been given a rest but who do we have to come in?

To me it simply demonstrates the lack of quality in the team let alone the squad. Going forward, if Kane and / or Eriksen don't play well or even just contribute a moment of brilliance then we have very little to worry teams. Obviously we've been shaky at the back all season and in the main I think this isn't to do with organisation and coaching, it's about individual mistakes and bad choices (Fazio and Walker I'm looking at you).

Poch wasn't my first choice for manager but then I don't think there was an obvious candidate. I was happy to support him at the start of the season and I am certainly not going to start laying the ground work to call for him to be sacked after only a few months. In any case if we are concerned about people living up to reputations there are several players who have been under-performing for a lot longer that we should be getting rid of first.

I agree with the above. The majority of this squad have never performed, whoever is in charge, and giving them a fresh start with another new manager just extends the whole process.

Levy has sacked far too many managers, some good, some not so good, but it's time to look at the players as well, and not just write off managers, especially when three have had most of this squad, and got nowhere.

The_Moth I agree with most of that. As others have said, Pochettino is too rigid tactically & sometimes our formation can play into the oppostions hands. I do wonder if some of the players who start week in week out regardless of form have become complacent & don't always put in the effort required when we aren't facing a top 6 side.

I think you need to give this guy a chance tbh. I'm not convinced about Sherwood I think he likes the sound of his own voice too much imo.

Levy should never have sacked Rednapp, it has set a bit of a precedent. He needs to swallow his pride and let Poch have another season.

.. and yet 9 days ago there was an outside chance of top 4. Hero or Zero: It's a thin line

It could be argued that by his reported actions Redknapp left Levy little choice

From what I've read over time, I think the same line of thought could be applied to the situation with AVB as well.

Reading around some of the blogs over the weekend and some opinions from those who claim to be 'in the know', the contingent who have been frozen out have apparently taken their issues to Levy, but it's backfired to an extent as he's said to be backing the manager.

And as far as Poch goes, the word all around seems to certainly back up what Knarf has been saying for a while, in that he is definitely going nowhere and will be backed in the transfer market.

...which is obviously encouraging. more of the same then next game, I really can't wait.

bib - we've conceded WAY too many goals for it to just be put down to individual mistakes and bad decisions. we just do not defend well as a team at all, and this then increases the likelihood of mistakes being made. a lot of the time there is just NO midfield protection, which allows teams to repeatedly run directly at our back-four (I wanted to make a note of exactly how many times it happened on Saturday, but eventually lost count), which inevitably leads to more errors. I get that you can't necessarily coach creativity or flair, but the one thing any competent coach should be able to do with 10 outfield players is make them more organised defensively and harder to penetrate. those are the basics.

I referred to the example of AVB a few days ago where he directly addressed our defensive lapses in training and the results were borne out on the pitch. Kyle Walker, probably our biggest defensive liability, was a part of that same team, I believe. if you can't improve defensive performance on the training pitch, then what exactly can you improve? we've had 7 clean sheets in the league this season. last season we had reached that same total of 7 before AVB got sacked, and we ended up with 14! the season before that we only had 9, admittedly, but conceded "only" 46 goals, which has already been matched this season with 6 games left to play. the point keeps being made that these are the same players that have played under different managers, why were they good enough to defend better then but not now? this can't be all about substandard players.

None of our defenders are really good enough and all of them are prone to individual mistakes. Vertonghen is the best but I still don't think he's a good defender, Dier could become a good player but is a way off at the moment. I don't have much faith in any of the rest. What's that saying about a "sow's ear"

AVB has gone and isn't coming back.

No one doubts that AVB had us shipping fewer goals but our general play was absolutely dire, slow, possession based football designed to bore the opposition into submission. Sometimes his tactics worked sometimes they didn't, ultimately the fact the team was being booed off the pitch at HT in some cases said the fans didn't like that style of play and eventually Levy agreed with them.

Nobody has a crystal ball to know whether Pochettino will ever have us truly competing for honours again but he deserves a bit more time to turn things around. Yes there is a lot of work to do and he more than anybody knows that his job is on the line if he fails.

I liked AVB but I have to agree the football was really insipid at times. Most of the problems under Poch - lack of chances created, defensive errors, poor midfield screening - have existed for a while now. Struggling against small teams is nothing new. It is bizarre how perfectly competent players come to Tottenham and regress, and it hints at an issue which goes beyond the manager.

I know this. mine wasn't a "bring back AVB post", I was just making the point that it IS coaching that corrects these issues. the constant individual mistakes to me seem to be more reflective of the general attitude around the place, to be honest, but again the buck stops with the manager and coaching staff. attitude reflects leadership.

I still maintain our defenders are better than those of the teams below us. it's easy to look at an underperforming team and surmise that everyone is useless, but the players are clearly better than those of the teams below, it stands to reason. to read in here sometimes, we're doing amazingly just being in the Premier League given how utterly hopeless all our players are.

Exactly, it was as dreary as hell under AVB. Sherwood got a brief burst of life, before things went downhill again, and Poch has been much the same. A few bright intervals in an otherwise predictable, dull season.

Changing the team alters nothing, because we don't have players that can inspire, apart from a few home grown lads who have tried hard, and pretty much carried us.

and yet we did better last season with these same players.

Only slightly better. Obviously we cannot compare the whole 2014-2015 season yet with the previous but we are only a little bit down on where we were last year stats wise. Same as last year, if we had scored 10 goals more and conceded 10 less over the course of the season, we might of had a real challenge for 4th if this translated into points. So in a nutshell that is the deficiencies we have to address - more clean sheets with a tighter defence and another player or players contributing a decent goal haul.

we had considerable upheaval last season though, compared to this one. considering we took some complete hammerings last season where players seemingly downed tools and shipped more goals than would ordinarily have been expected, it's absolutely crazy that we'll eventually exceed last season's goals conceded tally. we have not made any progress. in real terms, we've gotten worse. unless there's a drastic upturn in form, we'll also end up with less wins, more draws and (probably) more losses than last season too. it's all well and good to keep blaming it all on the players, but considering they were able to perform better last season, what exactly has Pochettino's influence been? I can see Van Gaal's influence at Man U, but I'm sure people will say that's because they spent however many millions adding to their squad. I can see Koeman's influence at Southampton, even though they had the heart of last season's first team ripped out. I can see Pardew's influence at Crystal Palace who looked like relegation certainties, and could've put it down to the players not being good enough, but have managed to perform above expectations. I can even see Sherwood's influence on Villa, and IMO he still just can't be taken seriously as a manager. Garry Monk is a rookie manager, and yet he has improved Swansea. all are performing better, some took longer than others to have an impact, but I don't hear any excuses about being in transition or players not being good enough blah blah blah...they've all just come in and got on with the job at hand. that's the whole point of managerial changes, they're supposed to have an impact. after about 90% of the season, we can't really point to any positive impact overall. a brief flurry of good form between December and February, and that's it.

it's all the players fault though....

I think he's over performed with this squad. This team hardly ever keeps a clean sheet, hardly ever wins by more than a one goal margin, and yet you were outsiders for the top 4 up until recently.

Poch's got his philosophy and when it works you look like one of those savvy German outfits who press all over the pitch and counter attack at will. It's a young team - the youngest team behind liverpool I think - and he's got you to a cup final and tried to instil an identity that the fans were onboard with until the team collapsed after the United defeat.

He might not be a proven manager but I'd argue that Poch's shown enough to suggest that with the right players he has the nous to implement a really exciting Plan A.

Ah ok. Well that's where we differ.

I'm in agreement with Pee in that I can't I see any tangible influence Pochettino has had on the squad. There is no area where you could actually say we have improved on the pitch over last year. As I said before, if we didn't have Kane's goals we would be mid-table at best.

If by some miracle we recovered some form and finish in 6th, that will just equal last year's finish.

#1 - we had 14 clean sheets in the league last season.
#2 - how many times has this "philosophy" been evident outside of a flurry of games between December and February? this so-called philosophy of his seems to be very much the exception rather than the rule so far.
#3 - on what evidence are you basing this belief? these are better players than he has ever managed before. who are these "right" players? do we need Neymar and Messi for him to be able to deliver something better than this?


we have the worst defenders in the league then? there are 13 clubs below us at present, 7 of which have conceded fewer goals than we have, plus West Brom who are currently equal. which of these 8 teams have better players than we do? name them. unless it's all 8, or even just the large majority, then the point that ours are underperforming rather than just being limited still stands.

]The risky way he wants his team to play calls for better midfielders who can protect the defence. He had that with Schneiderlin and Wanyama. You said yourself the amount of times attackers get a clear run at your defence is ridiculous - needless to say it's not conducive to clean sheets. I think that's his priority in the summer and that's what I mean by the "right" players,

My belief is based on those games where you've looked really good attacking-wise, and in the fact that you were in with a solid shout for top 4 despite the squad's limitations.

we've got Capoue, Stambouli, and even Dembele that can play this role, yet for some reason Mason and Bentaleb are locked-in even though they've been extremely poor as a tandem for two months now since the NLD. I know someone will now respond and try to make out that all 3 of those are also no good, but if Wanyama and Schneiderlin are good enough to play that role to good effect, then so are they. I'm personally of the opinion that Capoue is a much better player than either of those two, and Dembele did very well in the same role (even though it's probably not his best) under AVB. I've not seen enough of Stambouli to be able to form a definitive opinion, but IMO he cannot be any worse than Mason who really has very little to his game outside of endeavour. at the very least you TRY something different when it's not working, but nope...it's Mason and Bentaleb every single week.

those games you refer to haven't occurred very often. even Leicester have managed to look exciting in a handful of games, I'm not sure that alone is sufficient to base all this faith in. we were in with just as solid a shout of the top last season as we were this season, so maybe the squad isn't AS limited as is being made out? and even if it is, then surely the fact that others were able to get more out of it than he has so far is a concern?