A serious look at Mauricio Pochettino

Vadim said:
Rumours on twitter saying that Poch and Ole are fighting over the permanent Utd manager’s role in his office at the moment.

Poch says he’s better looking and Ole argues that he’s done more in the game, which is true.

Maybe they’ll both manage us? Poch for home games, Ole for away games?
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What? :lol:
 
breakout67 said:
My point was that if you start saying the forwards should have gotten something (which i agree with) then you also have to admit in several games this season the tactics and selection were not good but Poch was bailed out by unlikely goals from these very same forwards. You can't just talk about poor finishing to absolve the manager and then ignore abnormal finishing in other games at the same time.
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Well if you look at my post that you replied too, you will find that I'm referring to this game alone, not any other game?

RyRy11 said:
How are people using this game as a stick to beat Poch with? On a more clinical day they could have put 3 or 4 past us, that’s on his attackers.
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sugar_kane said:
Would take him no question if Ole wasn’t in the picture. Spurs played some scintillating football in the second half.

Am convinced that United thought Ole would do an only slightly better than average job and would just put a smile back on the fans faces and keep the seat warm for Poch.

He’s still totally unproven and maybe we’ll worsen once we’re out of the honeymoon period but make a couple of good signings and I can see Ole doing a very decent job next season based on what we’ve seen so far.

We’ve got a weird conundrum on our hands, assuming Poch is a legit option.
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It's why we can be very thankful that they made the change so early, and not in say March or April.

This way, it can't be a flash in the pan over 6 months, so we have plenty of time to judge.

I think the most awkward scenario is we get top 4, carry on playing so well, maybe do well in the cups, and THEN we still go Poch.
The pressure would be even higher then.
 
He is a very good manager and would be my first choice if the board don't want to give it Ole. Let see how the rest of the season pans out.
 
Poch is fed up at Spurs. He’s too classy to admit it publicly or moan like Jose.

But it’s grating for him having no access to a transfer war chest which would enable him to actually challenge for league trophies.

He’s taken Spurs as far as he can.
 
breakout67 said:
I think criticising him for this is not right but there's an interesting observation here. When Spurs score goals when they shouldn't over and over he gets the credit, but when the opposite happens its on the players.

If you've watched Spurs regularly this season then they have won several games by the skin of their teeth with goals coming from unlikely situations. If you give him credit for having Spurs in 3rd place (which was only possible due to forwards being very clinical) then you have to criticize him for this.
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I think he needs to be criticized if his team is played off the park or does not create chances or there is any obvious tactical weakness. (Like playing Pogba in a pivot)

That guy has been too good with the resources he has.
 
Vadim said:
Poch is fed up at Spurs. He’s too classy to admit it publicly or moan like Jose.

But it’s grating for him having no access to a transfer war chest which would enable him to actually challenge for league trophies.

He’s taken Spurs as far as he can.
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He’s got Harry Kane and a great supporting cast. He’s not moving to any club that he’s giving him a stronger XI on day one.
 
Touseef said:
Yes very impressed by how spurs turned up in the second half Let's be honest, they should've at least got a point and most likely won.

I'm not judging Ole by trophies. My point is that in a span of six months he will have to do something of that scale to convince me otherwise. The thing with solksjaer is that he is going to be here for a short duration and it's not wise to take a decision basis that. Pochettino has played attractive football while promoting youth consistently for a few years now. He did that at Southampton and he's done it here. With all due respect to spurs, united will give him a larger budget.

He has shown consistency in one of the toughest leagues in the world, performing better than teams with bigger budgets than him. The team they put out today would've been at half the cost of ours especially if we add the bench.

I'm not too concerned about the fact that he hasn't won a trophy. Realistically it would've been a miracle had he won a PL or CL.

If he wins one of the two smaller cups does that change your opinion of him? Is one FA or carling cup the only thing stopping him from being out manager?

Roberto di Matteo has won a CL. Is he better than pochettino? Zidane won three CL in a row but was poor in the league. Would you go for him?

For me, I'd want a manager who has shown consistency in competing in the league (preferably familiar with the epl), plays a good style, promotes youth and respects the club. Pochettino does all of this. Give him the financial backing and he will have the side competing. Don't forget what this spurs side did to qualify from their group stages this season... Very disrespectful to call it long term choking
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No, no and no. Damn, what is it with this weird way of evaluating the game? We positioned Pogba ideally at least twice if not more vs Lloris. We should have scored as well without some of the Lloris saves. We responded to their tactical shift and at the end, they were just going to hop the ball to Llorente to get a deflection, it's just attack vs defense then.

And Di Matteo was getting battered in the league. We just took back 8 pts to Arsenal, 5 pts to Chelsea and 6 pts to Spurs in 5 match days. You are aware how impossible this is normally given the previous statistics of the EPL? It is insane, and the mental strength required for that is huge one. Ole cannot be compared to Di Matteo.
 
Was trying to find Glaston's post about how he was confident they wouldn't lose to us.
Strangely, after that, and with our momentum, I thought we had half a chance
 
people as usual are trying to big up Pochettino here no matter what he does but I believe people are exaggerating his ability.
1 - He's been with the team for more than 3 years. he won NOTHING. let's not forget during the same time Leicester won the league with an inferior team that doesn't have a talent like Kane , Ali or Eriksen and with a manager in his first year!
2 - the guy lost twice now at home.. to the teams residing in the 6 and 11 place in the league. if we were third and we lost 2 matches in a row to the 6th and 11th AT HOME i'm pretty sure people here would ask for the manager's head!
3 - the guy has a 25-goals-a-season striker who is arguably the best striker in the world currently. a striker that people here would die for him to join us. what would happen if Poch didn't have Kane? he would still be managing a mid-table team. we can all see know Real Madrid suffering after losing only "one" player called Ronaldo.
4 - if De Gea has a world-class performance then that's nothing to be ashamed of. because first, he's a goal keeper it's his job to KEEP the ball away from the net! and secondly because Poch has the best striker in the world , so let's play without both and see who would win. I doubt the result would have changed.
5 - We have a bad back line. the fact that Jones was playing was enough to make all the fans here frightened he might do his usual mistake. there's a consensus here we need good defenders. so what do you expect when you face a "well-oiled machine" as Spurs? the fact they couldn't score is an indication of their incompetence but people still hailing that "incompetent performance". you know they actually LOST against the worse (in your opinion) team, right???
6- the first half could have been 2-0 or 3-0 for us if Martial and Lingard took their chances. it would have been game-over by half-time but people are turning blind eyes to this fact and just look at the second half performance. let's not forgot the Old Trafford game when we were the better side and yet they managed to score from our stupid defenders' mistakes and it was game over.

what i'm trying to say is , Poch is a good manager . but let's not exaggerate his abilities and diss our own manager for no reason! at least our manager has won something.
 
Poch, even before this game, should not be on the list of candidates. His high point came to an end with the debacle at Chelski in 2016 and that’s not enough.

Today, there was nothing inspiring about their performance to suggest we poach him. They battered our defence time and again but with the same moves and shots. Poch raised their intensity but failed to unsettle us. I think we did a job on them and they couldn’t unlock us, irrespective of Dave being in superb form.
 
TMDaines said:
He’s got Harry Kane and a great supporting cast. He’s not moving to any club that he’s giving him a stronger XI on day one.
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He could move to either Real or Utd and build an incredible side with the resources available.

Managers, believe it or not, are hungry for success. He won’t want his career to be a few top 4 finishes.

He will want the Premier League and Champions League on his CV, make no mistake about it. And he will achieve that at one of the big clubs.
 
The best choice to take our club where we want to go. The job he has done at Spurs with no real investment in the playing staff, during a period where Utd, City and Liverpool have been splashing cash like no tomorrow is incredible. Not only to improve the Spurs team, but to make them consistently one of the top 3-4 teams in England and play fabulous football. Has a good track record with signings and a good track record of promoting youth. Ticks all the boxes for me and must be the number one choice for the Utd board.
 
He's a fecking great manager. They had guys like Sissoko, Winks and fecking Lamela on and they dominated us.
 
InLevyITrust said:
We did? What exactly do you classify as a long ball?
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I don't mean aimless hoofs, but Tottenham - especially Toby and Vertoghen - played a lot of early long direct balls towards your forwards - not necessarily negative. I guess that is just how you guys usually play. I was so nervous everytime one of those balls was coming towards our defence.
 
Adisa said:
He's a fecking great manager. They had guys like Sissoko, Winks and fecking Lamela on and they dominated us.
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Looks like you were too busy worshipping your idol and missed Sissoko going off injured and Lamela coming on. They dominated us in the second half, which is to be expected when we are away from home and in the lead. The first half was even and Pogba was far from neutralized by the Spurs midfield.
 
Vadim said:
He could move to either Real or Utd and build an incredible side with the resources available.

Managers, believe it or not, are hungry for success. He won’t want his career to be a few top 4 finishes.

He will want the Premier League and Champions League on his CV, make no mistake about it. And he will achieve that at one of the big clubs.
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He’d have long been sacked at United for phoning the cups in and trying to kid the fans about being happy to qualify for the CL. His success rate with onboarding new signings has been nothing special either.
 
He lost today, it happens. Spurs played pretty well in the second half, we were fortunate that we have the best keeper in the world in god mode. Still a great choice for us if we don't want to keep Ole, I'm high on the win too but it doesn't mean that he's the wrong manager for us
 
Touseef said:
Yes very impressed by how spurs turned up in the second half Let's be honest, they should've at least got a point and most likely won.

I'm not judging Ole by trophies. My point is that in a span of six months, he will have to do something of that scale to convince me otherwise given he has no experience at the top level. The thing with solksjaer is that he is going to be here for a short duration and it's not wise to take a decision basis that. Pochettino has played attractive football while promoting youth consistently for a few years now. He did that at Southampton and he's done it here. With all due respect to spurs, united will give him a larger budget.

He has shown consistency in one of the toughest leagues in the world, performing better than teams with bigger budgets than him. The team they put out today would've been at half the cost of ours especially if we add the bench.

I'm not too concerned about the fact that he hasn't won a trophy. Realistically it would've been a miracle had he won a PL or CL.

If he wins one of the two smaller cups does that change your opinion of him? Is one FA or carling cup the only thing stopping him from being out manager?

Roberto di Matteo has won a CL. Is he better than pochettino? Zidane won three CL in a row but was poor in the league. Would you go for him?

For me, I'd want a manager who has shown consistency in competing in the league (preferably familiar with the epl), plays a good style, promotes youth and respects the club. Pochettino does all of this. Give him the financial backing and he will have the side competing. Don't forget what this spurs side did to qualify from their group stages this season... Very disrespectful to call it long term choking
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We were playing away to good side, they were always going to put us under pressure at some point in the game, very very rarely do you actually get a complete game away to a top team, we dealt with it and came away with a very good result. But they didn't get anything from the game and yet again, Pochettino and Spurs have lost when they really needed to get something out of it.

Ole has a 6 month job interview, which puts him in a unique place 'try before you buy'. Pochettino or someone else would be coming in cold and we wouldn't know what we'd be getting, just because someone has done well somewhere before, doesn't mean they will do well elsewhere, same logic as, just because Solskjaer did badly at Cardiff, doesn't mean he'll do badly at United. All clubs have different environment's and cultures. Every manager that has ever won something also had no experience at a top level once upon a time so your point is irrelevant. If they have the ability to manage at the top level they ultimately do, Solskjaer wouldn't have been offered the job on an interim basis if the club thought we'd be fighting relegation come May.

I disagree. If you've got a manager that supports the ethos, plays attacking football, wins games and wins trophies, you don't swap him out for another manager because someone else looks better on paper or might do what the manager you currently have does, it's just bizarre logic.

Pochettino has been at clubs where the club has dictated what he spends and what players he has available. I agree, he has done will with the resources afforded to him but he's also been lucky. He's had one of the best sides Southampton have ever had, and that was down to their 'black box room' apparently and now he's at Spurs where Harry Kane was given a chance by Tim Sherwood and the rest is history. Levy wouldn't have gone out and bought the best striker in England to support the Spurs cause. Levy dictates who the club sign and how much they spend. I would argue that Pochettino hasn't actual bought anyone and youth players have been played because he has to play them. If you need a right back and your chairman says 'check the reserves' then that's what you do.

Well I'm incredibly concerned he hasn't won anything. Managers like Mourinho and Fergie were winning trophies with unfashionable teams way before they made waves at bigger clubs. Pochettino can't even pick up a second rate cup and has only made one final in 4 years. If he wins anything it will change my opinion, I just don't think he will. For me, Spurs always seem to choke when they absolutely have to win, that may not be completely his fault but he looks as though he doesn't know how to arrest a slide when his team don't have the momentum in a game, whether it be tactical or motivational, and those moments don't come often for Spurs or Southampton managers but they come every game for United managers seeing as it's the other teams cup final.

Well Di Matteo was playing the most reactive football I think I've ever seen so I would say that he fluked his way to a CL win, and there's also evidence to suggest Terry was doing a lot of the leading in that team. Zidane is objectively the better manager but I don't think he'll fit at United, he'll just be a big name flop, the PSG model doesn't work for us.
 
All the inane bickerings here aside, it’d be interesting to see how he copes with the loss of Kane and Son going to the Asian Cup next few weeks, on the back of 2 consecutive home defeats as well.
 
Tactically his plan A with a midfield diamond was beaten by ole and phelan today with lingard as a false 9 and rashford and martial countering through space on the sides.

Second half it was good tactical change by him. Dominated the game but lost the game on fine margins by superb de gea and a gritty clever mourinho esque tactics again in second half, though much better on the counter than just long balls.
 
Spurs hammered us in the second half. DDG must have had some great weed in Dubai to turn up in god mode today.

Anybody questioning Poch should have a look at themselves.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
He's our man, but Ole is putting us in a win win situation come the summer.
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He's making a damned good case for himself, plus he's got Phelan in there as well as Fergie helping him out. Whether the Wizard would carry on doing that into a new season is anyone's guess but he looks as if he's enjoying what he's seeing. Six on the bounce is not to be sneezed at.
 
He's taken Spurs as far as he can.

He's built a fantastic side, but I don't think they can make that next step up and challenge for major trophies seriously without investment.

Look at Liverpool - they spent 75m on VvD, 40m on Fabinho, 68m for Allison and 55m on Keita to take them up a level. Spurs just wouldn't spent that sort of £.
 
Moriarty said:
He's making a damned good case for himself, plus he's got Phelan in there as well as Fergie helping him out. Whether the Wizard would carry on doing that into a new season is anyone's guess but he looks as if he's enjoying what he's seeing. Six on the bounce is not to be sneezed at.
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The Fergie bit bothers me a bit, I just hope there's not too much Fergie input with all this sudden resurrection in style/form.

I just think Ole has to be near perfect to get the job long term if Poch is up for it, as Ole would have been so far from the thinking before Jose went, and as I say it concerns me if Fergie is having too much input.

Poch just looks like such a perfect fit for us so I'm all in for him for the long term, but I'm just enjoying watching us play like this for now, and if Ole gets it then fantastic.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
The Fergie bit bothers me a bit, I just hope there's not too much Fergie input with all this sudden resurrection in style/form.

I just think Ole has to be near perfect to get the job long term if Poch is up for it, as Ole would have been so far from the thinking before Jose went, and as I say it concerns me if Fergie is having too much input.

Poch just looks like such a perfect fit for us so I'm all in for him for the long term, but I'm just enjoying watching us play like this for now, and if Ole gets it then fantastic.
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If memory serves. Fergie was pushing for Poch in 2016 wasn't he? Anyway, I hope it's just Fergie helping to steady the ship for now until a final decision is made.
 
Spurs were pretty good today. Pochettino didn't do too much wrong. They should have won.

For once a result went in our favour.
 
Moriarty said:
If memory serves. Fergie was pushing for Poch in 2016 wasn't he? Anyway, I hope it's just Fergie helping to steady the ship for now until a final decision is made.
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Yep all for Fergie 'steadying the ship', just as long as Ole will be able to do the same sort of stuff when the help isn't there, I do personally think his influence is larger than is been let on.

If Ole gets top 4 then Poch would be the only manager worth us risking been able improve on what he has done on, and would finally put us in a strong position manager wise.
 
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