I'm using that as a barometer because this is a United-forum and we have United-supporters wanking themselves silly over Poch and how good he is doing with "inferior" players. The truth is he's got a strong starting 11 and some half-decent squad players, which is to be expected when he's had 5 years to assemble a team.
This argument always seems to crop up time and time again about Spurs having the best players and people keep spectacularly missing the point. Two seasons ago in 2016/17 it could be argued that Spurs had the best starting eleven in the league although the backups weren't that great. Now it can be argued that whilst they have improved the squad the starting eleven needs improving so this myth about Spurs having a strong eleven needs to be addressed properly, good enough to challenge the top four and go on an extensive CL run but better than Liverpool or City?, no which is why they probably finished so far behind them in the league and probably why they couldn't match Liverpool in the final.
5 years to assemble a team whilst not being properly backed and losing Walker and Dembele in the process, let's get it right.
From what I read on here this is the entire problem with this forum, Utd fans who oppose the idea of Pochettino becoming Utd manager or the very thought of Poch being hyped up to be a better fit than Ole go to the extremes of downplaying him as a manager for that reason, it's typical in these debates that people generally over exaggerate to make a point and desperately try to hold onto something which could be remotely spun as negative, most of the anti Poch arguments are tenuous as best.
Still, he only finished 4th in the league this year after collapsing in the league after new year.
Yeah mate
only finished fourth in the league despite:
- Not signing any players in the summer or January windows.
- Having to put up with playing at Wembley for most of the season and the disruption of the delays all season
- Having a ridiculous injury list and having key players out injured particularly towards the end of the season
All this despite having the 6th highest wage bill compared to their rivals and a net spend of £29m based over the 5 year period since he's been at the club, for a team who never consistently finished in the top 4 - Spurs getting top 4 once again in such a testing season can only be seen as a positive and cannot really be downplayed as something that's par for the course.
And this will answer your question as to why Spurs probably collapsed after February - it's because they were mentally and physically tired especially since the majority of their first team played in the latter stages of the World Cup and never really had a pre season to get going. Poch's teams traditionally get stronger as the season progresses yet they only picked up 11 points out of 36, that's an anomaly which suggests that the players were spent going into the latter part of the season.
A few lucky wins saved the CL-spot. There was a lot of luck involved in his CL-run up to the final as well, and in the final they put out an embarrasing performance. Losing a final without ever coming close to winning it isn't really that impressing.
Here we go again with this lucky narrative, people such as yourself don't really know what luck is and only use the term when it benefits you. Go on then explain to me what a lucky win is in this context, if you mean the late goals Spurs scored to get them over the line that's not luck, it's called resilience Even then if you want to use the weak lucky narrative argument then surely it needs to work both ways, Spurs lost games where they were 'unlucky' like the 1-0 against Utd at Wembley for example...it works both ways and all teams can make the same arguments where they can point to should or should not have won or lost matches, it's a load of crap isn't it?
Also I've given you facts as to why the CL run was anything but lucky and quite conveniently you have failed to produce a convincing counter argument. You constantly screaming it whilst sticking your fingers in your ear it doesn't make it any more true.
And yes, I've had Tottenham as an outsider this year in the CL after they got through the group stages as they are a physically strong team that the "better sides" usually struggles with. Don't understand why they looked so scared in the final, though. Poch has to take a lot of blame for that.
You say that he may have to take some blame for the final performance and put the blame on him
even though he set the team up correctly yet you're not willing to give him any props for getting them there in the first place, brilliant.
You've proved my entire point about tenuous, myopic arguments in this thread and this one stands out.
You can keep downplaying your own players, but Lloris, Verthongen, Alderweireld, Eriksen, Son, (Alli) and Kane would probably start for most top 4 sides in Europe. Sissoko is a good squad-player and your fullbacks are also quite good compared to what many other top sides has got.
I haven't downplayed anyone, I've agreed that those players bar Alli (this season) were worthy of starting a CL final. You said that our full backs are quite good and I've just told you that Trippier is having a poor season although Rose is good he isn't the same player that he was 2 seasons ago where he was the best LB in the league. Still this is the team he built and these are players that he's built up to the level they are at today - Spurs have absolutely no right to be finishing where they finish year in year out and it's all down to one man.
