Ok, so ..
I'm hearing a lot about how it's the players fault that we conceded 7 at home tonight. That somehow a backline featuring 4 internationals who start for their countries, with the French captain behind them, are so poor as individual players that they're incapable of putting in a competent performance in which we aren't completely taken apart by a not particularly brilliant Bayern team. It's complete and utter fecking nonsense. None of them are perfect players and all have their weaknesses (fullbacks in particular are a joke) but right now the way we're set up is simply magnifying those weaknesses, and the lot of them are clearly a basket full of nerves currently.
We set up, again, without a recognised defensive midfielder. Nobody seemed to be protecting our two ageing central defenders with two fullbacks who love to get forward (and often lose the ball) high up the pitch. I think it was meant to be Sissoko in that role, but he has zero positional discipline, and Pochettino should be aware that he's going to leave gaps all over the place, which is what happened. We looked bright going forward and winning the ball, but when Bayern got it and attacked the space, they had so much space in/around the box and for Gnabry and Coman to drive in to.
Furthermore, we played (as usual) with an incredibly high line. We persist with this tactic despite the fact that Bayern had two players who were ripping us apart when getting in behind, and midfielders very much capable of picking them out in those positions. A high line with slow central defenders and no defensive midfielder against the movement of Lewandowski and two flying wingers either side of him? When we're currently very low in confidence? It's suicide tactics. Pochettino setup like we're playing Aston Villa at home on a 10 game winning run. We were able to look bright in attacking positions because we have good ball carriers/forwards, but tactically were a complete mess when it came to stopping Bayern from getting in to scoring positions.
Aside from that, mentally we're shot as a team. We took the lead tonight, just like we did against Olympiakos, Leicester and Arsenal, but as soon as the pressure started getting applied and a goal went in, we gradually fell apart and showed zero ability to get a grip on what was happening on the pitch. People used to joke about us being Spursy, but for a good while under Poch we were actually a very resilient team, often held on to leads and also came back from losing positions, but now we're a team that doubts itself when in front and crumbles when it falls behind. A Pochettino team used to be one which showed a hell of a lot of fight, tonight it looked like players just wanted it to be over and limply accepted what was going on, even when the penalty got us back in to the game it didn't seem to trigger any kind of fight.
The truth is this has been building for a while. Over a long period Pochettino has grumbled in the press, been linked to moves away, culminating in him openly declaring he would consider it the end of his time at the club if we won the Champions League. I do think that gradual frustration at a lack of investment and turnover in the squad has simply led to Pochettino losing interest, and that kind of attitude can seep down in to the squad and lead to a team which simply isn't motivated to play to their top level. There hasn't really been an opportunity for him to move on, but if there had been, would he have taken it? I think so.
There's obviously issues unrelated to the manager. Several of our key players don't really want to be here any longer and that's bound to cause friction in the dressing room. They should have been moved on from the club and replaced, but instead we've left it to the last second. But Pochettino continues to start the likes of Eriksen, Toby and Aurier despite the alternatives being there, and it was him who (according to reports) basically failed to tell Trippier he wasn't wanted, leading to a bit of a crisis at fullback. I blamed Trippier a lot for poor performances last season, but his success at Atletico leads me to believe that defensively at least, our defenders right now are being set up to fail. We also get bizarre decisions like starting Alli when he looked barely league 2 level at Colchester and was embarrassing against Olympiakos, and seriously Aurier? After he was a complete moron against Southampton? Jesus christ. Lamela has shown the most fight of anybody this season and didn't even get on the pitch tonight.
Basically, I think it's done. Pochettino has never been a top manager tactically, which I do think is part of why we've failed to win a trophy despite being impressive, but has built a fantastic team through having a philosophy which works, and a squad which will run through walls for him. He built a legacy off the back of a lot of young players who he developed brilliantly, but now he has a lot of players who are ageing and can't press like mad dogs every week, but he's failed to adapt to the changing face of the squad. If he goes elsewhere and gets the time and backing to build his own team I think he'll be successful, because he's a fantastic and inspiring coach, but once a manager loses a dressing room it's almost impossible to recover from that.
And finally, stop saying tonight was a fluke or a one off. A huge defeat has been coming for ages. We should have been slapped for 6 or 7 by City in the second game of the season but for some reason Jesus Christ himself was on our side and stopped City from ripping us to shreds. Tactically we've been hugely naive and open for ages, individual quality from the likes of Kane or Son has been getting us through games but as a team we haven't put together a good run in over a year, and you can't accept that to simply turn around. Tonight could have been even worse - our penalty was soft and they should have had one. If we continue with Poch the games we have left vs City & Liverpool could be horrendous, proper us under AVB stuff.
Fecking long post so I don't really expect anyone to read it
. But I needed to try and counter the bullshit about 'it's just players letting him down' or 'it was just a one off fluke', because it's nothing like that. People have been saying Spurs fans have been overreacting for fecking months now, when the fans who watch us week in and week out can clearly see there's something very wrong at the heart of the club. Our form over a large period of time has been nothing short of woeful, it's not just some blip at the club, it's a manager who no longer really wants to be here leading a squad of players who either don't really believe in him anymore, or want to leave themselves.
