A serious look at Mauricio Pochettino

[Hugh Jass]

Like i say, i have doubts as to whether Poch can blow our players away. This is the biggest club in England and arguably the biggest in the world, so the players want someone who is so charismatic that they are seduced. I dont think Poch can do that. You have to really get inside players heads and make them want to die for you.

TBH i think perhaps only three managers in the world at present could do that: Pep, Klopp and Zidane. Pep and Klopp wont come and Zidane cannot speak a word of English. The jury is out on Nagglesman. I suspect he is too young for the players to be seduced by him. Maybe wait a few years.

Interestingly enough John Giles has never shut up about Conte. He says he would discipline the players but the problem with Conte is his style. It is Mourinho esque.

If you ever read Vince Lombardi, whom Ferguson had studied, he always said the top managers are psychologists, in that they are able to get inside players heads. Ferguson was able to do it. Marcello Lippi is another coach who ferguson respected that could do that. I suspect with Poch, he can do the tactics, but cannot get inside the players heads.

I would love to be wrong though.

 

[glazed]

I am 100 per cent sure if Woodward had articulated his plan properly to Klopp, he would have come here.

I'm 100% sure if he had articulated his actual plan Klopp would have said no a hell of a lot quicker than he did. If that's possible.

I like Poch, but it's quite obvious what the issue is at the club - the lack of a sporting director. The next manager, if we are to sack Ole, needs to be the one whose playing style actually is similar to that of Ole, and who can actually utilize what Ole has built here and take it further.

Hmm sporting director that can give long term continuity to Ole's rebuild? I think the PE teacher at Molde 6th form college is available.

Seriously we need to take Ole's playing style (if it can be called that), bin it as fast as possible and replace it with some actual tactical cohesion and modern thinking. Poch may not be god's gift but he's a good start.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

Like i say, i have doubts as to whether Poch can blow our players away. This is the biggest club in England and arguably the biggest in the world, so the players want someone who is so charismatic that they are seduced. I dont think Poch can do that. You have to really get inside players heads and make them want to die for you.

TBH i think perhaps only three managers in the world at present could do that: Pep, Klopp and Zidane. Pep and Klopp wont come and Zidane cannot speak a word of English. The jury is out on Nagglesman. I suspect he is too young for the players to be seduced by him. Maybe wait a few years.

Interestingly enough John Giles has never shut up about Conte. He says he would discipline the players but the problem with Conte is his style. It is Mourinho esque.

If you ever read Vince Lombardi, whom Ferguson had studied, he always said the top managers are psychologists, in that they are able to get inside players heads. Ferguson was able to do it. Marcello Lippi is another coach who ferguson respected that could do that. I suspect with Poch, he can do the tactics, but cannot get inside the players heads.

I would love to be wrong though.

Poch can do what you are saying though. The players fought for him. He's a good man manager

 

[fezzerUTD]

That looks like what I suspected. He basically took a bottom top 6 team and maintained them there, which is good but not great. And they should have had more draws and less losses while the amount of wins is acceptable. I don't know what you think but in the context of top 6 away games loss rates seem to give a better picture.

I've not read your prior exchanges on the subject but it's telling the 2 clubs with the smaller budget are at the top of the list for worst performing against the sides with a bigger budget.

 

[JPRouve]

I've not read your prior exchanges on the subject but it's telling the 2 clubs with the smaller budget are at the top of the list for worst performing against the sides with a bigger budget.

Yup, the rankings make perfect sense when you consider what each clubs actually had on the field and how much they each invested. Some United fans may think that the club overachieved in those games but I would argue that United underachieved against the bottom 14 and that we should always be in the top 3 with the squads that we have had during the last 6 years.

 

[fezzerUTD]

Yup, the rankings make perfect sense when you consider what each clubs actually had on the field and how much they each invested. Some United fans may think that the club overachieved in those games but I would argue that United underachieved against the bottom 14 and that we should always be in the top 3 with the squads that we have had during the last 6 years.

I agree. I think we have a capable squad but lack the coaching to take us forward. There is surely no way the likes of Sheff Utd and Leeds can play the way they do with solely the players they have. The coaching shines through with them 2 sides.

 

[Lyng]

This thread reminds me a lot of Redcafe's love in with Jose before he was made our manager. He was seen as the worthy manager who will surely bring success here (including me).

Its Woodwards PR team doing their magic. Even this close to a atrocious transferwindow (we didnt strengthen where it was most needed, and pissed about for most of the window and then panicked on the last day) the fans are allready forgetting about that and turning their hatred towards the manager instead.

Give it two seasons with Poch and we will be right back here again. He will do well in the first season, securing top 4, then he will not be backed, and he will react just like he did at spurs and the board will have a new scape goat...and rinse repeat.

 

[Bebestation]

Theres a part of me who wants to see how Jose does at Spurs on his second season.

If he ends up doing better than Pochettino's time there - then what exactly are we going for?

Someone who is worse than someone we already had? Someone who is able to build a stronger squad than previously done with a CEO or DOF or whatever levy is?

 

[GlastonSpur]

Like i say, i have doubts as to whether Poch can blow our players away. This is the biggest club in England and arguably the biggest in the world, so the players want someone who is so charismatic that they are seduced. I dont think Poch can do that. You have to really get inside players heads and make them want to die for you.

TBH i think perhaps only three managers in the world at present could do that: Pep, Klopp and Zidane. Pep and Klopp wont come and Zidane cannot speak a word of English. The jury is out on Nagglesman. I suspect he is too young for the players to be seduced by him. Maybe wait a few years.

Interestingly enough John Giles has never shut up about Conte. He says he would discipline the players but the problem with Conte is his style. It is Mourinho esque.

If you ever read Vince Lombardi, whom Ferguson had studied, he always said the top managers are psychologists, in that they are able to get inside players heads. Ferguson was able to do it. Marcello Lippi is another coach who ferguson respected that could do that. I suspect with Poch, he can do the tactics, but cannot get inside the players heads.

I would love to be wrong though.

Then such players need to be shown the door - which Poch would do double-quick-time. He has no time for prima donnas doing the whole '"look at me, I'm at a big club and therefore you need to impress me" routine.

On the contrary, he would say words to the effect of: "YOU need to impress me or you'll be out. The era of social media cult-building and big-time charlies is over at this club. I don't give a feck how much you earn or how good you think you are. You're only good enough for this club if I say you are... and until now you've been an under-performing, half-arsed, disjointed rabble. You will sweat blood. You will crawl into bed too knackered for your gaming consoles. From now on you will earn your wages. Get with the programme or be shipped out."

 

[Scroto Baggins]

Like i say, i have doubts as to whether Poch can blow our players away. This is the biggest club in England and arguably the biggest in the world, so the players want someone who is so charismatic that they are seduced. I dont think Poch can do that. You have to really get inside players heads and make them want to die for you.

We had that "superstar" manager with a big name in Jose, has won everything there is to win.

 

[Scroto Baggins]

Then such players need to be shown the door - which Poch would do double-quick-time. He has no time for prima donnas doing the whole '"look at me, I'm at a big club and therefore you need to impress me" routine.

On the contrary, he would say words to the effect of: "YOU need to impress me or you'll be out. The era of social media cult-building and big-time charlies is over at this club. I don't give a feck how much you earn or how good you think you are. You're only good enough for this club if I say you are... and until now you've been an under-performing, half-arsed, disjointed rabble. You will sweat blood. You will crawl into bed too knackered for your gaming consoles. From now on you will earn your wages. Get with the programme or be shipped out."

This approach will not fly with Ed and the board and their ideas of investment players. He will not have the kind of power he had at Spurs where he shipped out the team captain and sold him, along with a lot of other players he deemed were not performing. Adebayor was your star player and relegated to training with the reserves under Pochettino, that would not fly here, I certainly do not see Ed condoning his 90mil investment being sent to play with the reserves if Pochettino did not like Pogba's attitude and application.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

The thing is Pochettino's qualities are obvious but his flaws seem to be as obvious. Tottenham have been a well drilled team when all the starters were fit but to me it seems that he has always struggled to integrate or adapt to new players with different characteristics. I have an LVG vibe about him where I wouldn't trust him with money, I feel that he is a manager that can thrive when he is forced to deal with what he has and new shiny players quickly become an hindrance more than an asset.

I suspect that he is the foundation type of manager and not the one to take you to the top of the food chain, I don't know if that makes sense?

Sums it up well. While he's definitely better than Ole and would be a significant upgrade, Pochettino based on his time at Spurs reflects the strengthens and weaknesses you mention. He was excellent at developing and building a football team through coaching of what he had. But his transfer spending didn't have the impact it needed to. In fact, in the summer preceding the season he lost his job, Spurs had spent a fair amount of money and there was a consensus that this should make Spurs potential challengers or at least dark horses for the same. Instead it completely fell apart. Of course one could be reading too deep and simplistically into what could have been a much more complicated situation. But that's how he came across - great coach and developer of teams, not so great manager.

Like I said, comfortable upgrade over what we have and young enough to prove that the above sentiment is misplaced considering other factors that may have been involved but those fears do exist, for now

 

[amolbhatia50k]

We had that "superstar" manager with a big name in Jose, has won everything there is to win.

Yup. What we need most is a proper tactically excellent and modern coach. However among those, it would obviously help if the individual was also strong at management as at the very highest level you need both.

 

[Mastadon]

Sums it up well. While he's definitely better than Ole and would be a significant upgrade, Pochettino based on his time at Spurs reflects the strengthens and weaknesses you mention. He was excellent at developing and building a football team through coaching of what he had. But his transfer spending didn't have the impact it needed to. In fact, in the summer preceding the season he lost his job, Spurs had spent a fair amount of money and there was a consensus that this should make Spurs potential challengers or at least dark horses for the same. Instead it completely fell apart. Of course one could be reading too deep and simplistically into what could have been a much more complicated situation. But that's how he came across - great coach and developer of teams, not so great manager.

Like I said, comfortable upgrade over what we have and young enough to prove that the above sentiment is misplaced considering other factors that may have been involved but those fears do exist, for now

Spurs spending under Poch was very much limited to buying after selling which meant you were always replacing players rather than strengthening and also hugely restricted by the wage structure at the club which also meant you couldn’t compete with the other big clubs once they come in for the players you were interested in. Not easy to sign your targets at all so the signings they did make were either 2nd/3rd choice players or under the radar guys like Son. Bit hard to judge his transfer record when you take into account the fact that he was working under tight fisted Levy.

 

[Himannv]

Hmm sporting director that can give long term continuity to Ole's rebuild? I think the PE teacher at Molde 6th form college is available.

Seriously we need to take Ole's playing style (if it can be called that), bin it as fast as possible and replace it with some actual tactical cohesion and modern thinking. Poch may not be god's gift but he's a good start.

The reason for the sporting director is to fix the problems we have seen ever since Fergie retired. Over these few years we've had possession-based football, a defensive physically dominant approach, and now playing out from the back. And each of the managers we have hired have bought players who fit their philosophy, which means you have a mix of players who aren't ideally suited to a philosophy of a new coach. This is just not sustainable in the long term.

A sporting director (or whatever you like to call it) will determine the style of play that we need to see at Manchester United over, not just 1 or 2 years, but 5 or 10 years. As such, he will ensure that only managers who can play the style of football that he wants are hired. This also means that a signing made by the first manager will also be useful to the second manager and so on and so forth. Right now, if we fire Ole and bring in Poch, the new coach will find that there are very few players who can play in the pressing system the way he wants. So his solution is to buy new players, just like all the other managers have done, and we see a new spending spree. Rinse and repeat with his replacement.

No sporting director = rubbish future planning and more extreme spending to fix the problem. This problem exists regardless of who the manager is.

 

[Acheron]

Theres a part of me who wants to see how Jose does at Spurs on his second season.

If he ends up doing better than Pochettino's time there - then what exactly are we going for?

Someone who is worse than someone we already had? Someone who is able to build a stronger squad than previously done with a CEO or DOF or whatever levy is?

The perspective doesn't have to be like that as Manchester United and Tottenham are different clubs and both Mourinho and Pochettino have different styles. Though it would had made more sense for United to back up and stick with Mourinhorather than replacing him with a very limited manager in Ole, the thing with managers sometimes is getting them at the right time. With United it seems they always get the wrong person and the wrong time and stick with them longer than you should. Like I said it would had been better to stick with LVG or Mourinho and giving them more time to build something but it's a waste of time when you have someone like Moyes or Ole. With Pochettino it would be a good start to get the team playing some modern football for once and having a more defined playstyle, even if he's not and instant success I believe he's the type of manager who can set the team in the right direction and it should be easier finding a successor who can carry on with a similar style.

 

[Asger]

Yup, the rankings make perfect sense when you consider what each clubs actually had on the field and how much they each invested. Some United fans may think that the club overachieved in those games but I would argue that United underachieved against the bottom 14 and that we should always be in the top 3 with the squads that we have had during the last 6 years.

Really? With our squad 5th place would be great.

 

[Number32]

LVG ressurected Bayern and Netherlands before managing United.
Mourinho just won the title before managing United.

Pochetino is also a great coach, I do agree with you all. But why do you expect any great manager will save us again like another great coach ressurect the dying football club? We have a different system inherited from Sir Alex's era. Stuck with a greedy top managements who never care about football.

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/the-athletic-why-man-utds-profit-must-not-drop-below-£65m.457681/

The thread above has shown we are not a football club anymore, we are a business club, run by bankers. So what's the point of hiring a great coach?

Ole might just an average coach, we will have a disaster season incoming, but he cares about our future. He build the team with young talents for our future, restore the academy to the elite level, and get rid of deadwoods.

Of course Poch woul found another deadwoods from Ole's signing, and that's the real problem. We will struggle to replace them with the better players because none of his transfer target would be signed. Fortunately, the young players will step up and Ole deserve more credits from that.

The big questions for Poch: Will he care about our future as Ole does? Or He's just another LVG and Mourinho who would be sacked after the honey moon is over. Then we might stuck with Ole as caretaker manager again.

We have no hope in the transfer market, and will never be. Building young talents is our only hope, and that's what Ole does.

 

[RkkMan]

LVG ressurected Bayern and Netherlands before managing United.
Mourinho just won the title before managing United.

Pochetino is also a great coach, I do agree with you all. But why do you expect any great manager will save us again like another great coach ressurect the dying football club? We have a different system inherited from Sir Alex's era. Stuck with a greedy top managements who never care about football.

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/the-athletic-why-man-utds-profit-must-not-drop-below-£65m.457681/

The thread above has shown we are not a football club anymore, we are a business club, run by bankers. So what's the point of hiring a great coach?

Ole might just an average coach, we will have a disaster season incoming, but he cares about our future. He build the team with young talents for our future, restore the academy to the elite level, and get rid of deadwoods.

Of course Poch woul found another deadwoods from Ole's signing, and that's the real problem. We will struggle to replace them with the better players because none of his transfer target would be signed. Fortunately, the young players will step up and Ole deserve more credits from that.

The big questions for Poch: Will he care about our future as Ole does? Or He's just another LVG and Mourinho who would be sacked after the honey moon is over. Then we might stuck with Ole as caretaker manager again.

We have no hope in the transfer market, and will never be. Building young talents is our only hope, and that's what Ole does.

A bit over the top this. Unlike our past managers managers Ole won`t be leaving us with an average squad the only positions of real concern which the next manager may want to improve and probably will(as we always spend without CL football) is DM and CB. Bruno, Martial and (apparently) Maguire were all players Poch wanted at Spurs. VDB is a Poch type of CM, his developmental skills with young players will no doubt improve Rashford and Greenwood, Poch plays with attacking fullbacks Telles and Dalot off the back of hopefully a good season at Milan are exactly his types of fullbacks, DDG and Henderson are one of the best GKs ITL, Shaw is a player he worked with at Southampton, he`ll no doubt value the quality and experience of Cavani and there`s still young exciting players like Mejbri, Pellistri and especially Traore he`ll work with and no doubt make better.
Things may be bad but squad quality wise we`re in our best position since 2013 and any top manager provided they are of the right profile(Poch, Rose, Nagelsmann not an Allegri/Conte) with good backing in their first window(which without CL football won`t be a problem) can get us to challenging titles.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Really? With our squad 5th place would be great.

Nope. It would be a complete failure.

 

[JPRouve]

Spurs spending under Poch was very much limited to buying after selling which meant you were always replacing players rather than strengthening and also hugely restricted by the wage structure at the club which also meant you couldn’t compete with the other big clubs once they come in for the players you were interested in. Not easy to sign your targets at all so the signings they did make were either 2nd/3rd choice players or under the radar guys like Son. Bit hard to judge his transfer record when you take into account the fact that he was working under tight fisted Levy.

Is that true, which clear starter did he lost during the transfer market with Spurs? What you describe only applies to Walker who was replaced by Aurier but they already had Trippier as a potential starter. Other than that none of the player they brought was in a replacing rather than strengthening situation.

 

[Inigo Montoya]

LVG ressurected Bayern and Netherlands before managing United.
Mourinho just won the title before managing United.

Pochetino is also a great coach, I do agree with you all. But why do you expect any great manager will save us again like another great coach ressurect the dying football club? We have a different system inherited from Sir Alex's era. Stuck with a greedy top managements who never care about football.

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/the-athletic-why-man-utds-profit-must-not-drop-below-£65m.457681/

The thread above has shown we are not a football club anymore, we are a business club, run by bankers. So what's the point of hiring a great coach?

Ole might just an average coach, we will have a disaster season incoming, but he cares about our future. He build the team with young talents for our future, restore the academy to the elite level, and get rid of deadwoods.

Of course Poch woul found another deadwoods from Ole's signing, and that's the real problem. We will struggle to replace them with the better players because none of his transfer target would be signed. Fortunately, the young players will step up and Ole deserve more credits from that.

The big questions for Poch: Will he care about our future as Ole does? Or He's just another LVG and Mourinho who would be sacked after the honey moon is over. Then we might stuck with Ole as caretaker manager again.

We have no hope in the transfer market, and will never be. Building young talents is our only hope, and that's what Ole does.

He did indeed but the powers that be thought it's be great to bring in Jose when it was possible that he'd do that at Utd

 

[FrankDrebin]

I'm not getting good vibes from Poch being our next coach.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

Really? With our squad 5th place would be great.

You're joking

 

[saivet]

You raised a valid point, so I checked it out for you, see below:

​

Club​	Games*​	W​	D​	L​	CS​	GF​	GA​	GD​
Arsenal​	32​	3​	12​	17​	3​	40​	69​	-29​
Tottenham​	35​	4​	9​	22​	2​	41​	69​	-28​
Chelsea​	34​	5​	13​	16​	4​	29​	57​	-28​
Liverpool​	31​	9​	12​	10​	5​	41​	48​	-7​
United​	31​	10​	6​	15​	8​	26​	41​	-15​
City​	37​	12​	8​	17​	12​	44​	54​	-10​

*Top 6 away games all comps during Pochettinos time at Tottenham

Club​	Win %​	Draw %​	Loss %​
Arsenal​	9%​	38%​	53%​
Tottenham​	11%​	26%​	63%​
Chelsea​	15%​	38%​	47%​
Liverpool​	29%​	39%​	32%​
United​	32%​	19%​	48%​
City​	32%​	22%​	46%​

Now, you have to bare in mind that Tottenham at this point was fairly stable while others around them were in various states of rebuild. You would hope or assume that Pochettino would have been able to take advantage of that and be able to win more games. Alas, he can't. In the games that truly matter, he can't do it. It's why I think the top clubs are avoiding him in my opinion. Let's be fair, United have been largely abysmal during Pochettinos reign and we ended up with a far better record than he managed in the tough games. That should be a big red alarm right? Ultimately I guess it depends on what we want for our next United Manager, another man to come in and attempt a rebuild or a man to come in and take us back up to the top. If we want the later, Pochettino imo isn't that man.

I wonder how this changes with top 6 home games. I'm not sure of the value of only focusing on tough away games.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Isn't Poch's form in Europe against the big sides pretty good though ?

 

[glazed]

The reason for the sporting director is to fix the problems we have seen ever since Fergie retired. Over these few years we've had possession-based football, a defensive physically dominant approach, and now playing out from the back. And each of the managers we have hired have bought players who fit their philosophy, which means you have a mix of players who aren't ideally suited to a philosophy of a new coach. This is just not sustainable in the long term.

A sporting director (or whatever you like to call it) will determine the style of play that we need to see at Manchester United over, not just 1 or 2 years, but 5 or 10 years. As such, he will ensure that only managers who can play the style of football that he wants are hired. This also means that a signing made by the first manager will also be useful to the second manager and so on and so forth. Right now, if we fire Ole and bring in Poch, the new coach will find that there are very few players who can play in the pressing system the way he wants. So his solution is to buy new players, just like all the other managers have done, and we see a new spending spree. Rinse and repeat with his replacement.

No sporting director = rubbish future planning and more extreme spending to fix the problem. This problem exists regardless of who the manager is.

I agree with everything you say excerpt the idea of locking ourselves into the wrong style for a decade.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Isn't Poch's form in Europe against the big sides pretty good though ?

No, no, no. It doesn't go like that. You must use stats which don't go in his favour.
But nevertheless, stats are don't tell the story about his job in Spurs. People pull stats like he was a manager of City or United. It was bloody Tottenham.

 

[Castia]

I don’t agree with the ‘he’s never won a trophy!!’ shit that’s usually thrown at him. He did a great job at Southampton solidifying them as a PL side at the time which earned him a move to Spurs.

Spurs were shite. They’d qualified for the CL once in about 20 years and that took a Ronaldo like season from Bale to scrape 4th place under Harry. He took them to second in the league and a few third place finishes, with the squad he inherited and the net spend of basically feck all he had no right to be challenging. He had a kid from MK Dons (dele) and a young striker who hadn’t really impressed in multiple loan moves (Kane) and in his first season at Spurs turned them into 2 if the best young players in the PL.

In the meantime United, City and Chelsea were throwing hundreds of millions at transfers whilst Spurs were building a stadium and pretty much selling players to raise funds for transfers.

So for me the ‘he’s won nothing’ stuff is bollocks he overachieved.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Rinse and repeat...does anyone really expect it the turn out any different.

It’s amazing the Glazers still have faith in anything Woody recommends.

What is wrong with that? It is amazing how people still use that argument. We will need new manager in 2 or 3 years? So what?
We hired LVG. He put us back in CL and won FA cup. Then we hired Jose. He put us back in CL and won two trophies and finished 2nd.
Yes, our board will not invest enough to make us title challengers. That will not change. So lets hire manager who can work without 11 top stars. Ole can't. Poch proved that he can. So lets hire him and see what happens. If he fails we will hire new manager then another then another. Just like every club in the world is doing.

 

[Himannv]

I agree with everything you say excerpt the idea of locking ourselves into the wrong style for a decade.

Yes, whoever we hire should have the correct vision. Unfortunately it's a critical hire for us, so obviously Woodward won't do it.

 

[Member 105568]

Poch got Spurs into the Champions League, season on season and took them to the final of the UCL. 3 seasons of that would surely be good enough, as things are. Worry about winning the league later...

 

[spiriticon]

If Poch picks a fight with Ed over transfers there's only going to be one winner there. We've seen that happen before...

 

[Sarni]

Poch got Spurs into the Champions League, season on season and took them to the final of the UCL. 3 seasons of that would surely be good enough, as things are. Worry about winning the league later...

League is significantly stronger now though.

 

[golden_blunder]

Hes still an unknown quantity to an extent for me but who else is there? Everyone is a punt really unless you can somehow convince ancelloti to move from Everton.

let’s face it, we are going to go around in circles until the club structure changes

 

[hubbuh]

Hes still an unknown quantity to an extent for me but who else is there? Everyone is a punt really unless you can somehow convince ancelloti to move from Everton.

let’s face it, we are going to go around in circles until the club structure changes

He's definitely the most obvious candidate in terms of experience, availability etc. But there's a definite and well-founded apprehension regarding Poch as outline by posters above. The (very questionable) structure of our club needs a manager that can handle every and all aspects of the job and Poch really does seem to struggle with buying and implementing new players. Great coach but maybe not the type of manager we need? I was all in on Poch a bit less than a year ago but I'm with others in thinking that we might need to start stepping outside the box and go for someone a bit more progressive (ie. go German).

But yeah agreed re. the structure of the club makes the idea of sustainable progress feel like a pipe dream.

 

[spiriticon]

I still feel Poch needs to have experience winning a few major leagues elsewhere before he can come to United.

Our expectations here are too big for his CV, and he won't get the support he thinks he will get.

 

[balaks]

That looks like what I suspected. He basically took a bottom top 6 team and maintained them there, which is good but not great. And they should have had more draws and less losses while the amount of wins is acceptable. I don't know what you think but in the context of top 6 away games loss rates seem to give a better picture.

Incredible under playing of what he actually achieved there I must say. Turning a bottom top 6 team into a top 4/3 team is incredibly difficult especially when you consider the spending power you are up against. He also got the team to a Champions League final, let's not forget that. I hope he doesn't go to Utd because then I would start to fear Utd again.

 

[Ballache]

Hes still an unknown quantity to an extent for me but who else is there? Everyone is a punt really unless you can somehow convince ancelloti to move from Everton.

let’s face it, we are going to go around in circles until the club structure changes

Fully agree with this.
DOF is a priority, Poch would be a good appointment IMO under the right circumstances and he's definitely a better coach than Ole.

 

[JPRouve]

Incredible under playing of what he actually achieved there I must say.

How? If you take into account underachievements from the closest teams(Chelsea and United) and the total absence of silveware, that's exactly what he did. He took a team that was arguably the 6th best team and was sacked leaving them as the 6th best team. And I think that it's a positive thing because he gave you stability, while spending less than every other top 6 teams, which is how you managed to finish 2nd and 3rd but he never really made you the actual 3rd best team which is reflected in your results against the other top 6 teams.