Havre
Registered User
- Jul 24, 2011
- 8,459
- 1,733
Highly unlikely that Spurs will end up top 4, but not impossible any longer. But instead of making this a Spurs-thread I think it is interesting to see some of the changes Mourinho has made. Very common sense ones I would argue.
1. Not playing out from the back from goal kicks.
I never understood this from Pochettino. I prefer teams that can play out from the back, not because you more or less ever score goals from it in the PL, but because you tire out the oppositions attackers that have to chase you. It requires a goalkeeper that can pass the ball. Allison and Ederson do - Lloris can´t. Lloris is a specialist in picking out the defender that will be easiest to put under pressure by the opposition. It requires defenders that are capable of small passes under pressure. Alderweireld is an exceptional passer of the ball for a CD, but not when it comes to small passing close to his own goal. Vertonghen is decent, but same applies to him. Davies is quite useless. Sanchez is horrible etc. It also requires a DM/CM that can be an outlet. Modric was. Carrick was that etc., but among the current crop no-one is especially good in that role. Winks can be, but he still has much to learn in terms of shielding the ball. Sissoko and Dier are very poor at that aspect of the game. N´Dombele might play it longer term, but not yet. Rose is the only player in those positions that is reasonably comfortable playing that kind of football. He is the only player that could play that part of the game the way City do without looking out of place. Even Bournemouth got players a lot more suited to that style than Spurs. Still Pochettino insisted on playing it short. Shocking that after 5 years you then haven´t bought players suited for it. The biggest investment was Sanchez who´s biggest weakness is that part of the game (he is an OK passer further up the pitch).
What was the effect? Spurs were put under pressure. Attackers spent a lot of energy trying to find space, but they never received proper passes from the defenders. Now it is kicked long and even if Spurs haven´t got that much height up front it is still the preferable way of resetting the play. With aggression on the second ball you can still occasionally get into decent positions. Common sense.
2. Better balance.
Again just obvious common sense. When Spurs were good under Pochettino the team always had defensively sound CMs. Even when Mason and Bentaleb played they never allowed endless amount of space in front of the CMs. The best pairing was the good Dier (god knows where he went) and Dembele. Dembele was unbeatable defensively one on one and Dier always covered the space in front of the CDs well. Same with Wanyama. At times it was even Dier and Wanyama. A black hole offensively, but at least it made Spurs difficult to beat. With solid CMs you could allow Walker and Rose to attack. What did Pochettino do? Dier went #"%% and Wanyama got injured. The full backs are still pushed up, but the midfield is now players like Winks, Sissoko and even guys like Eriksen and Alli. How are they going to cover the CDs and roaming full backs? Sissoko has been shockingly good for quite some time, but he is not disciplined enough to be asked to cover the space in front of the CDs. Winks can if he has a solid CM next to him (someone like Dembele), but he can never be Makelele covering up for Sissoko and even worse Alli or Eriksen.
Mourinho, as most Spursfans, quickly understands how stupid this is. Davies is asked to play as a LB, but basically being the 3rd CD against WH. When Davies gets injured it isn´t Rose that comes in against Bournemouth, but Vertonghen. This again allows Aurier to move forward without having to worry too much about what is happening behind him. Suddenly Aurier looks like a decent player again. Similarly he plays Dier er a DM. Dier has been shocking, but it still means the team is slightly less open than without him. Spurs are by no means solid defensively under Mourinho (so far), but the structure looks better. And if Dier had only been 80% of the player he used to be it would have looked a lot better.
3. No more Alli in midfield
Alli scores 10 and 18 goals in the league and Pochettino decides to move him further back. Not many strikers will score 18 goals and instead of keeping him high on the pitch Pochettino forces him further and further back. He even does the same with Eriksen. The opposite of what Mourinho tries to do. And the opposite of how Pochettino did early on. He created almost a new formation allowing Dier to be a hybrid between a midfield and a defender. Forget the goals Alli has scored the last games - he looks like a player again. Easy to forget how good he used to be - and now he is 95% of his old self again. No reason why he can´t go on being even better. He scores goals, he works hard, he can create chances etc. Similar to Aurier Mourinho is tweaking his formation to get the best out of players. I don´t mind doing in the other way around, but then you got to buy the right kind of players to fit into those roles. Pochettino didn´t for the last years at Spurs.
4. No more endless changing in formation (well - time will show)
So Pochettino uses the summer to come up with a "new" formation - the midfield diamond. It fails miserably. I still have no clue as to which players he wanted to play in which roles. Alli, Eriksen and Lo Celso are all best suited to that no. 10 position. Son works as a second striker, but it is not his best position - neither is it for Lucas. And if Kane doesn´t play who is playing up front? N´Dombele should fit the no. 8 role perfectly, but who else? Again Pochettino tries to shoe horn Alli and Eriksen into such a role. Of course it fails. Eriksen is no Modric even if they have some of the same strengths on the ball. He will never tackle! That is OK for a no. 10, but not a no. 8. Lo Celso could play that role, but one of the reasons he got back on track again was being allowed to be more of a no. 10 in Spain. In France the times I watched him he looked rather average playing deeper (I realise he often played deeper than a no. 8 would).
Then Spurs played 4-4-2 with no wingers. Spurs have played 5-3-2. 3-5-2 and of course 4-2-3-1. The only formation Pochettino has hardly used since 2017 is 3-4-3 which was the formation he became successful with. Alli - Kane - Eriksen with two fairly pacy wide players in Walker and Rose.
Mourinho sees one fantastic wide forward in Son. So he plays him as a wide forward/winger. He sees that Lucas´ best position is similar (Lucas is hardly fantastic, but he is OK in that role - and he always plays with intensity which is useful in the position Spurs ended up in). Alli is more of a no. 10 so he plays there. Even if it means it is difficult to make room for two of Spurs´best players in Eriksen and Lo Celso. He settles the central of midfield with the two most disciplined CMs in Dier and Winks (even if they are both playing poorly at the moment). When Sissoko replaces Lucas he slightly tweaks the formation allowing Sissoko to be slightly more centrally. A bit funny how easily Mourinho exposes how strangely Pochettino ended up shaping this squad. It got a lot of individual quality, but it is clearly unbalanced. My only fear is that Mourinho´s love for Dier as a man will mean he is too patient with him (I hope Dier proves me wrong of course and turns it around).
Do I believe this was because Pochettino is that bad? No. But I do believe he is a very stubborn man that lost his way. Both tactically and maybe even worse starting to be a moaner clearly indirectly blaming others for his failures. How can you believe that stating publicly that you need another 5 year plan to build a new team will be helpful when most of your core is in the prime and in some cases at the very end of it? How motivating is it for Lloris, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Kane, Son etc to hear that they will have to wait years to be competitive again? Completely clueless. Do I believe Pochettino is that stupid? No, but I believe he became that stupid - if only temporary.
I am actually looking forward to see how Pochettino will manage his next team. I honestly have no clue as to how good he is as a manager. Based on the last two years in my judgement he is very average. And I believe there is a good possibility he will fail in his next job at a big club. At the same time if he can readjust himself that 16/17-team played some fantastic football. If he can make a team with better individual quality play like that it will be sensational. We will see.
1. Not playing out from the back from goal kicks.
I never understood this from Pochettino. I prefer teams that can play out from the back, not because you more or less ever score goals from it in the PL, but because you tire out the oppositions attackers that have to chase you. It requires a goalkeeper that can pass the ball. Allison and Ederson do - Lloris can´t. Lloris is a specialist in picking out the defender that will be easiest to put under pressure by the opposition. It requires defenders that are capable of small passes under pressure. Alderweireld is an exceptional passer of the ball for a CD, but not when it comes to small passing close to his own goal. Vertonghen is decent, but same applies to him. Davies is quite useless. Sanchez is horrible etc. It also requires a DM/CM that can be an outlet. Modric was. Carrick was that etc., but among the current crop no-one is especially good in that role. Winks can be, but he still has much to learn in terms of shielding the ball. Sissoko and Dier are very poor at that aspect of the game. N´Dombele might play it longer term, but not yet. Rose is the only player in those positions that is reasonably comfortable playing that kind of football. He is the only player that could play that part of the game the way City do without looking out of place. Even Bournemouth got players a lot more suited to that style than Spurs. Still Pochettino insisted on playing it short. Shocking that after 5 years you then haven´t bought players suited for it. The biggest investment was Sanchez who´s biggest weakness is that part of the game (he is an OK passer further up the pitch).
What was the effect? Spurs were put under pressure. Attackers spent a lot of energy trying to find space, but they never received proper passes from the defenders. Now it is kicked long and even if Spurs haven´t got that much height up front it is still the preferable way of resetting the play. With aggression on the second ball you can still occasionally get into decent positions. Common sense.
2. Better balance.
Again just obvious common sense. When Spurs were good under Pochettino the team always had defensively sound CMs. Even when Mason and Bentaleb played they never allowed endless amount of space in front of the CMs. The best pairing was the good Dier (god knows where he went) and Dembele. Dembele was unbeatable defensively one on one and Dier always covered the space in front of the CDs well. Same with Wanyama. At times it was even Dier and Wanyama. A black hole offensively, but at least it made Spurs difficult to beat. With solid CMs you could allow Walker and Rose to attack. What did Pochettino do? Dier went #"%% and Wanyama got injured. The full backs are still pushed up, but the midfield is now players like Winks, Sissoko and even guys like Eriksen and Alli. How are they going to cover the CDs and roaming full backs? Sissoko has been shockingly good for quite some time, but he is not disciplined enough to be asked to cover the space in front of the CDs. Winks can if he has a solid CM next to him (someone like Dembele), but he can never be Makelele covering up for Sissoko and even worse Alli or Eriksen.
Mourinho, as most Spursfans, quickly understands how stupid this is. Davies is asked to play as a LB, but basically being the 3rd CD against WH. When Davies gets injured it isn´t Rose that comes in against Bournemouth, but Vertonghen. This again allows Aurier to move forward without having to worry too much about what is happening behind him. Suddenly Aurier looks like a decent player again. Similarly he plays Dier er a DM. Dier has been shocking, but it still means the team is slightly less open than without him. Spurs are by no means solid defensively under Mourinho (so far), but the structure looks better. And if Dier had only been 80% of the player he used to be it would have looked a lot better.
3. No more Alli in midfield
Alli scores 10 and 18 goals in the league and Pochettino decides to move him further back. Not many strikers will score 18 goals and instead of keeping him high on the pitch Pochettino forces him further and further back. He even does the same with Eriksen. The opposite of what Mourinho tries to do. And the opposite of how Pochettino did early on. He created almost a new formation allowing Dier to be a hybrid between a midfield and a defender. Forget the goals Alli has scored the last games - he looks like a player again. Easy to forget how good he used to be - and now he is 95% of his old self again. No reason why he can´t go on being even better. He scores goals, he works hard, he can create chances etc. Similar to Aurier Mourinho is tweaking his formation to get the best out of players. I don´t mind doing in the other way around, but then you got to buy the right kind of players to fit into those roles. Pochettino didn´t for the last years at Spurs.
4. No more endless changing in formation (well - time will show)
So Pochettino uses the summer to come up with a "new" formation - the midfield diamond. It fails miserably. I still have no clue as to which players he wanted to play in which roles. Alli, Eriksen and Lo Celso are all best suited to that no. 10 position. Son works as a second striker, but it is not his best position - neither is it for Lucas. And if Kane doesn´t play who is playing up front? N´Dombele should fit the no. 8 role perfectly, but who else? Again Pochettino tries to shoe horn Alli and Eriksen into such a role. Of course it fails. Eriksen is no Modric even if they have some of the same strengths on the ball. He will never tackle! That is OK for a no. 10, but not a no. 8. Lo Celso could play that role, but one of the reasons he got back on track again was being allowed to be more of a no. 10 in Spain. In France the times I watched him he looked rather average playing deeper (I realise he often played deeper than a no. 8 would).
Then Spurs played 4-4-2 with no wingers. Spurs have played 5-3-2. 3-5-2 and of course 4-2-3-1. The only formation Pochettino has hardly used since 2017 is 3-4-3 which was the formation he became successful with. Alli - Kane - Eriksen with two fairly pacy wide players in Walker and Rose.
Mourinho sees one fantastic wide forward in Son. So he plays him as a wide forward/winger. He sees that Lucas´ best position is similar (Lucas is hardly fantastic, but he is OK in that role - and he always plays with intensity which is useful in the position Spurs ended up in). Alli is more of a no. 10 so he plays there. Even if it means it is difficult to make room for two of Spurs´best players in Eriksen and Lo Celso. He settles the central of midfield with the two most disciplined CMs in Dier and Winks (even if they are both playing poorly at the moment). When Sissoko replaces Lucas he slightly tweaks the formation allowing Sissoko to be slightly more centrally. A bit funny how easily Mourinho exposes how strangely Pochettino ended up shaping this squad. It got a lot of individual quality, but it is clearly unbalanced. My only fear is that Mourinho´s love for Dier as a man will mean he is too patient with him (I hope Dier proves me wrong of course and turns it around).
Do I believe this was because Pochettino is that bad? No. But I do believe he is a very stubborn man that lost his way. Both tactically and maybe even worse starting to be a moaner clearly indirectly blaming others for his failures. How can you believe that stating publicly that you need another 5 year plan to build a new team will be helpful when most of your core is in the prime and in some cases at the very end of it? How motivating is it for Lloris, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Kane, Son etc to hear that they will have to wait years to be competitive again? Completely clueless. Do I believe Pochettino is that stupid? No, but I believe he became that stupid - if only temporary.
I am actually looking forward to see how Pochettino will manage his next team. I honestly have no clue as to how good he is as a manager. Based on the last two years in my judgement he is very average. And I believe there is a good possibility he will fail in his next job at a big club. At the same time if he can readjust himself that 16/17-team played some fantastic football. If he can make a team with better individual quality play like that it will be sensational. We will see.