• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Mauricio Pochettino - Sacked

From what has been seen from Poch in the past, plus how we seem to be in the friendlies plays so far, how do people think we will cope nearer the end of seasons?

Will we be physically strong nearer the end of games, especially tight games? Will we be physically strong nearer the end of the season?

I must admit the pressing game that Poch seems to favour makes me worry that perhaps it can drain players physically over a season. I seem to remember Athletic Bilbao tailing off in Bielsa's last days; i wonder if the training around constant pressing was starting to take a toll after the 'punching-above-our-weight' allure starts to wane.:-k

I have to say (and this might be controversial here but) in AVB's first season, the last 3/4 months I found we seemed to have that physical edge to get late equalisers/winners. This to me came from the fact that we were a bit minimalist (sometimes even boring) in our approach and we certainly didn't do constant pressing. It was damn effective at that time though. Perhaps the time we've been most able to 'hang in there' and get something out of a game when it seemed we were/should have been well out of it.

My main fear now would be that our 'pressing game' if implemented like it seems Poch might (like imo in the case of Bielsa) may lead to near end of season burnout.

Am I worrying over nothing much? Are there 'down-times' playing the way that the Bielsa-followers (like Poch) like to try and implement?
One thing that AVB and Mourinho do have in common is that they try and take advantage of times in a game when you can 'rest' and run the clock down a bit. Over a season this can be very handy (though, there is nothing like 'resting' whilst clocking up goals a la Rodgers' Liverpool last season!).

In fact, are there any 'big clubs' who play the Bielsa-style pressing game across Europe? Can Dortmund's style be described as 'Bielsa-like'?
 
Last edited:
Okay the big questions:

- how was his suit? Flower, Hankie?
- goal celebration? Calm, chilled 'I got this'? Fist pump? Went boonta??
 
Okay the big questions:

- how was his suit? Flower, Hankie?
- goal celebration? Calm, chilled 'I got this'? Fist pump? Went boonta??

BvLYirkIEAAaHcA.jpg


Went a bit more crazy for the goal
I think.
 
Impressed by Poch so far.

Yes, its early days, and for a while, before the pen, we looked like conceding a few but he will need time to sort out that mess at the back.

What did it for me is the double sub very early on. Correct me if Im wrong but it was after 60minutes, I jumped off my sofa in excitement and I feel that changed the game. Lamela and Lennon were falling asleep so there was no point to wait 80 minutes or something like that, he made the change early on. Top decision that was.

And impressed after his comments after the game, clever, positive, and seems like a genuinely nice guy.
 
Impressed by Poch so far.

Yes, its early days, and for a while, before the pen, we looked like conceding a few but he will need time to sort out that mess at the back.

What did it for me is the double sub very early on. Correct me if Im wrong but it was after 60minutes, I jumped off my sofa in excitement and I feel that changed the game. Lamela and Lennon were falling asleep so there was no point to wait 80 minutes or something like that, he made the change early on. Top decision that was.

And impressed after his comments after the game, clever, positive, and seems like a genuinely nice guy.

Agreed.

Considering how much we've struggled against Allardyce and Allardyce-esque teams in the past there's no surprise that we struggled a bit, particularly as we were without quite a few defensive players and started a 20 year old debutant at the back.

The changes were good. The move to bring on Kane was perfect too, not only because of the outcome.
 
We didn't look very good but first game/away/a derby so im not too hung up on that - good to see the early double change and not panicking when Naughton got the red.
 
Am looking forward to seeing us on sunday, the game wont be 100mph with one team playing like their lives depends on it, infact its the only 2 games a year WHU's players really get up for

I fancy us to put in an entertaining exciting performance at home for the first time this season, time to make the lane a fortress once again
 
Yes I am looking forward to the QPR game....

firstly I think he should have picked the better defender against West Ham at Left Back, Davies over Rose, If Cole wasnt so poo poo im sure any half decent attack force would have made us pay.....It was far to easy for Downing to rain the crosses in against us........ so thats a small negative.....The positives were that he got the substitutions spot on, and also that he didnt remove one of our attacking players for a defender when we went down to 10 men, This was brave and eventually paid off big time for us...Well done Poch for being brave and not handing them the initiative.

It was a horrible first game imo where certain of our best players were not fit after WC duties to start.....away to West Ham, horrible for us last season. So Naturally with the uncertainty of the transfer window still being open....players at different levels of fitness I am Absolutely THRILLED with the result!

We still need to re-jig our defence, despite the clean sheet we all know that our WC Goalkeeper has as much right of earning the three points as young Eric Dier,poch needs to work on some cohesion up front....hopefully this will come in time.

We cant draw many conclusions at this stage with window being open players half fit, and from a game where we had a man sent off after 30 mins......The Result was massive for us and Poch and imo we should all be as happy as pigs rolling around in large quantities of physical s**t!
 
Game 1 is such a bogey round. And away. To Wham at that.

Relieved to get the win. Now to hit our stride against Harry. Lamela to have Rio flat on his ****.
 
QPR is gonna be a painful match. Our full backs are going to be heavily involved throughout with the midfield looking like it will be very cramped
 
QPR is gonna be a painful match. Our full backs are going to be heavily involved throughout with the midfield looking like it will be very cramped

Yes, I think it is likely to look like the home games under AVB last season. I think I would want Kane in the team together with Adebayor. At least that gives us an extra player who wants to get into the box.
 
We'll need pace and trickery up front. It's frickin Dunne and Ferdinand. Absolutely no point in trying crosses and headers.
 
Pleased that we got off to a good start, not just because of obvious reasons, however mainly because our managers tend to come under pressure very quickly from teh media and fans. Realistically it takes a few months for a manager's influence on a team to become obvious and the second season for them to be at full tilt. Would therefore be helpful if we're say 5th or 6th come Nov so that there's no speculation around Poch's position and so that he can focus on doing his job, rather than fending off speculation
 
At the moment there's nothing to suggest we have our best first eleven playing in the best way possible. But I'm hopeful.

Going with dier was a brave thing and paid off, but one has to wonder why Holtby and townsend didn't get to start.

Defending at set pieces was poor, obvious lack of preparation.

I see a work in progress, with a lot to do, and with transfers still being sorted out, I am expecting this to take another 3 months or so before judging poch's work with the team.

I am hopeful and expecting poch to show us the way, but at the moment it's just too early to judge him at all.




Sent from my SM-G900F using Fapatalk
 
^ think Townsend will be used primarily as an impact sub when we need someone direct late on in a game
 
^ think Townsend will be used primarily as an impact sub when we need someone direct late on in a game

I reckon he should start vs QPR but will probably start in midweek. Lennon is just living on borrowed time.

I would go:

Hugo
Dier Kaboul Verts Davies

Capoue Holtby

Lamela Eriksen Townsend

Soldado

Kane & Adebayor as a plan B, plenty of height at the back so we dont have kittens from set pieces. I really believe after such positive impacts Holtby & Townsend should play....maybe try Bentaleb and Holtby as a cm pairing.
 
Went the track suit?

That's strike 1.

:lol:

Is it just me or is Poch's English a little hard to understand at times?

Yesterday I struggled a little to understand what he was saying. Admittedly it's an improvement on when he was at Southampton, whenever he appeared on Final Score with the translator after a game I would just turn off the TV.

Out of the Western European languages it's Spanish that struggles the most with English not just because of the pronunciation though. In Spanish you have the whole masculine and feminine thing which in this case is based upon the gender you're speaking to and the gender you are. In most cases words ending in O are mas. and words ending in A are fem. Also they have a verb for each singular and plural, this is so they don't have to say 'I' (Yo) he (el) she (Ella) etc all the time like we do in English. Also they have informal and formal so you (informal) is Tu and Usted is you (formal). On top of that certain words such as speak (as in I speak) and name (my/your/their/his/her name is) have a different ending for each singular and plural. For example.

Hablo - I speak
Hablo - He/She/You (formaspeakeak
Hablas - You speak
Hablan - They speak
Hablamos - We speak.

To cut a long story short having started to learn Spanish myself recently (so please excuse any mistakes) I sympathise with him greatly. Above all else though I just hope the best translation of his ideals are on the pitch.
 
Last edited:
Back