• 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

Poch truly is magic. He has all the best parts of the great managers and appears (so far) to have none of the flaws or flimflam or bad parts. The last few paragraphs is his vision/evolution, and it so comforting to see it clearly yourself and also see the players buy it 100% as as well.


LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino's midfield headache is showing no signs of easing ahead of Tottenham's clash with Liverpool, after he admitted concern about the fitness of Victor Wanyama and revealed that Mousa Dembele has suffered a fresh injury.

Wanyama missed preseason with a knee problem and has not played since suffering a reaction following the first two matches of the season. He will see a specialist in the next week.

Dembele has not played since the 1-0 win over Barnsley in the EFL Cup last month due to foot and ankle problems but Pochettino hoped he would return against Real Madrid, only for the Belgium international to suffer a fresh injury to his hip in training the night before.

"We are concerned about his situation," the Tottenham manager said of Wanyama. "We must wait for when he sees the specialist and then we'll see what happens. But of course after some time without him involved in the training sessions and with the team, we are concerned. But now we need to wait next week to have a more clear idea of what's going on."

Pochettino found Dembele's "very technical" injury "difficult to explain" in English so he turned to his assistant Jesus Perez, who said: "He had an incident in one of the training sessions [in Madrid], and complained about one of his hips and he's not able to cope with the intensity of the training.

"It's as simple as that. It's been three or four days since the incident and he can't cope with the intensity of the training."

In better news for Pochettino, Ben Davies (illness) and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou (concussion) are available to face Liverpool on Sunday, while Danny Rose is expected to be on the bench again after playing for the first time since January in the 1-1 draw with Real.

Pochettino says Rose could start in Wednesday's EFL Cup match against West Ham and also hopes to be able to name Erik Lamela on the bench -- exactly a year to the day since he last played.

"He [Rose] is still not ready to start," Pochettino said. "He needs to build up his fitness but we are so happy because he's doing very well. He had the possibility to be on the bench on Tuesday. It was important for the team and to play a few minutes. Always, when you start to feel involved again and help the team, it's so important after 10 months. Now it's a process to build up [his fitness] and get him better every day and then we'll see if on Wednesday he has the possibility maybe to be in the starting XI. It depends on the progression.

"Erik, we are talking every day. He needs to find that feeling where he can say 'now yes, I am available again to compete.' It was a similar situation with Danny and I hope maybe he can be on the bench against West Ham, but it's not sure. It's about waiting but he's been doing very well in the last few weeks, with the team in training. We only need to wait for that click where he feels 'yes, I feel I can cope with the competition.'"

In the absence of Wanyama and Dembele, Pochettino named a surprising lineup for the credible draw in Madrid, with Fernando Llorente partnering Harry Kane in a front-two and Eric Dier part of a back-three, leaving Harry Winks relatively isolated against Real's midfield.

The decision paid off but Pochettino revealed that even some of his closest friends had questioned his team selection.

"It was amazing because some people very close to us said to us, 'Can I be honest with you. When I saw the starting XI, what the f---? 'What happened? What's going on in his mind?'" Pochettino said.

"Ten minutes after the end of the game, they said, 'You are a genius!' It's so difficult to explain every single game what we are trying to do and translate it to the fans. That is about trusting that the manager decides the starting to always try to win. Sometimes it works. But I feel the same after the game if I win or lose about my decision, because I cannot regret my decisions."

Tottenham have five games in the next two weeks and asked if it was risky to continue to chop and change his personnel and system, Pochettino said: "It's a risk if you don't work, it's a risk if you're not prepared as a team.

"In the last few seasons, I hear a lot that Tottenham don't have Plan B and plan C. It's most important that we have a plan. Now we're flexible because we think of different ways to play, keeping the philosophy, idea and identity of the team. You need different players because they provide you with different characteristics and different options to play.

"It's a risk to play the same, be obsessed with playing only one way. The team believes, the team needs to accept that you can change not only from one game to another but during the game. I am so proud, our players accept that and believe we can play different ways."
 

I found this quite interesting - as a tactical analysis, it didn't veer into pretentious Spielverlagerung philosophizing, and, music choices aside, it was decently made and simple in its presentation. But it raised some interesting observations that say a lot about the marking job that we carried out for ninety minutes, and about our base approaches heading into the game.

I won't talk about it too much (It really is worth watching), but it reiterates the marking job that Eriksen did on Modric throughout the game (with varying degrees of success), our determination to protect the central areas and force Madrid wide or long, and the importance we placed on numerical overloads in the box when defending the crosses that would come in as a result of that approach.

It also points out the good job Sissoko did defending on Winks' right-hand side, and covering for Aurier when the latter ended up out of position by dint of being assigned to press Marcelo.

In terms of the implications for the return leg, I think the ineffectiveness of the Kroos-Modric-Casemiro trio by dint of our marking will force Zidane into some sort of change when they come to Wembley - equally, I think Poch will have to switch it up a bit to counter the weakness highlighted in the video (the empty spaces on either side of the three-man midfield).
 
Also, I don't know if anyone's keeping up with the Daily Mail's serialization of Guillem Balague's book (Brave New World), but it's actually proving a lot more revealing than I thought it would be. I've read books like this before - the inside scoop on the inner workings of a manager, or a club, or a national team - but they've always come across as just inane platitudes interspersed with a few humorous/touching anecdotes if you're lucky.

The Mail's excerpts from the book, on the other hand, detail Poch freely talking about Mourinho tapping up Dier, Walker's transfer request, the end-of-season disaster back in 2016, Levy toppling into the water at some adventure canoe trip or something he took with Poch and the coaching staff...

...it's actually a lot more candid than I expected it to be. And I'm uncertain about whether it's wise releasing this book in the middle of a season given that it talks so openly about players and staff who are still at the club - imagine some journo asking Dier about being tapped up by Mourinho, once the book's out and it's common knowledge.
 
Also, I don't know if anyone's keeping up with the Daily Mail's serialization of Guillem Balague's book (Brave New World), but it's actually proving a lot more revealing than I thought it would be. I've read books like this before - the inside scoop on the inner workings of a manager, or a club, or a national team - but they've always come across as just inane platitudes interspersed with a few humorous/touching anecdotes if you're lucky.

The Mail's excerpts from the book, on the other hand, detail Poch freely talking about Mourinho tapping up Dier, Walker's transfer request, the end-of-season disaster back in 2016, Levy toppling into the water at some adventure canoe trip or something he took with Poch and the coaching staff...

...it's actually a lot more candid than I expected it to be. And I'm uncertain about whether it's wise releasing this book in the middle of a season given that it talks so openly about players and staff who are still at the club - imagine some journo asking Dier about being tapped up by Mourinho, once the book's out and it's common knowledge.

Yeah, thought about that too.

The thing with Dier will certainly be hot topic next week in the days before our match against Man Utd next saturday.

I still enjoy reading it though - gives quite an insight about Pochs challenges during his time at the club.
 
Latest extract
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...boss-Mauricio-Pochettino-Kyle-Walker-row.html

Interesting to hear his side of Walker leaving.

Walker came to my office after the Watford game. 'Gaffer, I've been at Tottenham for nine years. I've thought about it and my heart isn't here any more. Nor is my head. I've given all I have to give. I wanted to tell you before I tell my agent that I want to leave this summer.'

'Kyle, you have to stay professional. There's a month and a half to go. We're battling for the Premier League and FA Cup. We have to be focused and finish the campaign strongly.'

'OK, gaffer. But it's already decided.'

'Well, that doesn't just depend on you or me. It depends on the club, above all. You've disappointed me because you've decided to tell me that you want to leave when there is a month and bit left in the competition... You could've sucked it up, kept quiet, trained, played and helped the team when not picked... and at the end of the season you could have come and told me.'

Miguel was present. I always try to ensure there are witnesses during private conversations. I considered it to be an alarming lack of respect for his team-mates and a slap in the face for the club. None of that could be explained to the public at the time.

I had to bite my tongue. From that point, the rumours started to proliferate.



And white water rafting with Levy. Who’d have thought it!
 
There is 3 extracts from the book in sundays Daily Mail:


Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino lifts lid on Kyle Walker row... from right back turning up late, to him dropping transfer bombshell during title battle

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...boss-Mauricio-Pochettino-Kyle-Walker-row.html


Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino reveals how he dealt with seeing Eric Dier talking to Man United chief Jose Mourinho... and that he and his utility player disagree over his best position


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...uricio-Pochettino-Eric-Dier-disagreement.html


Tottenham player taunted Mauricio Pochettino's assistant Jesus Perez with 'the Jose Mourinho chant' after club lost 2015 League Cup final to Chelsea

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...taunted-Pochettino-assistant-Jesus-Perez.html
 
The third one *had* to be Ade. Had to be - as far as I can recall, he was the only one in the squad at that time who had played for Mourinho before (at Real), and he was also among the batch unceremoniously shipped out after that.
 
It's weird, us fans often demand to know more about the inner workings and what goes on behind closed doors. But tbh sometimes I really don't want to know.

It's a bit too private to be comfortable with it...
 
Also, I don't know if anyone's keeping up with the Daily Mail's serialization of Guillem Balague's book (Brave New World), but it's actually proving a lot more revealing than I thought it would be. I've read books like this before - the inside scoop on the inner workings of a manager, or a club, or a national team - but they've always come across as just inane platitudes interspersed with a few humorous/touching anecdotes if you're lucky.

The Mail's excerpts from the book, on the other hand, detail Poch freely talking about Mourinho tapping up Dier, Walker's transfer request, the end-of-season disaster back in 2016, Levy toppling into the water at some adventure canoe trip or something he took with Poch and the coaching staff...

...it's actually a lot more candid than I expected it to be. And I'm uncertain about whether it's wise releasing this book in the middle of a season given that it talks so openly about players and staff who are still at the club - imagine some journo asking Dier about being tapped up by Mourinho, once the book's out and it's common knowledge.

Love Poch, love him. I will buy the book. And I agree, I did wonder about the timing of it's release too.
 
I am forced to trust the manager more than ever with this. Because like Dubai, I think the timing of the book is odd. I am going to guess that he made sure the 'hot topics' he discussed were vetted with the parties concerned who are still with us. I think there IS actually MORE to a couple of the stories discussed than he is letting on (which I am relieved about)...
 
It doesn’t
It just seems to give the world an insight into how he manages but I can’t work out why he would do it and be so frank on last season
To publicly reveal that Dier was having cosy chats with Mourinho, what's that going to achieve? There's a reason why managers don't release these type of books until they're retired. Poch won't get anywhere near the type of grief Danny Rose did, but I don't see how this helps Spurs anymore than what Roses comments did...
 
I'm not sure it was very clever of Poch to do this book. It's interesting to hear about what goes on on the inside, but I'm not sure the players will be too happy about it, especially when he reveals the details from private conversations like has has done with Eric Dier and Kyle Walker. I think a private conversation should be kept private, personally, but perhaps Dier and Walker have agreed to it being made public. If not, the players could find it difficult to trust Pochettino after this.
 
Back