Pochettino: I lost it with players

[ToreSF]

A bit different approach than Adkins, i can imagine: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/10295345._/

[pap]

Can't fault the blokes' timing or reasons.

 

Easy to savour the victory in hindsight, but I'm sure I wasn't the only Saints fan unsure of whether we'd hang on to the lead at half-time. As he points out, needless too.

[Glasgow_Saint]

We have let in an emabarrasing amount of goals in the last 10 mins of the 1st half.

[pap]

We have let in an emabarrasing amount of goals in the last 10 mins of the 1st half.

 

We have let in an embarrassing number of embarrassing goals, full stop.

[sadoldgit]

I liked Adkins quiet, focussed and positive approach. I am not sure how many times kicking off will work when a cool head is called for but I guess we'll find out!

[ToreSF]

I liked Adkins quiet, focussed and positive approach. I am not sure how many times kicking off will work when a cool head is called for but I guess we'll find out!

 

Our inability to defend leads is probably one of the main reasons for why we are struggling against relegation this season. Not saying Adkins is to blame for that, but 27 points lost from leading position is no coincidence.

[Noodles34]

I liked Adkins quiet, focussed and positive approach. I am not sure how many times kicking off will work when a cool head is called for but I guess we'll find out!

 

Yeah, never worked for Fergie did it?

[sadoldgit]

Yeah, never worked for Fergie did it?

 

Slightly better bunch of players to work with dont you think? And there were plenty of occasions when he "lost it" and nothing changed.

[pap]

I liked Adkins quiet, focussed and positive approach. I am not sure how many times kicking off will work when a cool head is called for but I guess we'll find out!

 

I dunno. I've worked with really positive people before. Can work out well on a short term basis, but can be bloody grating over the long term.

 

As long as Poch balances it out with credit where it's due, don't see a problem.

[Saint_clark]

I noticed when watching the highlights that he looked mighty p*ssed off when walking down the tunnel at half time.

[Olallana]

Perfect reaction.

 

And great understanding that something needed to be down after the first 7-8 minutes of 2nd half.

[Turkish]

Its good to see. So many times sloppy defending has cost us this season. So many times we've been undone by lapses in concentration or individual errors. Great to see that MP won't stand for it.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

I liked Adkins quiet, focussed and positive approach. I am not sure how many times kicking off will work when a cool head is called for but I guess we'll find out!

 

As with most things in life, it's about balance.

 

I too was a fan of Adkins calm, in control demeanour, and I certainly think this is the best face for the outside world.

 

However, I think there is a time and place for use of 'the hairdryer'. No doubt the charming 110% will be along to tell me that by praising him I want to perform sexual acts on him, but, if it is good enough for Fergie, then it must be good enough for us.

[pangy]

Perfect reaction.

 

And great understanding that something needed to be down after the first 7-8 minutes of 2nd half.

 

This .

 

The fact that we conceded on the stroke of half time would of given Liverpool a massive boost in confidence and maybe knocked the wind out of our sails,Mo-Po has gone in and given them a bollocking telling them how its going down and to fire up the boys to come out and play the same way in the 2nd half

 

The more and more I see and hear of him the more and more I think he is going to be successful manager

[Sheaf Saint]

He's got a very valid point. It was a terribly sloppy goal to concede. two or three times it should have been dealt with before it landed at Coutinho's feet, and when it did we had 4 or 5 players in the box ball-watching and not picking him up.

[Wes Tender]

So he can accept that we are likely to concede goals with our high pressing game and that is OK. But he says that there is no excuse for conceding goals when the whole team is defending behind the ball.

 

Really? A lot of the goals conceded by teams with even the best defences are from situations akin to pinball and in those situations there is not a lot that anybody can do about them. Attempted last ditch clearances can easily become own goals as somebody sticks a leg out more in hope than expectation, or the ball cannons off a player from either team.

 

There is always the possibility when players feel that they have not been guilty of poor defending in situations like that, that they will feel resentment towards the manager because the criticism is not totally justified.

 

From what I've heard, Adkins' approach was the more likely to produce a positive response. If the reports are correct, he would have nothing said for 5 minutes as the players reflected on events. Then they would discuss how they could improve in the second half, Adkins highlighting 5 positives against one negative. I've seen plenty enough matches under him where we have come out in the second half with a much improved performance to indicate that it was an effective strategy.

 

But what has not emerged from this report, is anything indicating that as well as the hair-dryer treatment, Pochettino is also capable of praising the players when they have performed well. That is surely a necessity and I don't think for a second that he doesn't do that too.

 

On Saturday, the first half performance warranted at least some praise, because we played exceptionally well. So why couldn't it be calm praise for all the good things and an expression of regret that we let our concentration slip in thr last few minutes, rather than him being Mr Angry?

[vince]

We have let in an emabarrasing amount of goals in the last 10 mins of the 1st half.

 

I watched the rerun on Liverpool TV last night (it's a free channel on Sky/Virgin) and the commentator there said we'd let in something like 18 goals in that period this season.

[KelvinsRightGlove]

So he can accept that we are likely to concede goals with our high pressing game and that is OK. But he says that there is no excuse for conceding goals when the whole team is defending behind the ball.

 

Really? A lot of the goals conceded by teams with even the best defences are from situations akin to pinball and in those situations there is not a lot that anybody can do about them. Attempted last ditch clearances can easily become own goals as somebody sticks a leg out more in hope than expectation, or the ball cannons off a player from either team.

 

There is always the possibility when players feel that they have not been guilty of poor defending in situations like that, that they will feel resentment towards the manager because the criticism is not totally justified.

 

From what I've heard, Adkins' approach was the more likely to produce a positive response. If the reports are correct, he would have nothing said for 5 minutes as the players reflected on events. Then they would discuss how they could improve in the second half, Adkins highlighting 5 positives against one negative. I've seen plenty enough matches under him where we have come out in the second half with a much improved performance to indicate that it was an effective strategy.

 

But what has not emerged from this report, is anything indicating that as well as the hair-dryer treatment, Pochettino is also capable of praising the players when they have performed well. That is surely a necessity and I don't think for a second that he doesn't do that too.

 

On Saturday, the first half performance warranted at least some praise, because we played exceptionally well. So why couldn't it be calm praise for all the good things and an expression of regret that we let our concentration slip in thr last few minutes, rather than him being Mr Angry?

 

Obviously I am just speculating, as clearly I have no actual insight into what he said or why.

 

But my hunch would be that, he had planned to be full of praise, but such a sloppy goal, at the end of one of the best halves of football I have seen from a Southampton team risked letting a team back into a match they frankly had no right to still be in.

 

That performance 1st half (goal aside) was stunning. We should have been well clear. Letting in a late goal like that will also completely change Rodgers team talk, effectively saying "look, we have been dominated, but we are still in this blah blah etc.".

[tajjuk]

So he can accept that we are likely to concede goals with our high pressing game and that is OK. But he says that there is no excuse for conceding goals when the whole team is defending behind the ball.

 

Really? A lot of the goals conceded by teams with even the best defences are from situations akin to pinball and in those situations there is not a lot that anybody can do about them. Attempted last ditch clearances can easily become own goals as somebody sticks a leg out more in hope than expectation, or the ball cannons off a player from either team.

 

There is always the possibility when players feel that they have not been guilty of poor defending in situations like that, that they will feel resentment towards the manager because the criticism is not totally justified.

 

From what I've heard, Adkins' approach was the more likely to produce a positive response. If the reports are correct, he would have nothing said for 5 minutes as the players reflected on events. Then they would discuss how they could improve in the second half, Adkins highlighting 5 positives against one negative. I've seen plenty enough matches under him where we have come out in the second half with a much improved performance to indicate that it was an effective strategy.

 

But what has not emerged from this report, is anything indicating that as well as the hair-dryer treatment, Pochettino is also capable of praising the players when they have performed well. That is surely a necessity and I don't think for a second that he doesn't do that too.

 

On Saturday, the first half performance warranted at least some praise, because we played exceptionally well. So why couldn't it be calm praise for all the good things and an expression of regret that we let our concentration slip in thr last few minutes, rather than him being Mr Angry?

 

I don't think he is saying "oh well we conceded a goal on the counter, who cares", I think he is acceptingthat we will get get caught out on the counter (as many teams do) but should have cleared the ball earlier and we had more than enough defenders around to prevent that goal. it was a lack of concentration before half time that cost us dear (and has done previously) The game is 90+ minutes not 80 and we have been guilty of giving goals away near half time and full time. He was probably annoyed also that despite dominating the first half and creating a hatfull of chances we came in 2-1 up thanks to a lucky deflection and reminded the players not to rest on their laurels. it clearly worked as Liverpools second half surge never really materialised largely thank to our coninuted work ethic in the second half.

 

He was managerially spot on on Saturday, tactics were correct, teamtalk was correct and the substitution was correct.

[Glasgow_Saint]

I watched the rerun on Liverpool TV last night (it's a free channel on Sky/Virgin) and the commentator there said we'd let in something like 18 goals in that period this season.

 

pretty poor wouldnt you agree Vince?

[Olallana]

I think also he had in mind the way Coutinho got through almost from the half line, that was also sloppy defending and happened only 4-5 minutes before their goal.

 

And been watching the game for two more times during the weekend I would say that I´m almost as impressed of the second half as of the first half, but in different ways.

We didn´t give them many opportunities in the second half other than a few shots outside the box (+Enrique´s one in extra time). They had more possession yes but we were compact and defended well and it´s the ability to hold games out when in lead that makes success and in that regard second half was very good too.

[Crazy Diamond]

Half-time bollocking? Hope there was a full-time bollocking too. At one stage I really thought we wouldn't win despite that storming first 44 minutes.

 

It could quite easily have been 2 - 2 in the opening of that second half - we were wasteful to only score two goals in the first 45 minutes given the amount of chances we had. Could have been a very, very different outcome had it not been for Jay's goal and Boruc's good goalkeeping.

 

This high pressing game everyone is suddenly an expert on - it only takes one slip for a repeat of Loic Remy's goal. I thought it would happen on Saturday, glad to be proved wrong.

[manina-pub]

I wonder if he does this is Spanish ?

 

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Half-time bollocking? Hope there was a full-time bollocking too. At one stage I really thought we wouldn't win despite that storming first 44 minutes.

 

It could quite easily have been 2 - 2 in the opening of that second half - we were wasteful to only score two goals in the first 45 minutes given the amount of chances we had. Could have been a very, very different outcome had it not been for Jay's goal and Boruc's good goalkeeping.

 

This high pressing game everyone is suddenly an expert on - it only takes one slip for a repeat of Loic Remy's goal. I thought it would happen on Saturday, glad to be proved wrong.

 

That's very selective nit-picking there.

 

Perhaps it could have been 2-2 at HT, could just as easily been 4/5-0.

[stevegrant]

I watched the rerun on Liverpool TV last night (it's a free channel on Sky/Virgin) and the commentator there said we'd let in something like 18 goals in that period this season.

Man City (away), Tevez 40'

Arsenal (away), Gervinho 35', Clyne og 37'

Villa (home), Bent 36'

Everton (away), Jelavic 38'

Spurs (home), Dempsey 39'

West Brom (away), Odemwingie 36'

Norwich (home), Snodgrass 45'

Liverpool (away), Agger 43'

Sunderland (home), Fletcher 42'

Arsenal (home), Guly og 41'

Chelsea (away), Hazard 45'

Man City (home), Dzeko 39'

Newcastle (away), Cisse 42'

Liverpool (home), Coutinho 45'

 

15 goals conceded from 35-45 minutes. In the completely mythical scenario where those goals aren't conceded and the rest of the game pans out the same way as it did in real life, we'd have 10 more points.

[vince]

pretty poor wouldnt you agree Vince?

 

Indeed. Would suggest something can be worked on in terms of concentration.

[Chez]

Over the last few years there has be a lot of times we have played brilliantly in the first half, sometimes getting our reward sometimes not, but then after the break we have failed to match that level or the opponent has stepped it up (after a rollocking perhaps) allowing them back into the game. A good half time kick up the ass every now and then might be just what's needed to try and prevent this happening.

 

That said MP did it on Saturday, yet it was Liverpool that came out of the blocks and took control of the game straight after half time, so did the rollocking really work?

[Crazy Diamond]

That's very selective nit-picking there.

 

Perhaps it could have been 2-2 at HT, could just as easily been 4/5-0.

 

Totally agree, it could have been four or five - it was what I meant by the 'storming' first 44 minutes. Think my overall point still stands.

[tajjuk]

Over the last few years there has be a lot of times we have played brilliantly in the first half, sometimes getting our reward sometimes not, but then after the break we have failed to match that level or the opponent has stepped it up (after a rollocking perhaps) allowing them back into the game. A good half time kick up the ass every now and then might be just what's needed to try and prevent this happening.

 

That said MP did it on Saturday, yet it was Liverpool that came out of the blocks and took control of the game straight after half time, so did the rollocking really work?

 

Liverpool were always going to be better after half time, but they hardly controlled it and created little. I would imagine Pochettino expected a little burst from lvierpool and instructed the players to ensure we didn't concede in this period which would then deflate Liverpool. We were back on top by the 60th minute, we just played a bit more compact and deep for a period.

[david in sweden]

A bit different approach than Adkins, i can imagine: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/10295345._/

 

I think a half-time " attack " of this nature worked better...than a calm, considered autopsy after viewing the video, and a " what went wrong " chat - after the crowds had gone home. (Adkins style)

 

These guys are paid good money, they ought to be able to stand up to a rollicking once in a while.

[Turkish]

Over the last few years there has be a lot of times we have played brilliantly in the first half, sometimes getting our reward sometimes not, but then after the break we have failed to match that level or the opponent has stepped it up (after a rollocking perhaps) allowing them back into the game. A good half time kick up the ass every now and then might be just what's needed to try and prevent this happening.

 

That said MP did it on Saturday, yet it was Liverpool that came out of the blocks and took control of the game straight after half time, so did the rollocking really work?

 

We won 3-1. So that suggests it did.

[Graffito]

I suspect most of the stadium feared we'd concede just before half time because that's what we've done so often in previous matches, as pointed out above. Maybe the players will concentrate a bit better in future and Pochettino won't have to repeat the b@llocking.

[lloydie]

Man City (away), Tevez 40'

Arsenal (away), Gervinho 35', Clyne og 37'

Villa (home), Bent 36'

Everton (away), Jelavic 38'

Spurs (home), Dempsey 39'

West Brom (away), Odemwingie 36'

Norwich (home), Snodgrass 45'

Liverpool (away), Agger 43'

Sunderland (home), Fletcher 42'

Arsenal (home), Guly og 41'

Chelsea (away), Hazard 45'

Man City (home), Dzeko 39'

Newcastle (away), Cisse 42'

Liverpool (home), Coutinho 45'

 

15 goals conceded from 35-45 minutes. In the completely mythical scenario where those goals aren't conceded and the rest of the game pans out the same way as it did in real life, we'd have 10 more points.

 

Stat and a half!

[KelvinsRightGlove]

Totally agree, it could have been four or five - it was what I meant by the 'storming' first 44 minutes. Think my overall point still stands.

 

Indeed, even a clapper such as myself will admit I transferred to the flappers after that goal.

 

Although, from about 60 mins on I started to feel much better. Davis' introduction was the right call for me. Seemed to settle us down, imo.

[badgerx16]

Man City (away), Tevez 40'

Arsenal (away), Gervinho 35', Clyne og 37'

Villa (home), Bent 36'

Everton (away), Jelavic 38'

Spurs (home), Dempsey 39'

West Brom (away), Odemwingie 36'

Norwich (home), Snodgrass 45'

Liverpool (away), Agger 43'

Sunderland (home), Fletcher 42'

Arsenal (home), Guly og 41'

Chelsea (away), Hazard 45'

Man City (home), Dzeko 39'

Newcastle (away), Cisse 42'

Liverpool (home), Coutinho 45'

 

15 goals conceded from 35-45 minutes. In the completely mythical scenario where those goals aren't conceded and the rest of the game pans out the same way as it did in real life, we'd have 10 more points.

 

And there is the problem with this line of argument.

Mind you, if this period of play ran like the rest of the games we would still have conceded 5 or 6 goals, so we would probably have less than those extra 10 points anyway.

Edited 18 March, 2013 by badgerx16

[The9]

I watched the rerun on Liverpool TV last night (it's a free channel on Sky/Virgin) and the commentator there said we'd let in something like 18 goals in that period this season.

 

The board went up, I said to the wife "having slaughtered them all half, it would be nice if we could just get to half time without conceding a stupid goal again".

 

Should have run down and put money on it.

 

Yelling works in moderation, but if you start there, where do you go next ? So I hope he only does it when necessary. Seems to have worked anyway.

[simondo]

good - that goal lost me £400

 

i had saints 3-0 @ 40/1

 

:-(

 

still happy though...! :-)

[SaintRobbie]

A bit different approach than Adkins, i can imagine: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/10295345._/

 

That is leadership. We're always switching off in the last few minutes of the 1st half. Well done MP, I guess we won't be switching off again.

[VectisSaint]

Man City (away), Tevez 40'

Arsenal (away), Gervinho 35', Clyne og 37'

Villa (home), Bent 36'

Everton (away), Jelavic 38'

Spurs (home), Dempsey 39'

West Brom (away), Odemwingie 36'

Norwich (home), Snodgrass 45'

Liverpool (away), Agger 43'

Sunderland (home), Fletcher 42'

Arsenal (home), Guly og 41'

Chelsea (away), Hazard 45'

Man City (home), Dzeko 39'

Newcastle (away), Cisse 42'

Liverpool (home), Coutinho 45'

 

15 goals conceded from 35-45 minutes. In the completely mythical scenario where those goals aren't conceded and the rest of the game pans out the same way as it did in real life, we'd have 10 more points.

So 12 under NA, 10 of which were in games we did not win. 3 under MP, 2 in games we won, 1 in a game we failed to win (lost). Seems like an area where there is some sign of improvement, but a way to go yet to be sure.

[Dig Dig]

I liked Adkins quiet, focussed and positive approach. I am not sure how many times kicking off will work when a cool head is called for but I guess we'll find out!

 

Heard from a very good source that Adkins lost it with the players on occasion. Naive to think that his media demeanour was the same used with the players.

[westofshannonsaint]

Liked this quote...

 

“But to concede a goal when there are ten of my players in my own area, in my own box, and concede a goal like that I can never tolerate that.

“That is my job and that’s what we still need to improve.”

 

[Pilchards]

You never know we might of spent 2 weeks in training trying to put it right and the players switched off?