Pochettino and His Ball Winning Philosophy: An In-depth Analysis

[Neef]

Afternoon chaps. I've written a tactical blog on our Pressing game and of course the opinions that matter most are those of fellow Saints, you all gave great feedback on a similar post about Cork/Schndierlin which I was very grateful for! Therefore I would appreciate some feedback on this one, if it is not too much effort! The link is here: http://chroniclesofneef.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/pochettino-and-his-ball-winning-philosophy-an-in-depth-analysis/

 

That aside, what have you made of the pressing tactic so far? Successful? Where could we improve etc? For me the major issue is the lack of cover on the flanks, not entirely sure if it is 'fixable,' perhaps just a consequence of our style of play.

[Graffito]

Yes it's a long article but worth the effort. Essentially your analysis accords with what I saw last season. My main comment would be that it doesn't appear necessarily to take the best passers to undo the tactics. I take your point which is valid (though Gerrard is perhaps not the best example as he had a poor game against Saints at SMS - minor quibble). On the other hand perhaps Saints just had an off day at home to QPR.

 

When the pressing breaks down, we are vulnerable also to strong, mobile quick forwards e.g. West Brom in both games. I agree that Wanyama should make a difference. The full-backs are quick to recover, especially Clyne, but I'd feel more comfortable with one of the CBs being more mobile than we've had. I don't know if that's Lovren. Reports suggest otherwise.

[The9]

We need quicker CBs and alternative tactics to all-out press against sides which WANT to play long direct balls and counterattack because our fullbacks start so far up the pitch when we have the ball - I think we showed we were able to start doing that up at Spurs, when we did some very different things to those we saw all season. Nearly worked too.