doddisalegend Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27599165 Quite a few interesting comments in there about how saints work and not everything in the squad being as rosy as I thought they would be At Southampton, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Jay Rodriguez and others were extremely close to their manager. It would be inaccurate to say he was universally liked - no manager ever is. There was a feeling at Southampton that his fringe players did not always feel part of the project. Other members of the staff would step in to reassure and reason. But there was still a sense to some players in the squad, that unless you were one of Pochettino's stars, you meant little to him. That may need to alter. The public perception of the Argentine is that he is mild-mannered, softly spoken and cannot speak English. All three are wide of the mark. This is a confrontational manager when he has to be. At Southampton, he had run-ins with his chairman, with his players and with club staff. the second comment might be why the board where happy to let him go? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelman Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 Gaston falls into the fringe players and I can imagine that he didn't like the manager that much. Maybe we can keep Gaston and his TRUE potential can be seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasoneuelllfanclub Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 I can definitely see him having his favorites. The likes of Yoshida, Jos, Guly and Gaston would probably have a very different opinion to some in the squad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toon Saint Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 Jack Cork appeared quite disgruntled at the start of last season and was quoted as saying he doesn't really speak to Poch. His tone obviously changed when he became more involved in the first-team as the season wore on. Will be a big challenge for him at Spurs, managing that bloated squad and all of the supposed ego's while maintaining harmony - not that I particularly care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batman Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 dont all managers have their players and the ones they dont fancy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WealdSaint Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 Gaston's view on MoPo departing would be interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doddisalegend Posted 28 May, 2014 Author Share Posted 28 May, 2014 I can definitely see him having his favorites. The likes of Yoshida, Jos, Guly and Gaston would probably have a very different opinion to some in the squad. I'm left wondering if it included Lambert as well to be honest there was a time earlier this season when he really didn't seem that happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doddisalegend Posted 28 May, 2014 Author Share Posted 28 May, 2014 This bit is interesting to looks like he really didn't have a plan B. Lets face it worked pretty well but I wonder if it became a problem in matches where things weren't going well? When he first arrived at St Mary's, players were surprised that so little time was spent focusing on the opposition. The manager would only mention them for two or three minutes after the pre-match meal. No plans were made for specific players. Instead, Pochettino focused on his team, on his approach. It bred a confidence, a swagger. Whether Southampton were playing Manchester United away or Cardiff City at home, the preparations would stay the same in the week before. Formations were not discussed among the players, only shape. Pochettino talked about areas and fluidity but never the need to stay in a rigid 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2. It was innovative stuff and it worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simondo Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 Two interesting bits for me: 1 - like someone said above - no Plan B... 2 - paid himself out of his contract - the board had no choice.... couldn't hold on to him even if they wanted to after that... there is always the opinion of 'if they want to go, let them go...' but if we have a mass exodus of our best player, no matter what sort of stellar manager we get, we will struggle... IMHO - we should now play hard ball with anyone wanting to leave and let the new manager bring them back into the fold next season.. ...and get on and appoint Yakin all IMHO of course... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huffton Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 I heard he could launch a half time tea cup or two when he needed to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes Tender Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 An interesting article that seems like fair comment. I concur with other opinions that it seemed that some players like Cork and even Lambert early in the season, were not flavour of the month for Pochettino. Also revealing that he was only focussed on our game rather than the threat carried by the opposition teams. The result was often that we would give the glory teams a hard game, but that the lesser teams with astute managers would pursue a strategy to nullify our high-pressing game and we would drop points to them. We took those glory teams by surprise last season, but this season they knew what to expect from us and we didn't have a plan B. It would be nice to have a manager who plays the high-pressing game, but also had the tactical nous to prepare his team to take advantage of the perceived weaknesses of our opponents and exploit them. Somebody who could close out a match when ahead and pepper the penalty area when we were behind. Somebody who managed to get players occasionally to have a shot at goal speculatively, instead of trying to pass it into the goal. One can only hope that having failed to get any improvement in Osvaldo's attitude when he came here, that Pochettino fails spectacularly to get any improvement on the handful of failures that Spurs imported for mega-bucks when they sold Bale. That would be schadenfreude enough for the chance we gave him after his poor record at Espanol, which he just threw back in our faces. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shurlock Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 (edited) This bit is interesting to looks like he really didn't have a plan B. Lets face it worked pretty well but I wonder if it became a problem in matches where things weren't going well? When he first arrived at St Mary's, players were surprised that so little time was spent focusing on the opposition. The manager would only mention them for two or three minutes after the pre-match meal. No plans were made for specific players. Instead, Pochettino focused on his team, on his approach. It bred a confidence, a swagger. Whether Southampton were playing Manchester United away or Cardiff City at home, the preparations would stay the same in the week before. Formations were not discussed among the players, only shape. Pochettino talked about areas and fluidity but never the need to stay in a rigid 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2. It was innovative stuff and it worked. You're making things up out of thin air. Give me an example of a team that hasn't had problems breaking other sides down. The onus is on you to show that things were worse here than elsewhere. The only side against which we genuinely struggled tactically -as opposed to players not executing properly- was Chelsea. And that's nothing to be ashamed of. Give me an example of a team that hasn't sometimes had problems adapting when they have limited personnel. Normal people call that a lack of squad depth, not a lack of a plan B. Edited 28 May, 2014 by shurlock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miltonaggro Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 An interesting article that seems like fair comment. I concur with other opinions that it seemed that some players like Cork and even Lambert early in the season, were not flavour of the month for Pochettino. Also revealing that he was only focussed on our game rather than the threat carried by the opposition teams. The result was often that we would give the glory teams a hard game, but that the lesser teams with astute managers would pursue a strategy to nullify our high-pressing game and we would drop points to them. We took those glory teams by surprise last season, but this season they knew what to expect from us and we didn't have a plan B. It would be nice to have a manager who plays the high-pressing game, but also had the tactical nous to prepare his team to take advantage of the perceived weaknesses of our opponents and exploit them. Somebody who could close out a match when ahead and pepper the penalty area when we were behind. Somebody who managed to get players occasionally to have a shot at goal speculatively, instead of trying to pass it into the goal. One can only hope that having failed to get any improvement in Osvaldo's attitude when he came here, that Pochettino fails spectacularly to get any improvement on the handful of failures that Spurs imported for mega-bucks when they sold Bale. That would be schadenfreude enough for the chance we gave him after his poor record at Espanol, which he just threw back in our faces. Regarding the second para have a look at Yakin's two games in Europe against Chelsea, Wes. All of the pointers you make were visible in those games, plan a, b, and c. I think Yakin and Koeman would be major upgrades on Pochettino in terms of presence and tactics, and pray that the Board are all over this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 One can only hope that having failed to get any improvement in Osvaldo's attitude when he came here, that Pochettino fails spectacularly to get any improvement on the handful of failures that Spurs imported for mega-bucks when they sold Bale. That would be schadenfreude enough for the chance we gave him after his poor record at Espanol, which he just threw back in our faces. Its a real risk. Its much easier to motivate and mould players who are already excited about progressing from the Championship or being promoted from the academy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 You're making things up out of thin air. . Doh. He's quoting the BBC article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27599165 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shurlock Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 Doh. He's quoting the BBC article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27599165 Slow down Tim. I've read the article or the bit in red if it makes it easier for you. I'm saying that the poster's conclusions drawn from it about a lack of plan B don't necessarily stack up. Feel free to resume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 Slow down Tim. I've read the article or the bit in red if it makes it easier for you. I'm saying that the poster's conclusions drawn from it about a lack of plan B don't necessarily stack up. Feel free to resume. Fair enough, apols. Pochettino didnt have a plan B though and I don't think was due to inability to formulate one or lack of options in players (although we are short in critical areas). He simply wanted us to play a certain style in every game, to set the tempo instead of responding to it. Its possible to argue that is a good or a bad thing, but I think its hard to argue it didn't happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaMarlin Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 Ben Smith. Little more to be said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRM Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 Ben Smith. Little more to be said. ah i was wondering if we had Cortese's holiday bum chum to thank for more insight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shurlock Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 (edited) Fair enough, apols. Pochettino didnt have a plan B though and I don't think was due to inability to formulate one or lack of options in players (although we are short in critical areas). He simply wanted us to play a certain style in every game, to set the tempo instead of responding to it. Its possible to argue that is a good or a bad thing, but I think its hard to argue it didn't happen. Agree that looking to impose yourself on the opposition probably had costs. Just as obsessing about how neutralise the opposition a la Big Sam does. What I will say is that go to any mongboard and you'll find people moaning about a lack of a plan B. The charge covers such a promiscuous litany of grievances that it soon becomes meaningless. Boil away the bluff and many are effectively saying that the team's not good enough. No s**t. The alleged failure to break teams down is and always will be a bit of a red herring. It happens to the best of teams - does Mourinho lack a plan B because he couldnt break down Wham or Norwich or Rodgers couldn't open up Chelsea (some scousers have claimed as much). Perhaps we dont shoot enough from distance -as someone on this thread has stated. Which might or might not be true; but it hardly justifies the bombastic label of lacking a plan B. IMO, there were times when we could have closed up shop; but football isn't a controlled experiment where you can isolate the impact of different variables and know with confidence that improving one part of the game won't negate others. Edited 28 May, 2014 by shurlock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shurlock Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 ah i was wondering if we had Cortese's holiday bum chum to thank for more insight How is the article pro-Cortese or propaganda puff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaMarlin Posted 28 May, 2014 Share Posted 28 May, 2014 How is the article pro-Cortese or propaganda puff? Maybe not overtly pro-Cortese, but in the Smith genre, an exercise in muddying pools, wiggling a stick in a wasp's nest, the work of somebody who will give voice to somebody who delights in spoiling and making mischief (not my opinion, but a number of his colleagues who don't like they way he operates and who probably will not be exchanging Christmas cards with him this year). A dirty-bomb piece of journalism. Not designed to create highly visible death or maiming, but will cause extensive harm over a period of time. Of course, there's nothing in his job brief which says he has to write positive things about Saints, or any other club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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