Pochettino is a scapegoat I will stand by this, like Potter he has been set up to fail by the incompetence around him as have the players.
In my opinion he should see out his contract (2 seasons) unless it gets untenable. After one season he will be well placed to evaluate the squad and move on those not good enough. Followed by a recruitment drive to sign experienced players to compliment the younger talent in the squad. Similar to Lampard's second season.
Then if in his second season we see enough to continue with him then we give another 2 year extension or we look for the manager who takes the team to the next level.
I think the general consensus is to back Poch, there will always be a minority that will want him out because they never gave him a chance in the first place due to his previous affiliation.
However, surely you have to take the positives with the negatives. It's not like we haven't experienced some thrilling games under Pochettino.
In the games where we were clinical these were exciting games, back and forth against the best teams and coaches in the land. Before Pochettino we hadn't score against City since Porto that was at least 6 games straight. Yet he had us score 4 in 90 minutes (with this unbalanced squad).
In the games where we don't take our chances suddenly all the good moments are forgotten and Pochettino is a fraud.
Is he faultless? Definitely not, he's not got everything right and I think he probably knows he can improve too. But the best part about this project currently aside from Cole Palmer at this moment in time is Pochettino and if you can't see that then the owners are doing a mighty good job of hiding from responsibility.
Hi mate, i think it is rare that I disagree with your posts, as i think many of the reasoned arguments you make do, generally, make a lot of sense. But i confess i am struggling here and must disagree with some the comments.
The questionable underlying economic strategy of the club and whether this effectively sets up all managers to fail, is a valid question for discussion but probably should be held back for another post.
With regards our positive games, these have only come against teams that attack us and play an expansive game. Even in these situations there have been very few successful final winning results. Even Spurs was more about their implosion and our complete confusion as to how to overcome a team that stood on the half way line.
For me a number of the players are over priced and over hyped but could probably have flourished amongst some seasoned professionals but that is not the route that we went.
However, whilst i still think that Poch should retain his job, this is more because of the fact it makes us even more of a laughing stock by ditching another manager. Personally i cannot see a single shred of a system, or a pattern or style to our play. If we take Arteta's team that he put together, these were often made to look fragile and were beaten easily in a number of matches. But they had a pattern and a style that they stuck to and they developed, incrementally into a cohesive unit. Emery's Villa were mocked at the beginning because of their dangerously high line. But they're all bloody fit and work so hard for each other, so it works. We are in December and i am still not sure we even have an identity or style that we can say we are workign towards.
I understood that Poch's main attributes were his organisational skills based around a strong fitness ethic. I am struggling to see any organisation or any real signs of a team spirit forming, more a collection of individuals haphazardly doing their own things without any real structure.
I think the below posted today is generally pretty good and to me does illustrate the lack of system.
