He has to find a way to rotate Caicedo and Enzo. Just some rest. Playing mudryck at 10 worked. We got two goals from the 10 role. Arguably Gallagher wouldn’t have scored his if he’d already played 80 minutes. 

10 hours ago, JM7 said:

Before the start of the season, we all would have taken a league cup final and quarter final with a (semi) easy home draw to get through to the FA cup semi finals? It’s not bad..

If we can improve the league position by a couple of places then it’s not too bad considering the injuries we have. 
 

Or am I being too generous?

I don't disagree. Poch might probably be able to get us finishing 7th or 6th, however, personally I've lost faith in him as a manager and wouldn't want him leading us next season. The comments and complains he makes in his pressers also annoy me.

Edited February 29, 20242 yr by Frankie8Lampard

Goalie situation: okay because Petrovic is good. Backups questionable as we saw yesterday.

Right-back, left-back situation not good because of injuries to James and Cucurella. No way to rotate with players that are natural to the position

Midfield situation: horrible in terms of rotation. Chucks, Ugo and Lavia out. Casadei very raw. 

Attackers: No one is prolific apart from Palmer who is very young. Our most important acquisition for attack is injured all the time in Nkunku.

Not sure how much Pochettino can really do here. 

If we manage to get 7-9 spot and 2 finals I would say he has done very well. 

The problem is once you make the final ( which doesn't happen everyyear), just making up the number on the day really doesn't cut it. It's almost to be the point why spending all the energy getting there, and not aiming to win. If we were out classed by a Liverpool team of Salah, Allison, TAA, Jota etc, we'd call it a gap too far and most fans will just be contend we made the effort. But against that team that missing 11 players, and we too afraid to having a go at that, it's NOT good enough.

A cup win would have saved Poch's job until start of the next season at least, losing it doesn't mean he should be sacked. But the owners won't back him either, and should a better manager becomes available we know what will happen.

 

13 minutes ago, evissy said:

Goalie situation: okay because Petrovic is good. Backups questionable as we saw yesterday.

Right-back, left-back situation not good because of injuries to James and Cucurella. No way to rotate with players that are natural to the position

Midfield situation: horrible in terms of rotation. Chucks, Ugo and Lavia out. Casadei very raw. 

Attackers: No one is prolific apart from Palmer who is very young. Our most important acquisition for attack is injured all the time in Nkunku.

Not sure how much Pochettino can really do here. 

If we manage to get 7-9 spot and 2 finals I would say he has done very well. 

Overall agree with this. It has been a horrible situation for him, so its kind of hard to judge him on this season alone

The players seem to like him which doesn’t always have to be the case to be successful, but with our young squad lacking leadership I actually think its crucial. 
I wish I saw more tactical nous from him, my biggest worry is that we seem to be tactically out-thought even against lower opposition, and I do not trust him to change the game for us in a positive way when plan A doesn’t work. But how much of that is because of the resources available to him - I just dont know. 
 

This is not a team that will respond positively to a managerial change and all of a sudden start winning, therefore I think we are better off with him at the moment. 

He hasn't been capable of making this group of players a team. 8 months in and they are still a group of individuals that have no idea of where each other are... 8 months in! Many coaches can make a team of worse players than we have. It's got to the point that supporters are blaming the players (Enzo, Caicedo are sh*t, nowhere near enough what we paid for them, etc) when the reality is that the coaching team is not improving them or making them play as a team. They've been playing together for 7 months and they are still not on the same wavelength. In addition, he's got no emotion whatsoever and hasn't given any leadership to the team. Leadership starts from the coach! Shockingly spursy coach!

I think he was about 4 minutes away from being sacked yesterday as I think Leeds would have turned us over in extra-time with our tired legs. But still hobbling along courtesy of late, late goals but we are going absolutely nowhere. And his comments is just irritating, "we are doing fantastic" he managed to blurt out post-match yesterday and thats just disrespecting the fans as far as i'm concerned.

I hope the club realize we need to move on from Poch even if we somehow managed to win the FA Cup and secure Europa League. I fear they wouldn't realize that which would prolong the suffering but we could not have asked for an easier route to the semifinals and I imagine we'll be facing Wolves in the semis which gives us a decent chance to reach another final in which we could get lucky.

40 minutes ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

Overall agree with this. It has been a horrible situation for him, so its kind of hard to judge him on this season alone

The players seem to like him which doesn’t always have to be the case to be successful, but with our young squad lacking leadership I actually think its crucial. 
I wish I saw more tactical nous from him, my biggest worry is that we seem to be tactically out-thought even against lower opposition, and I do not trust him to change the game for us in a positive way when plan A doesn’t work. But how much of that is because of the resources available to him - I just dont know. 
 

This is not a team that will respond positively to a managerial change and all of a sudden start winning, therefore I think we are better off with him at the moment. 

As far as I have learned Pochettino is not mainly tactician per se. I think he wants every player to feel they can express themselves in a best possible way. Like Carlo Ancelotti. He doesn't see football mainly as tactics but a game played between people. He is also known to make young players feel they are important. 

Whether that is the right type of manager for us in the long term I don't know but I think he is doing a decent job with these young guys with all the injuries we have. 

My biggest hope is the team develops constantly and at one point we are a relevant side once more. At the moment anyway we have much more resources than he had at Tottenham for example. He made them a relevant side over the years. They had 2-3 very talented players. We might already have 6-8 of them. 

1 hour ago, evissy said:

Goalie situation: okay because Petrovic is good. Backups questionable as we saw yesterday.

Right-back, left-back situation not good because of injuries to James and Cucurella. No way to rotate with players that are natural to the position

Midfield situation: horrible in terms of rotation. Chucks, Ugo and Lavia out. Casadei very raw. 

Attackers: No one is prolific apart from Palmer who is very young. Our most important acquisition for attack is injured all the time in Nkunku.

Not sure how much Pochettino can really do here. 

If we manage to get 7-9 spot and 2 finals I would say he has done very well. 

I agree to much of this he’s just haven’t had a full team to generate good chemistry 

3 minutes ago, El regreso said:

I agree to much of this he’s just haven’t had a full team to generate good chemistry 

We've actually used 48 players in our match day squads this season ... I think that highlights just how much disruption has been caused by injuries etc

We’ve had our three midfielders playing all season and still don’t understand each other. We’ve had a pretty constant front with Sterling, Jackson and Palmer, and still don’t play together. Some starts and minutes here and there for Mudryck and Madueke, who have been available most (if not all) season. He’s changed keepers (thank god for having to play Petrovic) and defenders, but the ones playing right now have been available most of the season bar Chilwell. And we still haven’t got a team. I sincerely think that Pochettino hasn’t got a clue about who his best available 11 is or how to set them up or how to coach them to gel.

21 minutes ago, RMH said:

We’ve had our three midfielders playing all season and still don’t understand each other. We’ve had a pretty constant front with Sterling, Jackson and Palmer, and still don’t play together. Some starts and minutes here and there for Mudryck and Madueke, who have been available most (if not all) season. He’s changed keepers (thank god for having to play Petrovic) and defenders, but the ones playing right now have been available most of the season bar Chilwell. And we still haven’t got a team. I sincerely think that Pochettino hasn’t got a clue about who his best available 11 is or how to set them up or how to coach them to gel.

In a simple way we have been able to defend okay, better than 11th. We have been able to create chances okay, better than 11th BUT we have not finished our chances and that is why mainly we are 11th. 

All the fluctuation between and inside games is for me due to injuries and lack of experience and leadership. 

Personally I have never liked Pochettino as a coach but I've respected him on what he did at Spurs. I laughed when he was sacked from PSG.

Over this 8 month period he's won me over to convince me he is a good man manager, a good person and probably the right type of guy to steer us a couple of seasons. If the side progresses all the time, which it has, I am okay with him. 

If he had Tuchel, Conte or Jose we'd go for the short term gratification. We know how that goes. 2 seasons and burnt out team and coach. 

1 hour ago, OriginalS said:

I think he was about 4 minutes away from being sacked yesterday as I think Leeds would have turned us over in extra-time with our tired legs. But still hobbling along courtesy of late, late goals but we are going absolutely nowhere. And his comments is just irritating, "we are doing fantastic" he managed to blurt out post-match yesterday and thats just disrespecting the fans as far as i'm concerned.

I hope the club realize we need to move on from Poch even if we somehow managed to win the FA Cup and secure Europa League. I fear they wouldn't realize that which would prolong the suffering but we could not have asked for an easier route to the semifinals and I imagine we'll be facing Wolves in the semis which gives us a decent chance to reach another final in which we could get lucky.

Move on from Poch and restart the whole "development" season thing again? No thanks.

I've always said from the start, if he gets 7th and we win/get to the final of either cups we should keep him. I don't care how "lucky" it is if it happens. 

A new emerging criticism is Poch hasn’t given many minutes to academy players. Gilchrist is an exception. Yet he complains, correctly, that Enzo and Caicedo are tired and over worked. He would have liked to have ugo, Lavia and chukky of course but when they injured he won’t take a risk. Same as he wouldn’t risk maatsen. This has been shown up by Klopp. 

I get a club like Chelsea shouldn’t need to play academy players. But guess what. We do. 

so to me all these things are just consistent with a lack of spirit. 

7 minutes ago, ozboy said:

A new emerging criticism is Poch hasn’t given many minutes to academy players. Gilchrist is an exception. Yet he complains, correctly, that Enzo and Caicedo are tired and over worked. He would have liked to have ugo, Lavia and chukky of course but when they injured he won’t take a risk. Same as he wouldn’t risk maatsen. This has been shown up by Klopp. 

I get a club like Chelsea shouldn’t need to play academy players. But guess what. We do. 

so to me all these things are just consistent with a lack of spirit. 

Again the situation with already young team and the injuries makes it very hard to have a plan for the youth. 

It is a balancing act and not very easy one at that.

48 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

We've actually used 48 players in our match day squads this season ... I think that highlights just how much disruption has been caused by injuries etc

That’s shocking really to build a team who understands each other you need the first 11 fit for the majority of games with a few rotations.

Just now, El regreso said:

That’s shocking really to build a team who understands each other you need the first 11 fit for the majority of games with a few rotations.

He's had the majority of the starting 11 available and still are playing like individuals rather than as a team.

2 minutes ago, RMH said:

He's had the majority of the starting 11 available and still are playing like individuals rather than as a team.

Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Fofana, Nkunku, Chukwuemeka, Cucurella, Lavia, Ugochukwu, Chalobah, Badiashile...a list of players mostly out all season. 

2 minutes ago, evissy said:

Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Fofana, Nkunku, Chukwuemeka, Cucurella, Lavia, Ugochukwu, Chalobah, Badiashile...a list of players mostly out all season. 

Petrovic, Colwill, Silva, Gusto, Gilchrist, Disasi, Enzo, Caicedo, Gallagher, Sterling, Jackson, Palmer, Mudryck, Madueke, all mostly available (bar few games) and still not capable of playing as a team. I'm not saying he's got the 'best' players available, but what he has is a decent group of players that 7 months into the season still play as a group of individuals rather than a team. 

24 minutes ago, RMH said:

Petrovic, Colwill, Silva, Gusto, Gilchrist, Disasi, Enzo, Caicedo, Gallagher, Sterling, Jackson, Palmer, Mudryck, Madueke, all mostly available (bar few games) and still not capable of playing as a team. I'm not saying he's got the 'best' players available, but what he has is a decent group of players that 7 months into the season still play as a group of individuals rather than a team. 

Bold = first season in the Prem, Italic = second season in the Prem. 

Premier League is a pretty tough league.

With better luck we could be 6,7th. With better management and the same luck maybe 5th.

1 hour ago, Remodez said:

Move on from Poch and restart the whole "development" season thing again? No thanks.

I've always said from the start, if he gets 7th and we win/get to the final of either cups we should keep him. I don't care how "lucky" it is if it happens. 

Finishing top 8 would be an improvement.

Reaching the FA Cup final as well would mean that Poch has managed to show that the squad is not as bad as people make it out to be and that he's not as bad either.

Let's face it, our standards dropped a lot, before finishing in top 4 was a minimal expectation regardless of how the squad looked like and reaching cup finals meant we became just a cup team since we couldn't fight against 99 points won of Man City... Now everyone puts their head down and goes along with it, I find it interesting.

Edited February 29, 20242 yr by Gol15

6 hours ago, dkw said:

No, not social media, we were just sh*te and have been for ages. Poch has no idea what hes doing, hes constantly playing players out of position, he somehow manages to send us out with no energy or urgency every single game, then at half time does something that again sees us start the half with absolutely nothing. Hes a loser, he has us playing like losers.

 

Then stupid sh*t like putting 2 keepers on the bench, bringing knackered players off the bench that has youth on it etc. He`s taking the piss.

I am not a Poch backer but i also believe in perspective.. The criticism that you are labelling have been labelled at all managers since the Conte season.. We have had roughly 3 different teams since then..  

As for playing positions out of position .. as much as I hate it too .. all other coaches have done it and i think with out injuries his hand has been forced too.. Apart from Enzo i dont think he has played players out of position when first team players have been available.

As a club we are in poor place and untill we stitch results together we will continue to be low on confidence and play sh*te.. even klopp coundnt do much better maybe a couple of places.. Nothing helps like winning.. Last year Almiron looked worldclass

My advice is have patience.. Arteta was called the spanish Tony Pulis for 4 years.. i dont know if Poch will win or succeed but unlike a lot here

• reaching a cup final is progress for me
• winning and scoring last minute winners against villa/palace etc is progress for me
• Not folding in front of city and others is progress for me

WIth this squad if we finished in the top 6 with good cup runs i think he has at the very least achieved his targets.. 

We have squandered money on poor players and on top have been desperately unlucky with injuries.. so lets keep it real.

7 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

The problem is once you make the final ( which doesn't happen everyyear), just making up the number on the day really doesn't cut it. It's almost to be the point why spending all the energy getting there, and not aiming to win. If we were out classed by a Liverpool team of Salah, Allison, TAA, Jota etc, we'd call it a gap too far and most fans will just be contend we made the effort. But against that team that missing 11 players, and we too afraid to having a go at that, it's NOT good enough.

A cup win would have saved Poch's job until start of the next season at least, losing it doesn't mean he should be sacked. But the owners won't back him either, and should a better manager becomes available we know what will happen.

 

We have also been quite fortunate with the draws in both the league and FA Cups

 

Villa away, Brghton at home and Newcastle at home have been our only really impressive victories in those runs. And we kinda got saved by a deflection against Newcastle.

 

Even in the quarters of the FA Cup we've got another Championship side

Edited February 29, 20242 yr by Drogba1

2 hours ago, Jangz said:

I am not a Poch backer but i also believe in perspective.. The criticism that you are labelling have been labelled at all managers since the Conte season.. We have had roughly 3 different teams since then..  

As for playing positions out of position .. as much as I hate it too .. all other coaches have done it and i think with out injuries his hand has been forced too.. Apart from Enzo i dont think he has played players out of position when first team players have been available.

As a club we are in poor place and untill we stitch results together we will continue to be low on confidence and play sh*te.. even klopp coundnt do much better maybe a couple of places.. Nothing helps like winning.. Last year Almiron looked worldclass

My advice is have patience.. Arteta was called the spanish Tony Pulis for 4 years.. i dont know if Poch will win or succeed but unlike a lot here

• reaching a cup final is progress for me
• winning and scoring last minute winners against villa/palace etc is progress for me
• Not folding in front of city and others is progress for me

WIth this squad if we finished in the top 6 with good cup runs i think he has at the very least achieved his targets.. 

We have squandered money on poor players and on top have been desperately unlucky with injuries.. so lets keep it real.

People keep saying "with this squad" as though it's abysmal, it really isn't. It may not be top 4 material but it's definitely good enough for a top 6 battle. Poch has made no positive moves forward since getting here, no player has progressed, many have regressed. I've still no idea how he's trying to get us playing, defensively there's no strategy, set piece defending is woeful, he swaps players like their panini sticker doubles. Hes played players out if position constantly, he had gilchrist at left back last night for example. He's had loads of time and opportunity to get the midfield amd attack working as the majority have been fit the entire season.

 

There's no progression, there no evidence of him getting to grips with anything at the club. He's pathetic on the bench, often looks like he can't even be arsed. He somehow manages to send the team out with no energy, aggression, impetus or confidence in every half, its ridiculous. 

4 minutes ago, dkw said:

People keep saying "with this squad" as though it's abysmal, it really isn't.

I stop reading and replying to any posts that suggests as such. Especially the lunacy in suggesting we are lucky to be 10th.