MAURICIO POCHETTINO KEEPS a bowl of lemons on his desk to absorb the negative energy wafting off visitors, but if he is to deal with sheer volume of bad vibes around Tottenham at the moment he may need to find a whole tree of them, Simpsons-style.
That caper also had the benefit of bringing the people of Springfield together in a unity badly needed at Spurs at the moment.
Mauricio Pochettino. DPA / PA Images
DPA / PA Images / PA Images
Pochettino was loathe to overreact to Tuesday’s 7-2 humiliation to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and to be fair to him, it was a kind of aberration.
Spurs actually played some of their best football of the season in the opening half-hour, creating chances while pressing with the kind of vigour that they has escaped them in recent months.
Bayern, meanwhile, were almost freakishly accurate. Although they scored seven, their Expected Goals metric was 2.1.
That said – Spurs can’t hide their issues behind the statistical anomalies of last Tuesday night, as the extent of their second-half collapse was shocking, and deeply concerning in the context of a side that – last season’s European miracles aside – are in a seemingly irreversible slide.
Since 23 February last year, Spurs have played 19 league games and lost nine of them. They’ve won just six of them against sides of decidedly poor quality: Brighton, Southampton, Palace, Huddersfield, and Aston Villa.
Across their last 38 league games, however, a trend emerges that points to a side less amid an endless fall than reverting to the mean.
Across that period they’ve picked up 67 points, which would have seen them finish 6th in three of the last four seasons.
A club’s wage bill has been proven as the most consistent forecast of a side’s ultimate league finish…and Tottenham’s wage bill is the sixth-highest in the division.
Pochettino has been one of the main factors in Spurs’ continued over-achievement, with his tactical flexibility and modern, high-pressing style hauling Spurs right to the game’s cutting edge.
Not any more.
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Jack Pitt-Brooke’s reporting for The Athletic has shown some players have grown tired of Pochettino’s methods, and has crunched the numbers to show they are no longer as committed to their manager’s intense pressing: in 2017/18 Tottenham were the second-highest in the league in terms of pressing actions per game; this season they are averaging 9.4 per game, the second-lowest in the division.
This is indicative of a growing, festering staleness at Tottenham.
While Spurs seemed to make a virtue of continuity in last summer’s stagnation – in which they didn’t sign a single senior player – the malign effects of not bringing in players are biting now.
In the absence of replacements, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, and Christian Eriksen have all been allowed to dwindle down their contracts, and replacing them will be made doubly difficult given they will be allowed leave for a vastly reduced fee.
The club have a relatively rigid wage structure, so the trio know their futures lie away from their present club. Pochettino is usually ruthless with those of wandering focus – see how Andros Townsend and Emmanuel Adebayor were shunted out the door earlier in Pochettino’s reign.
The manager has dropped Alderweireld, Vertonghen, and Eriksen in the past, but given Daniel Levy’s famed obstinacy in selling and parsimony in buying, they haven’t been replaced and Pochettino has been forced to bring them in from the cold.
This doesn’t suit his style. Consider his response to another of the truly aberrant results under his watch: the bewildering 5-1 loss to Newcastle on the final day of the 2015/16 season that caused them to drop below Arsenal and finish third in a two-horse race.
Robert Lewandowski celebrates scoring against Spurs on Tuesday. John Walton
John Walton
Having maintained collective focus in chasing Leicester for the league title, Pochettino says it was lost the moment they drew 2-2 at Chelsea and were ruled mathematically out of the title race.
“Up until that game”, wrote Pochettino in his book Brave New World, “holidays didn’t exist, nobody was focused on personal challenges at Euro 2016, transfers or improved contracts.It all remained locked away until that draw…and that door was flung open. Suddenly we were distracted.”
Now that he has a starting team filled dotted with players who know they’ll be leaving the club in January or a few months later, how is he supposed to maintain that collective focus so integral to his approach?
Tottenham feel like they have come to the end of a cycle, and if results continue as they have been since February there will be the natural temptation to change the manager.
That would be a mistake – he remains one of Spurs’ greatest assets.
Premier League fixtures (kick-off 3pm unless stated)
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Spurs have a mountain of problems - but Pochettino isn't one of them
MAURICIO POCHETTINO KEEPS a bowl of lemons on his desk to absorb the negative energy wafting off visitors, but if he is to deal with sheer volume of bad vibes around Tottenham at the moment he may need to find a whole tree of them, Simpsons-style.
That caper also had the benefit of bringing the people of Springfield together in a unity badly needed at Spurs at the moment.
Pochettino was loathe to overreact to Tuesday’s 7-2 humiliation to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and to be fair to him, it was a kind of aberration.
Spurs actually played some of their best football of the season in the opening half-hour, creating chances while pressing with the kind of vigour that they has escaped them in recent months.
Bayern, meanwhile, were almost freakishly accurate. Although they scored seven, their Expected Goals metric was 2.1.
That said – Spurs can’t hide their issues behind the statistical anomalies of last Tuesday night, as the extent of their second-half collapse was shocking, and deeply concerning in the context of a side that – last season’s European miracles aside – are in a seemingly irreversible slide.
Since 23 February last year, Spurs have played 19 league games and lost nine of them. They’ve won just six of them against sides of decidedly poor quality: Brighton, Southampton, Palace, Huddersfield, and Aston Villa.
Across their last 38 league games, however, a trend emerges that points to a side less amid an endless fall than reverting to the mean.
Across that period they’ve picked up 67 points, which would have seen them finish 6th in three of the last four seasons.
A club’s wage bill has been proven as the most consistent forecast of a side’s ultimate league finish…and Tottenham’s wage bill is the sixth-highest in the division.
Pochettino has been one of the main factors in Spurs’ continued over-achievement, with his tactical flexibility and modern, high-pressing style hauling Spurs right to the game’s cutting edge.
Not any more.
Jack Pitt-Brooke’s reporting for The Athletic has shown some players have grown tired of Pochettino’s methods, and has crunched the numbers to show they are no longer as committed to their manager’s intense pressing: in 2017/18 Tottenham were the second-highest in the league in terms of pressing actions per game; this season they are averaging 9.4 per game, the second-lowest in the division.
This is indicative of a growing, festering staleness at Tottenham.
While Spurs seemed to make a virtue of continuity in last summer’s stagnation – in which they didn’t sign a single senior player – the malign effects of not bringing in players are biting now.
In the absence of replacements, Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen, and Christian Eriksen have all been allowed to dwindle down their contracts, and replacing them will be made doubly difficult given they will be allowed leave for a vastly reduced fee.
The club have a relatively rigid wage structure, so the trio know their futures lie away from their present club. Pochettino is usually ruthless with those of wandering focus – see how Andros Townsend and Emmanuel Adebayor were shunted out the door earlier in Pochettino’s reign.
The manager has dropped Alderweireld, Vertonghen, and Eriksen in the past, but given Daniel Levy’s famed obstinacy in selling and parsimony in buying, they haven’t been replaced and Pochettino has been forced to bring them in from the cold.
This doesn’t suit his style. Consider his response to another of the truly aberrant results under his watch: the bewildering 5-1 loss to Newcastle on the final day of the 2015/16 season that caused them to drop below Arsenal and finish third in a two-horse race.
Having maintained collective focus in chasing Leicester for the league title, Pochettino says it was lost the moment they drew 2-2 at Chelsea and were ruled mathematically out of the title race.
“Up until that game”, wrote Pochettino in his book Brave New World, “holidays didn’t exist, nobody was focused on personal challenges at Euro 2016, transfers or improved contracts.It all remained locked away until that draw…and that door was flung open. Suddenly we were distracted.”
Now that he has a starting team filled dotted with players who know they’ll be leaving the club in January or a few months later, how is he supposed to maintain that collective focus so integral to his approach?
Tottenham feel like they have come to the end of a cycle, and if results continue as they have been since February there will be the natural temptation to change the manager.
That would be a mistake – he remains one of Spurs’ greatest assets.
Premier League fixtures (kick-off 3pm unless stated)
Saturday
Brighton v Spurs (12.30pm)
Norwich v Aston Villa
Watford v Sheffield United
Burnley v Everton
Liverpool v Leicester
West Ham v Crystal Palace (5.30pm)
Sunday
Southampton v Chelsea (2pm)
Manchester City v Wolves (2pm)
Arsenal v Bournemouth (2pm)
Newcastle v Manchester United (4.30pm)
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Mauricio Pochettino talking point Tottenham Hotspur