Doubts creeping in again about Pochettino
Maybe I am a bit on the fickle side. I first expressed very strong reservation about Spurs head coach Mauricio Pochettino DURING and after the Stoke home defeat. I ate humble pie and apologised after the Arsenal win in my Premier League review (http://www.spursodyssey.com/review1415/rev24.html ).
Now I am being doubtful again. I have often said though recently that we are too predictable, and as I mentioned in my match report, I think Van Gaal exposed our frailties badly, since when as a team we have been pretty shot. Pochettino and his team have had too many dismal performances recently and during the season.
This was our fifth home defeat so far this season, which is more than most other teams in the top half, except for West Ham and Stoke, who are ninth and tenth respectively. We've only scored in three of our last eight games (we won all three), and managed only two clean sheets in our last 13 games.
There is too much to be negative about, and both the team and head coach are at something of a low point in their season. We've played 51 games now. Perhaps the squad is now getting tired, whereas, when we were getting those last gasp wins, there was so much positive talk about Pochettino's fitness regime.
It would seem that Dembele has now been added to the ranks of Pochettino's disenfranchised players, because it is a mystery to me why he hasn't been used in the last two games. We haven't been told of any injury. Of the players he is choosing, there are too many consistently under-par performances. That goes for Pochettino too, although he is doing better overall this season than did Sherwood when he was in charge for 28 games last season.
I don’t see much improvement on the horizon. We are a Europa League side at best, and that’s what we’ll be next season, and the year after. ENIC, or whoever (if anybody) buys the club would need to spend big to compete with those challenging for the top four. It’s no co-incidence that 5 big spenders are in the top five. I include Liverpool in that, especially since they regained fifth place last night.
For the record, Danny Rose was voted your man of the match for Spurs. My records suggest this was his first such vote.
As I posted on Twitter after the Manchester Derby, in which Man City lost their fourth consecutive away game, it was so frustrating to know that, had Spurs got the five additional points they should have taken off Burnley and Villa, they would only have been two points behind City. I bet they don't lose their next away game at White Hart Lane.
See the spursometer in full
Results 11-13.04.15
Swansea 1-1 Everton
S'hampton 2-0 Hull
S'derland 1-4 C. Palace
Spurs 0-1 A. Villa
West Brom 2-3 Leicester
West Ham 1-1 Stoke
Burnley 0-1 Arsenal
QPR 0-1 Chelsea
Man Utd 4-2 Man City
Liverpool 2-0 Newcastle
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Chelsea 31 22 7 2 64-26 38 73
2. Arsenal 32 20 6 6 63-32 31 66
3. Man Utd 32 19 8 5 59-30 29 65
4. Man City 32 18 7 7 65-34 31 61
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5. Liverpool 32 17 6 9 47-36 11 57
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6. S'hampton 32 17 5 10 44-22 22 56
7. Spurs 32 16 6 10 50-46 4 54
8. Swansea 32 13 8 11 38-40 -2 47
9. West Ham 32 11 10 11 42-40 2 43
10. Stoke 32 12 7 12 36-40 -4 43
11. C. Palace 32 11 9 12 42-43 -1 42
12. Everton 32 9 11 12 40-43 -3 38
13. Newcastle 32 9 8 15 33-51 -18 35
14. West Brom 32 8 9 15 30-46 -16 33
15. A. Villa 33 8 8 17 24-45 -21 32
16. S'derland 32 5 14 13 25-48 -23 29
17. Hull 32 6 10 16 29-45 -16 28
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18. QPR 33 7 5 21 38-59 -21 26
19. Burnley 32 5 11 16 26-50 -24 26
20. Leicester 31 6 7 18 32-51 -19 25
