Fire Pochettino Thread

Seems like he has a different idea of what experimentation means in this specific scenario? After a quite good performance in one game and seeing training, maybe he made a decision to use some of the support he brought in, perhaps because they have been good in training, perhaps because of club form, perhaps just to compare the two sides in terms of effort/performance. This is a team that often is missing "crucial" pieces. Maybe Poch would say using the backups you do have for the sake of this specific comparison isn't what he meant by "experimentation"?

The general "idiot of the gaps" argument has the same issue with its religious corollary, it seems to be working backwards from a position of adopting the negative, that he's making the wrong call. At first it was why Ream, why no 3 ATB, why not Weah at WB, then why Berhalter, recently why no McKenzie, still why no Banks... what else am I missing?

Now, it's why Roldan and why Sands in basically a single half of football, despite 3 good team performances in a row. Exactly how many of these have to be struck down and how much better do the performances need to get before we can stop assuming he's dumb/bad/mistaken/whatever.

The idea that the team needs to be solidifying the first 11 and getting them as much time as possible on the pitch in these friendlies because it's crucial to the WC, not only is that obviously not how he feels but I'm not even sure that it's true.

Sands will not almost surely not play minutes at the World Cup, if the side is healthy. But we has seen Poch drop people who haven't been good, and bring in others based on form. And it seems very likely, considering the mental makeup of this group of players, that the best way to have them performing in actual primetime is to have them feeling like they need to fight for every minute they get. So, all of that is accomplished based on playing these guys who, I agree!, we should not see playing a lot in June.

Doesn't seem so farfetched or crazy to me. But again, just like the Berhalter-Weah red card situation, too often on here any time you're not assuming the maximally critical position when it comes to the US manager you're blindly supporting them.

Not saying you're saying that dk, you're a great poster. Just saying, to me much of this feels overly critical, especially in the tone/tenor of posts by the likes of xbshark or whatever.

 

BTW, as far as his "experimentation"... again, we should probably not give a shit when a manager says things like this. Frankly we should take anything said to the media with a grain of salt... but doubly so when it seems in direct response to (frankly) questionable criticism that has been lobbed from the blogosphere/twitterverse and to which Poch clearly bristles on some level.

Would anyone even want their manager to be thinking about this kind of stuff?

Well, I said I was done experimenting on a mic a couple times, so maybe I shouldn't play these backups to see how they'll respond to minutes 8 months from the cup... because then @xITSCALLEDSOCCERx_1776 will have less of an argument against my tactical decisions...

Like, who seriously gives a ********.

 

How can Poch possibly know now than these YouTubers who think soccer started with the Premier League around 2010?

 

For the record I wouldn't want Roldan playing in the World Cup! Or Sands. But show me any roster from any manager that no fan had an issue with, it would be the first one I've ever seen.

 

I mean, you've hit on it. Poch's relative assessment of Sands is almost certainly different than yours.

Which makes it at least partly a difference of assessment and not necessarily philosophy about how to use this game.

I would also say there's very possibly two other things going on:

• What Poch said -- fitness at altitude. It may be very well that Poch has made his assessments now with everyone in camp, but didn't want to play Tanner another 90 back to back. There's some level of cohesion loss, but Tanner did end up playing if not starting.
• Culture. If you want to build a culture, one of the key tools is putting metrics and rewards behind those behaviors or values. If someone does what you ask at club, they should get a call. If someone does those things -- especially relative to others -- in camp, they should get minutes.

You can't build a competitive culture if it's not actually competitive. Perhaps Sands exhibited traits that Poch wants to reward; wants to see others seeing that and responding, etc. I think this is more likely more the reason Roldan is in, but I think sometimes we have lineups that are all talent and forget that can have consequences.

 

So, whenever a coach rotates players, especially with only 4 days in-between, you call that 'tinkering', or later 'experimentation'? I don't, I say that is exactly what good coaches do. He basically has his team together (minus the ones that are injured), so he started some in the first match, then rotated in some others for the second. Combine that with the subs he made and you have most of the players in camp getting some time, just like club teams do when they start stacking up matches. No different than what will happen during the WC. There will be injuries to deal with, guys who just need a rest and can come off the bench, and this US side can't just run out the same 11 and expect to last. That's not tinkering or experimenting, it's making sure the "second 10" are ready when they inevitably need to get a start next summer.

 

Or maybe score more goals than its opponents.

 

I also think people were really aggressive in interpreting “experimentation.” Maybe I got it wrong, but I took that to mean “large-scale experimentation” like calling in a dozen guys who very likely won’t make the WC roster. Testing a few options for a few undecided spots is different from that. And much more sensible.

 

Task #1 for Pochettino had to be fixing the culture. That's on the right track.

Task #2 is figuring out how to eliminate, or more realistically, reduce the obvious defensive mistakes. We just give away too many easy goals right now for a World Cup team.

We've improved from the South Korea match but we simply can't be giving up the Australia goal next summer. Or some of their other chances.

 

I think this quote from Gooch fits to what Poch has been doing.

GOLZ on X: "Oguchi Onyewu, former USMNT defender now VP of Sporting for U.S. Soccer, spoke about building a best team ️ “In one of the teams I played in Europe, earlier in the season, I wasn’t playing,” Onyewu said Club & Country show. “I went to the coach and I said, ‘Why am I not https://t.co/MWcnK28VAi" / X

 

I think that Roldan is a slightly better holding midfielder now than he was a CM/winger 3-4 years ago.

 

All goals conceded bug me, but the Enner Valencia goal that we gave up didn't bother me even remotely as much as that pathetic ball-watching goal from a throw-in to Australia. Or so many others we've given up lately. Goals that a team as good as we'd like to esteem ourselves should simply never give up, so rarely that it's a souvenir.

 

I'm giving some hope that we don't do that once a final roster is in place and starters and key backups spend more time together. The defense is still in a bit of a merry-go-round trial and defenses get better when they know there partners better.

 

That game me feel like quitting my U20 obsession that has been ongoing for 22 years. So god awful, just unbelievable.

 

Very possibly true. I would just say that I think I'm pretty consistent in giving most coaches leeway on stuff like this.

 

If any coach, including Poch, started a couple guys like those and the performance suffered as a direct result, they'd catch valid criticism. Obviously.

However, in context the move on its face is not hard to understand.

 

I don't particularly rate Sands, but think he deserved his call up and Poch gets to decide if he deserved the start.

IMO, he lost his chance.

 

I think that is a fairly accurate summary of their differences; Sands is a DM who actually plays defense and is a ball winner. That is their biggest difference, Sands has 4.3 tackles + interceptions while Tessmann has (for a DM)a poor 2.4 average T&I. There is not much difference as far as size or speed but Sands covers more ground per match. Neither generate much goal production. Sands is #8 in the BuLi in distance covered

Sands is similar to. and could replace Adams in a pinch and allow us to be aggressive both on offensive and defensive. Tessmann does not possess those attributes. I believe the way Poch wants to play we need a high work rate ball winner to protect our back line; That is Adams, Morris, Sands or Cardoso.

https://www.whoscored.com/players/345160/history/james-sands
https://www.whoscored.com/players/393096/history/tanner-tessmann

 

I don't even know much about Sands. And this isn't really about Sands, IMO, just like the Gregg stuff was very, very rarely about his roster selections (especially after that early part of his tenure).

And I admittedly do default to "the coach knows what he's doing" type thinking, maybe because it's my reflexive hate of what I consider a really pathetic element of fandom, playing Monday morning quarterback over every little thing... "why didn't he do this?!", "why isn't this guy playing instead of that guy?!", to me it absolutely reeks of an entitled, obnoxious little league parent who had a beer too many in the stands. So, that could very well be my own blind spot.

Either way, I honestly don't care if Sands is ever called in again. I'm only trying to say that these kinds of moves makes pretty clear sense in the context our current player pool -- specifically the motivation, injury, and depth issues Poch is tasked with "fixing".