Pochettino Masterclass In The Making?

That’s all fair.

This malaise started well before Poch, his predecessor should never have been rehired.

of all the available coaches, I and 99% of fans and pundits thought he was an amazing hire.

I don't subscribe to the ‘Merica First, or we are so unique line of thinking with managers. I rather have someone with a proven track record building teams and making good tactical decisions at those margins; the right adjustment here, the right sub there, to win those important games with the highest stakes.

I can’t speak to those handful of folks who may have thought Poch was a bad hire from the off, but from myself and the vast majority who welcomed his appointment, I think it’s intellectually dishonest to turn on him at this juncture with the state of things he inherited and the time he’s had.

I’ll buy yours and anyone else’s Poch stock right now at pennies on the dollar and I’ll sell you all my overinflated Jesse Marsch, or whatever other domestic option you’ve got stock right now.

In my experience watching just a couple less WC cycles than you over the years, the overwhelming evidence is that the run up to the World Cup has nothing at all to do with the actual tournament, actually the inverse is the trend.

This is our most talented player pool yet. This same core, as very young players went as far in a WC as all but one, just one of these supposed all heart and fight teams of yore.

If Turner gets his shit together at Lyon and we can find a competent partner for Richards I feel great about our chances on home soil with Poch at the helm.

 

Not much to disagree with here for me, except that I don’t believe criticizing specific Poch choices implies disagreement with much or any of that.

 

This is basic coach speak. No coach is going to go out there and tell the truth that players couldn't hold the jock of those not here. Maybe Alex Ferguson because all of the players would be afraid of him.

 

Quite possibly. This B-ish, maybe B+ tournament is just about the halfway point of his tenure.

I remain convinced that, objectively speaking, he's a good coach. I am agnostic as to whether or not he's the "right" coach for us, but that's by the by, as he's the horse we've got and we aren't switching at this point. Switching at this point would not help us. Does he have enough time to suss out our player pool and figure out how to deploy them? Maybe. Just about. By the hairs of his chinny-chin-chin.

I am of the opinion that he and his staff have just not done as much homework on our player pool as they should have, and that he's one that values (perhaps overly so) his own first impressions over tape or data analysis or the word of coaches and scouts outside his team. And remember that close to half his direct experience with our player pool was the three weks and two matches he spent with the B/C-ers of January camp, which explains a lot of his picks, especially those of the "I wanted to give them minutes" against Switzerland variety.

If he had better player pool knowledge, and trusted more in indirect knowledge to make up for his lack of experience with our pool, we wouldn't have had that Switzerland match.

Will it be a turning point? I'm pretty sure it will be, at least as far as this group of players is concerned. I think he has a good idea of what he can expect out of THESE players and how to use them. We also aren't going to be facing any Turkeys or Switzerlands in the Gold Cup. We'll get Saudi Arabia, and maybe a Mexico or Canada.

But in order to beat the likes of Turkey and Switzerland, he'll have to get a handle on the players who aren't here, some of which he's not yet or barely yet managed or seen. Gotta figure out how he's going to use Dest and Pepi and Balogun, and how those guys impact his tactical options. Or a healthy Gio, and if an available Gio is better as is than Tillman, etc.

After this tournament (and he's going to have a LOT of time with these particular guys, which he's shown to value quite a bit, perhaps to the point of overdoing it), he's going to have 4 FIFA windows and another January camp to figure out how he wants to approach the World Cup squad and tactics. And that's it. Three more windows this year, and one next year before WC camp. And I don't know if he'll call in a large pre-camp and then cut down at the last minute, but that's not how he's done things thus far. He seems to call in the roster that he's going to use, period. He might even name his official WC roster before necessary, unlike most of our managers in the past have done, Klinsmann included. Klinsi called in 30 guys to the WC camp and cut 7 before cut-down day. Bradley did similarly (I think he called in 27). Berhalter called his final 26 to camp, but he held off until late to do it.

 

Not a masterclass but it does seem to me that the recent run of putrescent results makes this Gold Cup way more consequential for the coach and program than any I can remember. It’s usually a throwaway tournament, one we send a B team to and hope for the best. But now after a run of 4 losses and with this being the last meaningful group of games before WC games at home, these games loom really large. A successful GC could wipe away the stench of failure and create some positivity and momentum. A crap GC would about cement the narrative that this team is on the decline and Poch is powerless to change that (not necessarily that this is true, but it’s already a pretty strong narrative).

I’m hoping for the former. I accept that the latter is a real possibility especially bc our path to the GC trophy would be CR —> Canada —> Mexico. But man if we could pull it off that would be the real shot in the arm this team needs.

 

I would much rather be in Yosemite right now.

 

If this is a "master" class then the subject is baiting.

 

With the way that things have gone thus far, I would think that they will finalize the 30 or so candidates by the end of the January camp, if not before.

Though everyone here has told me of the impossibility of having European players at the January camp, I would not be surprised at all if nearly everyone who missed this summer is there speaking the company line after they find out just how serious Pochettino is about commitment.

 

There’s zero chance the European guys are at January camp. Their clubs will never release them.

 

Everything is negotiable, especially in Europe.

 

Not for something like this. They have zero requirement and zero incentive to release any of our guys.

 

Players have ways of making clubs flex the rules.

It’s not impossible by any stretch.

 

Im totally down to criticize him just like I’ve done with every manager, he’ll that’s 90% of how we all spend our time.

I’m just not buying into the meltdown I see questioning if we should fire him at this juncture, accusing him of be lazy and not caring, acting like he doesn’t know how to evaluate talent, etc.

 

Not for something like this and our guys don’t have that sort of leverage.

Mbappe couldn’t even get released for a home Olympics that only conflicted with European preseason.

 

If he didn’t believe these players were equal in ability…what would justify choosing the poorer players over the stronger ones given both wanted to be here?

 

The Olympics is basically a youth tournament for people who want to party. You can see why he wouldn’t have been overly forceful with that one.