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Played Off The Park: The Pochettino Effect


Saint-Armstrong
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I know we as fans love the good things written about us and automatically hate the bad but this is a great summing up of what I think of Pochettino so far. Sacking Akdins wasn't the wrong move, it was just a strange one because of the timing and of what Adkins had achieved. Had we not seen much in the way of change under Pochettino, we could have questioned the decision to remove Adkins, but, as the article shows, we're better off under Pochettino statistically and from the new style of play. Polishing off Reading last week also shows we've adapted to beating those teams that try the long ball as well as passing - which makes me wonder if we had that QPR game now, whether the result would have been different.

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Far too much info for my liking - opposition teams now have half their homework done for them!!

 

 

Good point, BUT......

 

How would you counter it?

 

 

I would stick one player on Spider for 90 minutes and play a very high line at the back so Saints would have to play most of the football in their own half which will make it harder to pass due to the lack of space.

 

 

 

To be honest with you that idea might be crap so I'm going to stick with what I know best and that's breeding Taekwondo champions :)

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Good point, BUT......

 

How would you counter it?

 

 

I would stick one player on Spider for 90 minutes and play a very high line at the back so Saints would have to play most of the football in their own half which will make it harder to pass due to the lack of space.

 

 

 

To be honest with you that idea might be crap so I'm going to stick with what I know best and that's breeding Taekwondo champions :)

 

The Fat Sam / Stoke method, don't let the ball get as low as knee height all game.

 

Neck braces ahoy for this afternoon.

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If yer average fan can see and analyse how well we're playing then any opposition with all their professional set-ups are one step ahead so these kind of reports are giving away any secrets, it just shows we're having an impact.

 

The biggest struggle we could have is if Poch keeps this team performing and the recognition and plaudits continue to grow at this rate, then he'll become a hot sort-after property.

 

And when you and your family have been used to living in the surroundings of a city like what Barcelona can offer is Southampton (or really any other city in this country outside of London) gonna be enough to keep him around for too long?

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Management is always about the RIGHT manager with the RIGHT squad...at the RIGHT time.

 

Few can doubt that NA did a great job with back-to-back promotion, however....I've recently seen so many references to " Pochettino inheriting Adkins' squad." when in fact one might say that Adkins " inherited " some of Pardew's squad.....Lambert, Puncheon, Fonte.....and of course; KD, Lallana and Schneiderlin who were with the club - even before he arrived.

 

Clearly the purchase of Jay Rod wasn't utilised correctly, but MP seems to have turned him into an England prospect in less than a dozen games, and somehow even the "so-called " £12 million misfit " Ramirez looks more comfortable in the MP set-up, than he did at the start of the season, likewise Steven Davis, who spent much of the first half of the season on the bench seems to be emerging as the type of player we thought we'd bought in the first place.

 

I am still an admirer of Nigel's fantastic achievements, but also see that the new " Pochettino tactics " have taken the team to a level that those previous managers might only have dreamed about.

Edited by david in sweden
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It's all well and good making comparisons between Adkins' matches in the Premiership and Pochettino's, but inevitably there are factors which distort the comparison which have not been mentioned. The author makes a point of saying how important Cork has been to the success of the team, especially in partnership with Schneiderlin, but Cork missed several of the opening games and we have been noticeably better, both in attack and defence since he returned. The difficult fixture start we had is also a factor and players like Shaw blossomed under Adkins, but weren't a realistic option earlier. Also the defence was weaker earlier because new signings like Yoshida and Boruc had not had the time to bed in.

 

The fairer comparison would be the same number of matches for each of them and those being the ones closest together, i.e. Adkins last matches, when he had put together a run of matches that had us only beaten once in twelve.

 

But that wouldn't produce such a clear cut case in Pochettino's favour, would it? Although victories over some of the glory teams and the way we went about it, is impressive, the outcome of the matches yet to be played against the more average teams will be illuminating. The win over Reading is cited as evidence that we can employ different tactics against more long ball teams, but one swallow does not make a Summer. A better defined opinion can be formed at the end of the season.

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Wes raises some very good points that I agree with.

 

And from the article, this:

 

Though I don’t agree with the sacking of Adkins, as he should have been given more of a chance after everything he’d done for the club, the appointment of Pochettino has been nothing short of a revelation.

 

pretty much echos my feelings on it all.

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I don't want to bash Adkins, and this came before this impressive run of games, but after the Everton game I was commenting with two mates of mine that as a team we looked much more focused and assured than before. And this was in a 0-0 draw.

 

With Adkins the style was there, but I'm not sure if we were that emotionally stable as a team and also if we were able to deal with the pressure of playing for results. Truth is we couldn't be either TBH given the relegation dogfight was still very far from its final countdown. Pochettino I must say has given us that little bit of nerve that you need to swallow up the doubts in adversity.

 

Love Adkins, but in my eyes after the Everton game survival only really became clearer then.

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I don't want to bash Adkins, and this came before this impressive run of games, but after the Everton game I was commenting with two mates of mine that as a team we looked much more focused and assured than before. And this was in a 0-0 draw.

 

With Adkins the style was there, but I'm not sure if we were that emotionally stable as a team and also if we were able to deal with the pressure of playing for results. Truth is we couldn't be either TBH given the relegation dogfight was still very far from its final countdown. Pochettino I must say has given us that little bit of nerve that you need to swallow up the doubts in adversity.

 

Love Adkins, but in my eyes after the Everton game survival only really became clearer then.

 

 

I think it's a case of " good cop / bad cop " , Adkins was always satisfied with " something " in a game ...Pochettino picks up on the smallest mistake.

I'm not criticising Pochettino with that comment, but he does seem to be more demanding than Adkins' " nice uncle " style.

 

It was too easy for NA to praise even a mediochre effort, whereas MP seems to be much more demanding of the team and is less inclined to " pat players on the head" and leave it at that.

The Pochettino Effect - more agressive and attacking - hasn't led to many more fouls or yellow cards, but is far more entertaining to watch.

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It's all well and good making comparisons between Adkins' matches in the Premiership and Pochettino's, but inevitably there are factors which distort the comparison which have not been mentioned. The author makes a point of saying how important Cork has been to the success of the team, especially in partnership with Schneiderlin, but Cork missed several of the opening games and we have been noticeably better, both in attack and defence since he returned. The difficult fixture start we had is also a factor and players like Shaw blossomed under Adkins, but weren't a realistic option earlier. Also the defence was weaker earlier because new signings like Yoshida and Boruc had not had the time to bed in.

 

The fairer comparison would be the same number of matches for each of them and those being the ones closest together, i.e. Adkins last matches, when he had put together a run of matches that had us only beaten once in twelve.

 

But that wouldn't produce such a clear cut case in Pochettino's favour, would it? Although victories over some of the glory teams and the way we went about it, is impressive, the outcome of the matches yet to be played against the more average teams will be illuminating. The win over Reading is cited as evidence that we can employ different tactics against more long ball teams, but one swallow does not make a Summer. A better defined opinion can be formed at the end of the season.

exactly this. Our form under Adkins in his last two months once settled in the Prem with a full strength team was excellent
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