Liverpool's Sterling service burst Pochettino’s bubble

Ah well, that’s the early optimism out the window then. Well not quite. We always knew that this match would be the first true test of Spurs early progression under new coach Mauricio Pochettino and while the demolition job done by Liverpool did not make happy viewing for Spurs fans, there is no need to despair following a weekend in which champions, Manchester City lost at home to Stoke and both Manchester United and Arsenal failed to beat newly promoted sides. However a Liverpool side that challenged for the premiership title last season and probably will again this season have sadly moved ahead of Spurs over the last eighteen months and there are some lessons to be learnt.

Pochettino unsurprisingly went with the same side that trashed QPR last Sunday. However, Liverpool is a massive step up in class and it showed. In theory, Spurs midfield five outnumbered Liverpool’s four-man midfield diamond due to Brendan Rodgers decision to accommodate new striker Mario Balotelli and Spurs pressing should overpower them and make chances for lone striker Adebayor.

Liverpool’s diamond midfield is a well-oiled machine though. Few players dominate a premiership midfield like Steven Gerrard. Jordan Henderson has a superb engine on him and Joe Allen, while not to everyone’s taste as a footballer is very economical in possession. It is Raheem Sterling though with his speed and energy that really helped Liverpool win the crucial midfield battle. Neither Etienne Capoue nor Nabil Bentaleb had an answer to Sterling’s direct running on and off the ball. This meant that despite dominating possession, Spurs’ defence were constantly exposed whenever Liverpool counter attacked. The inability of Capoue and Bentaleb to execute quick transitions from defence into attack with incisive long rage passing or direct forward surges meant that creative attackers Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksson were never able to get in the game. Nacer Chadli, two goal hero of last week needed a big game but was largely anonymous as Spurs mustered only one shot on target in the entire ninety minutes.  

With Sterling in scintillating form, Liverpool’s front two of Sturridge and Balotelli were able to unsettle Spurs’ back four with their movement and pace. Younes Kaboul struggled and his place will likely be under threat from new signing Federico Fazio. Young defender, Eric Dier had a tough game. He won’t face many attackers more difficult to handle than Sterling all season and did reasonably well. He was unlucky with the penalty decision which swung the game firmly in Liverpool’s favour especially as a similar foul on the Adebayor in the Liverpool box went unpunished. Substitutes Dembele and Townsend hardly had time to get in the game before Liverpool scored their killer third following a dreadful error by Townsend. For a fullback who started the match to outpace Townsend, who had just come on over almost 70 yards is unacceptable and he needs to rediscover the form and speed that got him into the England squad last season really quickly if he is to have a future at Spurs.

This match highlighted the need for an energetic box to box midfielder to partner Dembele who is one of best tacklers and users of a ball at the club. His long range passing needs improvement but I would have him ahead of Capoue, Sandro or Bentaleb in that central midfield role. Bentaleb has potential but is still developing. Sandro and Capoue are powerful tacklers but their ball distribution is poor and they are simply not quick enough, either when under attack or when transitioning defence into attack. Paulinho was meant to bring that box to box dynamism but despite a few goals, his dynamism and match application falls short of what is needed. It is Spurs’ great misfortune that Morgan Scheiderlin, the one Southampton player Pochettino really wants is the one player Southampton refuse to sell. The match also highlighted a lack of a cutting edge upfront. Spurs simply did not threaten enough upfront. For Pochettino’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation to work, he needs the front three behind the main striker to be prolific. This explains the apparent interest in Manchester United’s Danny Welbeck and Southampton’s Jay Rodriguez. Strikers with a decent goal scoring record who can play off a front man.

Pochettino is fortunate to have had faced Liverpool this early in the season. If Spurs had won, the expectation will have gone through the roof and he will have been hailed a genius in the Jose Mourinho mould. This defeat has come early enough in the season, with only one of his signings involved to be filed under ‘inherited team’ category. He will rightly claim that his team are still a work in progress and expectations will now be lowered accordingly. The fact that Brendan Rodgers, in only his 100^th match as Liverpool coach was already facing his fourth Spurs manager also highlights the need for patience and stability.

There are three measures by which Spurs’ improvement under Pochettino would be judged this season. The development of an attractive playing style, the ability to change games tactically and Spurs record against the top four. The style is slowly appearing, but there was not much tactical ingenuity on show against Liverpool and the record against the top four has not got off to the best start. There is much work for Senor Pochettino to do.

Four-midable Spurs have QPR for Sunday Roast

Many Spurs fans were understandably baffled when current Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp was sacked by Spurs chairman Daniel Levy back in 2012 after a second fourth place finish in three years, a fine achievement indeed. Redknapp’s first return to White Hart Lane since his sacking therefore brought with it the inevitable reflections of his successful and entertaining tenure, especially as neither Andre Villas Boas with his safety first tactics nor Tim Sherwood with his kamikaze tactics lasted long. However with this match effectively over as a meaningful contest by half time, I spent the second half reflecting on Harry’s time at Spurs and his unceremonious ending.

Let’s get one thing straight, Harry Redknapp was very good for Spurs during the four years he was in charge. His Spurs team played entertaining football and as the only manager so far to take Spurs into what was a memorable Champions league campaign, he deserves recognition and gratitude. However, I believe that Redknapp got complacent in his last season at Spurs. He behaved like the college girl who, after getting much attention from many boys responds by teasing each one without ever choosing one. Daniel Levy stood by him through his tax evasion trial and offered him a contact to end speculation about the England job. A job that was being handed to him with indecent haste by a media pack that was slavishly singing his praises. By not signing the contract immediately, then openly courting the England job, sounding out current Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers about being his assistant, he took his eye of the ball as his Spurs team squandered a great opportunity to finish third, above Arsenal and avoid the heartache of Chelsea’s miracle in Munich that followed.

Harry Redknapp was never Levy’s idea of a modern Spurs manager, but desperate circumstances forced his hand. He made the most of his big time opportunity and never missed an opportunity to remind everyone where Spurs were when he took over. However with the way the 2011-2012 season played out, it was prudent of Levy to wonder if Redknapp, then 65 still had what it takes to continue to mount a credible top four challenge in an increasingly intense, competitive environment. Especially after being overlooked for England job he believed was his. On balance, I feel that Levy was right to sack him. Redknapp at 67 now the oldest manager in all four divisions of English football has felt the need to enlist the help of two former England managers in Steve Mclaren and Glen Hoddle, men who would realistically consider themselves as number ones. This reflects well on Redknapp’s self-confidence and ability to work with other big names, but also suggests that the time is fast approaching for Harry to leave the arena for younger, hungrier managers.

Speaking of young, hungry managers, Senor Mauricio Pochettino could hardly have wished for a better start to his Spurs career. Two potentially tricky games have been won and progression to the group stages of the Europa league more or less achieved. More than that though, it is the way he has conducted himself that has impressed me and is already endearing him to the White Hart Lane faithful. He has talked continually about embedding a playing philosophy of attacking football, of freeing creative players like Eriksson and Lamela, improving the players and respectfully refuses to speak about other clubs’ players until they have been signed by Spurs. His spoken English is also improving and he has not once mentioned ‘the project’. He has hardly put a foot wrong.

It is far too early to make a definitive judgement on Pochettino’s performance or speculate on what he can achieve with Spurs this season. However, while the attritional nature of the opening day win at West Ham did not allow us to see what his team can do, the manner of Sunday’s demolition of QPR provided much encouragement. At the back, Eric Dier, who has already played right back and centre back looks at home in the premiership, scoring two good goals in the process and the sometimes unfairly maligned Danny Rose seems to have responded to the challenge of Ben Davies by raising his game. In midfield, Nacer Chadli, a player who looks built like Christiano Ronaldo but often played like Jose Dominguez last season looks a different player and under Pochettino.  However, it is the transformation in Erik Lamela that is most promising. He already has more assists in his last two games than he did in the whole of last season and his latest assist at the end of a forty-eight pass move for Nacer Chadli to make it three-nil as tiki-taka came to White Hart Lane was sublime. More of that and the £30 million paid for him will look not just good business but a bargain.

While it is tempting to get carried away after such a good performance, it must be said that QPR were woeful and we’ll know a lot more about Pochettino and his new look Spurs after next weekend’s tie with Liverpool, a side who put nine goals past Spurs without reply in two traumatic games last season. Somehow, I can’t see a repeat of those score lines. Whatever happens, it seems that the man who shares a birthday (March 2^nd) with Harry Redknapp also shares his attacking philosophy and an ability to get the best out of players. Add to that the quite, unfussy manner he goes about his business and whether by luck or judgement, Mr Levy might just have landed himself a younger, hungrier, more tactically astute, better looking, Latin version of Mr H Redknapp.

Yes, Daniel Levy and Spurs have traded up.  

Superkid Eric leaves Big Sam in Dier straights

Sometime during the coming week, Big Sam ‘Allardici’ the West Ham manager will use his weekly newspaper column (The Evening Standard) to have a good whinge about the injustice of Saturday’s result. He would point to the 18 shots West Ham had during the game and how their general play was better. He would fail to mention that his team actually only had four shots on target, the same as Spurs and that despite playing more than a third of the match with 10 men, Spurs actually had the greater possession. He would forget that Spurs outplayed his side last October at White Hart Lane yet found themselves on the wrong end of a three-nil score line. Stats get thrown around these days to paint a picture, but the truth is that stats are only used in this context when a manager is trying to explain away a bad performance, result or both.

Ordinarily, I won’t devote this much space to West Ham. However, they have become a bit of an irritant in recent years, what with the Olympic stadium fiasco, dodgy lasagne and especially last year when Spurs lost three times to them and I had to listen to a smug-looking Big Sam milk each victory with the self-congratulatory air of an A-list tactical guru of a manager which he is not.  So although it’s only the first match of the season, it felt good to win it so late and deflate the optimism surrounding the bubble blowing hammers.

In terms of the match itself, it was a bold call by Mauricio Pochettino to give a debut to 20 year old Eric Dier who played well both at centre back and also when he moved to right back following Kyle Naughton’s rather harsh red card. I was really looking forward to seeing Christian Eriksson and Erik Lamela playing together in attack behind a motivated Emmanuel Adebayor. However, neither of them had a significant impact on the game and as a result, Spurs attacking play was not as impressive as one would have liked. Adebayor played well as a lone frontman but had few opportunities to attack West Ham.

The match was a slow burner to start with, but West Ham had the better of the opening 20 minutes. The sending off of Naughton changed the dynamics of the match though and denied us the chance to see the evolution of Pochettino’s philosophy. Spurs played better once West Ham’s James Collins was sent off to level the playing field. The fact that Eric Dier was so far forward in the 93^rd minute to finish so calmly tells us Pochettino is inclined to always go for it. It also tells us that Eric Dier is a good footballer, not surprising as he has been brought up in an academy that produced Luis Figo and Christiano Ronaldo among others.  

With Spurs unusually quite transfer window and the trauma of last season still fresh in our minds, expectation has been a bit more tempered this season compared to last and the only two questions to be answered this season are; can last summer’s signings live up to their reputations after failing to deliver last season. And can Mauricio Pochettino deliver success and the stylish football Spurs fans see at their birth right with players he has inherited? He backs himself to improve players as evidenced at Southampton and has shown a willingness to attack away from home. His high pressing game might be unpicked by better teams but Spurs fans will enjoy the attacking mentality which makes a change from the safety first approach of Andre Villas Boas.

It is only three points though, so not too much can be read into it. History shows us the folly of jumping to conclusions early. Six years ago, a young centre back tipped for big things scored the winner on his Spurs debut. Three years later, said young centre back, Sebastian Bassong had progressed to playing for Norwich City. Spurs started last season with a win at Crystal Palace. By the end of the season, we had lost two managers and some of our dignity despite a respectable 6^th place. Hope and trepidation abound in equal measure. Such is the lot of a Spurs supporter these days. We’ll know a lot about Spurs prospects this season when we play Liverpool on the 31^st of August, a few hours before the transfer window closes.  

It’s going to be another white knuckle ride at the Lane.