Pressure is building on Mauricio Pochettino after some more bad results. An embarrassing loss in the Carabao Cup final, a lucky win over Leeds at home, then a draw with Brentford.
Apart from flashes we didn’t see anything to be impressed by in those games. But Mauricio Pochettino is still keeping the grin fixed on his face, insisting that everything is fine in quotes picked up by the Evening Standard.
“I think the performances have been very good, I’m so happy with the performances.”
In fact, he said that this way his “message” to the fans:
“Yes, and if they want to listen, perfect. If not, what can I do? They’ll keep booing. I’m giving my best to this team.”
The supporters are getting increasingly upset by the whole thing, and they are spreading the blame between Pochettino and his players. But the coach says that he’s the one who takes responsibility:
“My message is: Okay, they need to show their frustration – through who? I prefer to me rather than to the team. I prefer that, I am strong. I am sure that in time we will change the perception.
“I don’t want the fans trying to blame the players. Players need to feel backed by the fans and, to be honest, I prefer that I get the blame and let the players be free on the pitch. I don’t care. I am strong, I am 52 now.
“The players deserve credit and support from our fans. If someone needs to get the blame, that is no problem. That is why I am the coach.”
He certainly deserves some of the blame, but the chances we’re seeing missed by players in Blue means that it’s not possible to remove all blame from them. He now has a week without games to try and get things right, once again.
He’s being polite, but if you read between the lines I think Poch is, in so many words, telling the fans to grow up! He’s explicitly saying the players need and deserve the fans support. Obviously he knows that’s not what’s happening, so it seems like the implied message to the supporters is clear—“grow up!”
This constant barrage of belligerence is infantile and self-defeating. It’s at least marginally understandable in the heat of the moment at a match, but the unending and merciless criticism for days afterward at outlets like this one is really beyond the pale—especially when it’s so ill-founded in any sort of objective reality and comes across as, at best, pandering to the disgruntled crowd or, at worst, calculated clickbait.