Journalist Ben Jacobs has been discussing whether Chelsea are about to sack another manager or not.
Mauricio Pochettino just isn’t doing it at Chelsea this season and questions are being asked. Certain parts of the Chelsea fan base, large parts in fact, are even calling for him to be sacked and have been calling for that for a long time now.
EXCLUSIVE! Chelsea reignite interest in Bundesliga defender with top leadership qualities, his club are open to selling!
Chelsea’s results have just not been good enough and neither is the current league position, and for me, Pochettino is just not a good enough tactical manager to be in charge at Chelsea right now, unfortunately.
But will he be sacked?
Well, Jacobs believes that there is a good chance that not only will Pochettino last out the rest of this season, but last out next season as well!
Surprised to hear that? Me too. Jacobs wrote it today in his exclusive column for my own website, SPTC.
🚨 EXCLUSIVE w/@JacobsBen !
– No surprise if Pochettino is given next season still
– Amorim NOT under consideration
– Interest in Ferguson, Osimhen, Sesko, & Nusa but Gyokeres NOT on agenda
– Outgoings
– PSR
– Stadium plans
– More..Story here:https://t.co/QHUU5XvBDg pic.twitter.com/7jLrjEFHZ7
— Simon Phillips (@siphillipssport) April 8, 2024
Jacobs said: “I understand Chelsea’s owners are in a four-window plan, and this summer is the last of it. They feel the squad is better judged next season. This is why the goal is to appraise Pochettino in the off-season and why the club are ‘succession planning’ rather than actively interviewing names.
“We have seen how the owners react to results, but the aim has always been to wait until the end of the season. It still wouldn’t surprise me if Pochettino is given next season to try and turn things around making the first ten games extremely important.”
The owners and sporting directors are clueless, as is Poch, tactically. Another season with a manager who cant defend a low block, and plays his players out of their prefered positions, and whose substitutions are always either poor choices or too late to make any difference. Have you noticed that we always come out for the second half worse, his half time team talks arent improving our play/tactics. He’s got to go!
ooops, I meant Poch cant break through a low block!
To break a low block effectively, quick ball movement and intelligent positioning are crucial. Maintain possession, probe for openings, and tire out the opposition. Creative attacking play with innovative runs and passes offers a strategic edge.
Not sure why breaking down a low block tops your list of complaints, Henry, as our problem hasn’t been scoring—it’s been our lack of balance and positional awareness as we get forward. Time and again we get caught out when the ball turns over and we’re shredded on the counter-attack. Some of it is down to really poor passes (e.g., Caicedo and Disasi playing idiotic square balls in bad areas of the field against Utd), but at least as big a problem is these young players having the footballing IQ to realize, “right, if he’s pushing up, I need to hang back a bit.”
All in all, I view most of it as the inexperience and the naïveté of youth—not an inherent failing of the manager. Poch has shown he’s a solid tactician at Tottenham and PSG and the challenge he’s facing right now is that he can only demand so much of a young group tactically without overwhelming them and totally undermining their confidence. We can already see evidence of this with Caicedo. Lately he’s looked like he’s thinking too much and/or second-guessing himself and we all know that’s the kiss of death—especially in the middle of the park. Give a player one or two things to work on and he’ll, like as not, steadily improve. Overwhelm him with too many instructions and he’ll look like he’s forgotten how to play the game at all!
If we step back and keep this all in perspective, we’ve only lost ONE league match since the first of February. While conceding leads to Burnley and Sheffield is nothing we should be satisfied with, it can also be true that the results have not been nearly as bad as the boo-birds would have you think. And, especially after you take injuries into consideration, is fair to say Poch has produced measurable improvement since the New Year (even if it’s maddeningly inconsistent!).
This fan base has always reacted to difficulty by shrieking for the manager’s head and it’s in no small part the reason we aren’t challenging dynasties like City and Liverpool these days. They’ve kept Pep and Klopp, respectively, for longer at this point than any Chelsea manager in nearly half a century! If we sack Poch now you it’ll be like starting all over again, especially with such a young bunch. It’ll inject a ton of chaos and turmoil into the situation and, with precious few veterans in the squad, it will totally sabotage the sense of togetherness and belief that we’ve seen (if inconsistently) over the last couple of months. Bottom line: If you want something built, you don’t get their by sacking the architect every 8 months!
Where are you seeing these tactic? Tottenham…. what has Tottenham won when he was there for 7yrs? He didn’t win anything with Mbappe, Messi and Neymar…. You are delusional and it shows all in your comments. Have you asked yourself what are they doing and talking about in training to come out and missing those opportunities and wrong positioning that you are talking about. Henry is right, they always come out worse after every half. That’s on the manager to have the player’s prepared and knowing where to be. The whole structure on the pitch looks bad and in chaos every time they play.
Most Chelsea fans have short memories. Tuchel also failed to break down low blocks and create goals.
Poch is right in complaining about the lack of balance in the team, due to the chaotic recruitment of players in the last season or so. At the beginning of this season the team’s defences have been the best few in the league, the problem was in creating goals. Now Poch turns that around, creating goals but leaking plenty at the same time. I would say it is worthwhile to give more control to Poch in this upcoming window.