Mauricio Pochettino’s press conferences are often not too interesting. There’s lots of vague injury updates, some platitudes about needing to be more mature, some excuses about young players needing time and experience, and that’s about it.
Today he did manage to get into some interesting specifics though, when asked to address his team’s endless struggle to find the balance between defence and attack.
Things are good going forward, he said, “but when we lose the ball, always we react a little bit late, always we are disappointed, we are frustrated, we blame each other: ‘why didn’t you give me the ball!’ and so on like this.”
Players like Cole Palmer are perfectly examples – his contributions in attack are beyond reproach, and we might genuinely in the relegation zone without him this season. But his efforts off the ball are poor, and end up hurting the whole team.
You can see the manager speaking in the clip embedded here:
Poch is obviously dead right and it’s good that he can be frank with the media (and the players). The first few seconds after the ball turns over are the most critical moments to try and win it back (or forestall a counterattack) and, thus, the players’ reaction in those moments is EVERYTHING. Watch the best teams like City and you see the commitment in those moments is 110%.
I chalk our players’ reaction up (once again) to youth and hopefully Poch laying down a public marker on the matter will put them on the spot to correct it.
This team needs time to evolve no matter who comes in as a manager. I would advice the to stick with Poch and give him an established center halve and a prolific striker.