This feels like end-game for Pochettino at Spurs; if he is to resurrect the season, it needs something radical but it may not be enough
MAURICIO Pochettino talked a good fight.
Far better than the one his players had put in at the Amex, that’s for certain.
Defiant and determined, the Argentine’s response to Spurs’ pitiful defeat at Brighton did not sound like that of a man contemplating the end.
“It is normal that you feel not so good,” conceded Pochettino.
“It is a bad moment but in this moment only you can be better. The most important thing now is to have two weeks to try to be clear, to find a solution.
“I need to accept all criticism. After 5½ years, it’s the first time that it is a really difficult situation.
“It is an experience we are going to use to be stronger and be wiser, to be a better group, as a person, as a staff. We can bounce back.”
Can, yes. After all, everything is possible.
Will? That is another question.
And while Pochettino will be probably – and should – be given the time and chance to turn things around, it looks like a club in an irreversible tailspin, a situation that has an inevitable ending, one that he could ask Jurgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho all about.
Spurs’ display on the south coast was that of a side still shellshocked, suffering the footballing equivalent of PTSD.
But in many ways, in too many ways, it was worse than the home Champions League humiliation by Bayern five days earlier.
That had been something of a fluke.
After all, Tottenham’s first 35 minutes were their best of the season and the balance of play was far more nuanced than the final scoreline suggested.
Not on Saturday. Not at all.
Yes, you cannot legislate for the sort of error that gifted Brighton their opener and also ruled skipper Hugo Lloris out of action for maybe two months.
After that, though, there were NO excuses.
Not for the players who made a series of basic errors, in and out of possession.
Experienced players, too.
Many Spurs fans were grateful to see Eric Dier return to the starting Prem line-up for the first time this season, believing he would provide some necessary balance.
But the Amex incarnation of Dier was a ghost of the player who was England’s World Cup shoot-out hero just 15 months ago.
Dier was not alone in the catalogue of shame.
Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen appear to have aged overnight, while Christian Eriksen barely managed a proper pass to a light blue shirt.
It is, surely, not a jump to point to their contract situations, the trio all now in the final year of their deals, and wonder quite how committed the trio remain.
Yet this was a collective, rather than individual malaise.
Graham Potter had his side up for it, no doubt. But that is the norm.
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Man for man, Spurs should be better than the Seagulls. Far better. Instead, they were far worse.
Off the ball, no pressing, either from the front on midfield. Never tight enough. Second to everything.
On it, a palpable lack of penetration or ambition, a situation that only altered, long after the time when it could have really changed anything, following the introduction from the bench of Lucas Moura.
Pochettino looked like a broken man on the sidelines, a coach wondering why it was not happening any more, where the magic had gone.
It is, in truth, something that can happen, even to the best of coaches.
Klopp is working wonders at Liverpool, just as he did at Dortmund for six years.
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But in 2014-15, having seen his side asset-stripped over a few seasons by Munich, it all stopped working.
Dortmund were in the drop zone at Christmas and still in the bottom half at Easter, when he announced he would leave at the end of the campaign,
The following year, it happened to Mourinho, within months of landing the title.
Unlike Mourinho in 2015, Pochettino has not publicly gone after his players. So far he has accused none of them of treachery, called none of them “rats”.
He will not, either.
Yet the club’s failure to go through with the overhaul Pochettino actually identified as necessary TWO years ago, and wanted to take place this summer, is now coming back to bite the Argentine.
Pochettino recognised that reaching the Champions League final had to be the end of the story for that version of his side.
Coaches like Pochettino rely on their personal bond with the players. When that evaporates, the mystique disappears too
Martin Lipton
They had come close, very close. In the top four for four straight seasons, twice beaten finalists, two-time semi-final losers, too.
More importantly, for so many Spurs fans, ending Arsenal’s fatuous “St Totteringham’s Day” nonsense for three staight years, given them a chance to laugh at their North London neighbours.
Now, though, Spurs look stale, inhibited, chastened and utterly bereft of the confidence required to change things.
Of the three players he brought in, Tanguy Ndombele has been hooked, early, in the past two games, Giovanni Lo Celso has played just 44 minutes and Ryan Sessgnon has not even kicked a ball – the latter two due to frustrating injuries.
In turn, when he sold Kieran Trippier, Pochettino wanted to utilise Juan Foyth at right-back.
The Argentine’s injury woes mean he has not left the bench yet, either.
Dele Alli is in no sort of form. Even Heung-min Son and Harry Kane, two of Poch’s most loyal spear-carriers, appeared resigned to defeat at Brighton.
If Pochettino is to resurrect the season, it will require something radical, a gamble on players who may not be good enough. Maybe punting out the non-believers in January.
Coaches like Pochettino rely on their personal bond with the players. When that evaporates, the mystique disappears too.
Most Spurs fans want to give him the opportunity to rediscover what made him “magic, you know”.
Probably because, in their hearts, they know he will turn up somewhere else pretty swiftly and be magic all over again.
Yet this feels like end-game. Feels like the end of the book, not just the chapter.
Watford at home in a fortnight. Followed by Red Star Belgrade three days later. Then or never? It seems that way.