5 things for Mauricio Pochettino to improve in 17/18

I've ruminated quite a bit on this. What are 5 things MOPO could do to improve his coaching/managing this year. These are my five.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: I love Mauricio Pochettino. I need to say this emphatically right at the beginning. Spurs will not find a better manager anywhere who will be as perfect for where we are now. He has given us our club back. He has kept his promise and made us very proud. I've literally wept tears of joy seeing that man jubilantly leap. or even pump his fist into the ground in frustration. When he goes bananas after we score a comeback goal, it makes it even more evident we have the right man. Everything I am going to say after this must be taken into that context.

He is a young manager who is learning on the job. He has never won the league, or the Champions League. When things go well for us, they go really well. But when they go wrong, they kinda go really wrong. That’s Tottenham. But it’s partially our youth and inexperience on the big stage. In some of those cases it is the players failing, or straight out being incapable of delivering on Poch’s tactics. Or, In other cases I feel like it is Poch’s inexperience. That inexperience and though I hesitate to call it stubbornness has cost us.

There are 5 things Poch could dramatically improve that would help both him and the club. Only one of these has anything to do with transfer policy at all.

1. Learning to tactically adapt/cope with a pressing team. Other clubs have video of us playing. They get to see us fail to get our game going when we can't pass out of the back. This has happened in various games with various opponents. Man city, Liverpool, Monaco, Leverkeusen, even Bournemouth in last year's draw. It is going to happen. If this means we need to buy some players in addition to Wanyama/Dembele who can break a press. So be it. That’s what money is for. Seeing us repeatedly lose the ball, passing it out of bounds, or failing to find a man or any rhythm to the game from someone out “Spursing” us in the press, is maddening.

2. Defending set pieces. I know this one seems petty. Last season was better than the season before it. But it is unacceptable for a team managed by a former Argentine world cup defender to have derpy goals conceded from set pieces. We are terrible at defending them. Watching defenders flatfootedly watching a cross float in and a man running in on the back post for an easy tap in or header is poison in my veins. For the love of god, sort it out.

3. High defensive lines. I totally understand the need to compress space, and play the offside trap. When it works, genius. If you have your line beaten with clever balls over the top, or through balls two or three times in one match. Watching Hugo bail us out once or twice. Ok, fine. On that fourth and fifth, you kinda earned being beaten. This happened repeatedly last season with Liverpool, and other clever teams. Sort it out. The players either need to be able to cope with the line being broken, or you have to sit back and absorb pressure until you can counter.

4. Game Management I feel like this one improved a tiny bit last year. We started being able to defend slim leads and manage teams without having to have the throttle to the floor for 90 minutes. Seeing players take a good pass and dribble into the corner isn’t always super exciting, but, when we did it, we won. The second part of game management is substitutions. We’ve literally been at minute 80 fifteen to twenty times over the last three years and Poch won’t use a sub. I need you to admit we’ve all wanted to strangle him for this. There are times when it’s clearly not working, and there is 0 risk in putting on a sub, and the clock winds down to 89 minutes, and on comes Josh Onomah (or whomever). Minute 67 or 70 would have been the pertinent moment to do that.

5. Domestic Cup competitions and Champions league expectations. We are not going to win the Champions League. BUT, we all expect the team to get out of the group and get as far as we can in the competition. For the love of God play our strongest side. It’s sad when we get beat. But it’s worse when Mopo throws out some sort of mishmash lineup because we’re going to play West Brom on Sunday. Champions League deserves a full strength lineup. End of story. Domestic cups. We want to win one, or preferably both cups. He needs it. We need it. Make it happen. No weakened sides. No screwing around. No Heung Min Son at wing back. Please.

These are admittedly complex issues that rely on personnel and tactics being executed correctly. And there is always the opposition, and frankly fortune. Chance and luck either can be with you or against you. Lastly there are injuries and other events that are beyond the control of any manager. Poch does demonstrate some tactical flexibility in game. There are times within the game where you see us switch from a back three to a back four, and players shifting positions to cover midfield, or dropping deep to deal with situations. Poch admittedly gets praise for preparing our players 99% of the time. It’s when our tactical plan is broken by the other team and we have to adapt, what is that plan? What does that look like? This is a huge development area for him as a manager.

We just don’t know enough as fans about what he might be doing to seize opportunities to develop these areas for himself. I would presume being a Premier League manager is isolating. It’s up to you. He’s got support in Jesus Perez and Miguel D'Agostino, but who else can tell him when he’s full of shit? Learning from mistakes and adapting your approach is tough in any job. It requires a level of self-awareness and confidence that is pretty high. I think Poch has this capability. And as one of his biggest fans, I hope he can make the leap.

What are your five?