Mauricio Pochettino Analysis
Introduction
Probably one of my favourite managers of all time, Mauricio Pochettino is one manager who I feel incredibly sorry for. The amount of times his teams have narrowly missed out on winning trophies, has ultimately led to this stigma attached to him, that he’s not a good manager based on the fact that he’s yet to win major trophies (although he has won two with PSG).
When he began his time in the Premier League with Southampton, he was already one to keep an eye on, particularly after Sir Alex Ferguson heaped praise on him and his team. United won the title in the 2012/13 season, but when the Saints went to Old Trafford, they didn’t make it easy for the Red Devils and Ferguson acknowledged it by saying, “in the second half Southampton have been the best team to play here this season. We were fortunate to win the game. They pushed on top of us and didn’t give us any time on the ball.”
Pochettino’s rise was only just the beginning at Southampton, when he then went to Tottenham in the 2014/15 season. Albeit, it was a disappointing first season with the club finishing 5th but there were signs of promise, particularly with the introduction of young striker Harry Kane scoring 31 goals in all competitions.
The next season, there were very clear signs of progress and Pochettino’s faith in young players was almost rewarded, as towards the end of the 2015/16 season, Spurs were neck and neck in a title race with eventual winners Leicester City. While that may seem disappointing, Tottenham were playing tremendous football and the young talent on display set the league alight.
In the 2016/17 season, Spurs dared to dream. Their level of quality in performance dramatically increased and young players like Son, Eriksen, Kane and Alli were all playing tremendously well. Despite finishing second to Chelsea, there were obvious signs of improvement, in their undefeated record at home that season, as well as going on incredible runs of form, particularly from Gameweek 16 to Gameweek 38, where they only lost two, drew two but won the rest.
Sir Alex Ferguson was again in praise of Pochettino midway through the 2016/17 season, “well the manager has been fantastic. They have a bad record of managers, there is no doubt about that. They have had so many over the years, but this lad has composure. You never see him ruffled and the way his team play is a testimony to the work he is doing.”
But lack of reinvestment from the board began to cause Pochettino a few problems. Players were beginning to age and his high pressing, high energy system was beginning to show a few flaws. Their position in the table was beginning to slowly fall, as they went from 3rd in the 2017/18 season to 4th in the 2018/19 season. Despite all this, Tottenham reached the Champions League final in 2019 for the first time in their history. Unfortunately, Liverpool were too good on the night.
The 2019/20 season, things really began to unravel. Sadly for Poch, the squad was really starting to show signs of age and quality of performance began to drop exponentially. This eventually led to his dismissal on November 19th, 2019.
But this analysis isn’t focussed mainly on the highs and lows of the results that Spurs were able to achieve under the Argentine. Tactically, Pochettino is one of the best in the game right now and throughout his tenure as Spurs manager, he showed his flexibility and skill that led them to performing well for the majority of his spell.
Starting Lineup
Over his five years as Tottenham manager, Poch used many systems including
•3–4–1–2
•3–4–3
•4–4–2 (diamond)
•4–3–3
But his trademark system in the 4–2–3–1 was the most commonly used throughout his tenure. He’s managed some incredible players over his time as Tottenham manager, but here’s his best starting eleven (in my opinion):
Lloris
Walker— Vertonghen — Alderweireld — Rose
Dembele — Dier
Son — Alli — Eriksen
Kane
Defensive Style
Under Poch, Spurs were a brave side particularly how they defended. It was a hallmark of Pochettino’s style to press aggressively and it was a consistency over his tenure. For example, Spurs had the most aggressive press in the league in the 2015/16 season with just 6.56 PPDA (Passes Per Defensive Actions), and retained their top spot the following season.
Pochettino’s pressing style was man-oriented and it’s main objective was to force the opposition long or into areas where they could not effectively progress the ball.
The above image was in the 2016/17 season against Guardiola’s Manchester City. For obvious reasons, Spurs could not press City at that high intensity for the full 90 minutes, which is why when the pressing was initiated, everyone had to be switched on. On most occasions it worked, as City would be caught bamboozled and would have to go long.
This is where the idea of pressing triggers is in action, as in this game, the forwards would wait for those specific triggers to happen (i.e. a bouncing ball, a poor touch). Once it has happened, they would press in those bursts to force the mistakes.
Pochettino’s man-oriented press was very difficult to break through, no matter the opposition, as the intensity and energy of the press was very hard to bypass, hence the frequent mistakes.
From goal kicks, it was a similar story, with the players looking to adopt high positions and force a long ball. Pochettino had full confidence with his two central defenders, who most of the time were Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld, that they could be aerially dominant and win the ball back for Spurs.
If the press was not successful, the players on most occasions (depending on the tactical set up) would revert into their 4–2–3–1 shape. This provided solidity and compactness, particularly in central areas.
Attacking Style
Pochettino’s style when attacking was mostly combining quick offensive transitions with positional play. This would involve attacking the spaces to generate movements and passing opportunities (without losing their defensive balance).
Marcelo Bielsa’s influence on Pochettino was not just seen in the way the team would defend, through high intensity and energy. Poch would vary the number of players in the build-up according to the opponent, usually to have the +1 advantage.
If the opposition presses with one forward, Spurs would use two players in the first phase of build-up and if the opposition presses with two forwards, they use three players in build-up. If the opponent were to press with three strikers close to each other, Pochettino would instruct his fullbacks to remain deep in order to achieve numerical superiority in the first phase.
Pochettino usually plays quite narrowly with his front three, and has them combine with Harry Kane. Which is why the fullbacks have a very large role when it comes to creating the width in attacks. They also have pretty important roles when bypassing opposition presses. In the image above, Tottenham have used RB, Kieran Trippier as the outlet to evade Liverpool’s front three.
In possession, the defensive midfielders would look to punch out balls to the fullbacks or look to combine with one of the three advanced midfielders with quick combination play.
The role of the front three was pretty simple. Speed. Both speed in transition and speed in play. There would often be situations where Spurs would create chances not through Christian Eriksen, but instead through their pressing, a style that is used by Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool.
Speed was also seen through the use of long balls. Albeit it wasn’t Pochettino’s preferred method in possession, as he would rather play the ball on the ground but he wasn’t afraid to use it if necessary. Sometimes, Spurs would have to go long, but with the presence of Harry Kane and Dele Alli in the air, why not use them as options?
There was a pattern of play that was frequently used at Spurs, where Lloris would send the ball in the direction of Harry Kane. As that would happen, either a flick on, or some quick follow up play and the ball would arrive to Dele Alli who would’ve advanced past Kane.
If the long ball down the spine of the pitch wasn’t on, Tottenham’s centre backs would look to go long into the channels, usually to the advantage of a winger like Son or for the team to counter press the opposition, and look to win it quickly from there.
Conclusion
Despite the overarching problem that Mauricio Pochettino is yet to win a major trophy, his tactical ability, as well as his renowned work with developing young players and turning them into stars, is an amazing achievement.
Now at PSG, it is expected that Pochettino will pick up Ligue 1, due to a highly impressive squad that he has available to him.
