Some Spurs fans took to Twitter on last night to criticise manager Mauricio Pochettino for his seemingly strange post-match comments following their 2-1 defeat to Liverpool.
Spurs, who were narrowly defeated at Anfield thanks to a Jordan Henderson goal and a Mohamed Salah penalty, may well be relatively happy with their performance against the Premier League leaders considering their recent results. However, fans were far from happy when their Argentinian coach snapped at a reporter’s question regarding the performance of summer signing Tanguy Ndombele; who joined Spurs from Lyon in a club-record deal in July.
Pochettino was asked if he thought the Frenchman was ready to start more matches after making a difference at Anfield, to which the Spurs manager replied (as per football.london); “big difference? Doing what?”
Some Spurs fans were perhaps rightly annoyed by this comment after they felt the 22-year-old midfielder had made a meaningful contribution at Anfield and deserved more praise from the man in charge.
Some reactions from Spurs fans to Pochettino’s comments and Ndombele’s performance can be seen in the tweets below.
Should be sacked for this alone absolutely zero motivation get him out and move on
— Michael Pedley (@michaelpedley) October 27, 2019
Poch is now starting to annoy me. Time to call out the players who aren’t playing for the team. Loyalty works both ways an some Spurs players need to take a hard look at themselves. #THFC #COYS
— John Hueston (@johnrhueston) October 27, 2019
Wow another mixed signal from our manager ,eriksen gets alot of stick for wanting out deserves it but The manager has said he would have left if he won the champions league and how can you command a dressing room with those comments #potkettleblack
— Kenneth #COYS (@starcoughlan) October 27, 2019
Unfortunately now is the time to accept that a lot of this is down to the manager…. so passive. No changes. No tactical tweaks. Strange starting XI. Strange press conferences. Contradictions. No surprise the players are confused or are not delivering their best performances
— Philip King (@ERPHeadhunter) October 27, 2019
Poch is done. If he can’t see the positives from Ndombele’s too late introduction (I might add) then Levy needs to replace pronto and hang the compensation.
— ftobloke #gtto (@ftobloke) October 27, 2019
A big mistake not to start him and he won’t praise his performance as he sees it as some sort of weird cross examination of his selection policy
— Yorkspur (@York5pur) October 27, 2019
https://twitter.com/Dan125Jones/status/1188544341020725249
These tweets clearly show that fans of the Lilywhites are far from happy with their manager’s post-match comments, with some suggesting that now might be the time to sack the 47-year-old manager.
What do we think?
Pochettino is a great manager and has done superbly with the club since joining from Southampton in 2014. The Argentinian took a club who were struggling to get into Europe and almost won the biggest trophy in club football last season, the Champions League. However, comments such as these will win him no favour with fans who appear to be turning against Pochettino following their side’s poor start to the season; which sees them sitting in 11th place with no away wins in their last 11 Premier League fixtures.
It may be time for Ndombele to start making more of an impression in the Premier League, as although the Frenchman is often benched in place of Harry Winks, he has a 6.87 average rating compared to Winks’ 6.63 average so far this season.