Its hardly a case of a poor workman blaming his tools, but was I alone in thinking that Pochetino was searching for excuses after our Champions league failure?
Losing to a very decent Monaco and better than expected Bayer, is hardly a disgrace, however there is certainly a worry, in that we performed so apathetically in all games and even though we had made defensive changes, it was hardly as if we were playing poor players, but individually and collectively, they looked out of sorts, lazy and lacking in confidence.
For me, when a manager talks of needing better players, I worry that cracks are appearing in the relationship with the players or board and maybe there is initial or continued conflict or frustration at the players we brought into the club this summer.
Where thats even more concerning is that we spent £60 million on Janssen, Sissoko and N`Koudou and none of those look good enough to be in out team and only Wanyama looks a good buy of the summer recruits at this time. Sure, we give a player time and should look at reasons why they are not yet playing to their potential, however should we still be asking who is actually controlling the purchasing and are we also still compromising between getting in bigger numbers, but also adding quality?
Obviously spending 30 million on Mousa Sissoko is a very strange deal indeed, when it seemed to be suggested that he was a player that Poch really wanted, but so far he looks a terrible investment and for that money, even in allowing for a settling in period, you want far more from a player, who knows the league and country and seemingly craved a CL team to show his worth.
It think we can accept that we lack the ability to spend on a par with the Manchesters, Arsenal and Chelsea, but should we have been able to compete with Liverpool for the likes of Mane? He was a player that we supposedly wanted, but effectively gave up once Liverpool entered the race. WHY?
To me the players don`t look like they are really enjoying the football like they were last year and we are also seeming to be very rigid in our approach to the game. Several players look in need of a rest or kick up the backside and perhaps this is a hangover from last season, but I wonder the cracks are a little deeper and this represents a big test for Poch to reinvigorate the team and perhaps for the board to be bold in January or the summer or risk all the great work of the last couple of years going to waste…
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