Over the short 16 month period that Mauricio Pochettino was manager of Saints he garnered a great reputation, but was that reputation born out by fact.
When Pochettino arrived at the Club the Ugly Inside published a link to a story published on the QPR website on fansnetwork, written by a Spanish QPR fan who lives in Barcelona and supports Espanyol, the article was well written and painted a picture of Pochettino, one that proved to be accurate and its predictions spookily turning out to be correct.
It stated that Pochettino had been a very popular man at Espanyol, but he managed in a very rigid style, preferred to use a core of players rather than the whole squad and that each season followed a similar pattern of a good start followed by a drop in winter as injuries took their toll with the odd burst of wins making sure that the club never dropped into the relegation zone.
This has proved to be the case at Saints, so lets look at how he has performed.
1. Results
Last season saw Pochettino arrive at just over the half way point and with Saints out of the relegation zone, after a dodgy start, Pochettino had a great little run in the middle but things died at the end, in his 16 games in charge he attained 19 points, ironically enough exactly the same as his predecessor Nigel Adkins had gained in his final 16 games in charge.
This season has followed pretty much the pattern that our Spanish friend warned of in that the first half was very good, the middle part was not as spectacular, but we had enough points to never let us get dragged down the table, a look at those results showed a very marked up and down pattern.
Worryingly for Spurs fans Pochettino could not seem to beat sides above us, of the 14 games played against the top 7, we won only two, gaining only 10 points from the 14 games, if we extend that scope to the top 10 it does get a little better, adding 4 games adds on 6 points, but that still only makes 16 points from 18 games against the top half of the table which is not great.
What we did well was beat the teams that we should have beaten ie those in the bottom half.
Another worrying fact though was that we must have been the only Premier team not to win a game that we fell behind in, we had a system, we stuck to it even when it wasn't working.
2. Team Selection
As mentioned Pochettino is very rigid when it comes to team selections, he likes to stick to the same core of players barring injury and substitutions were very predictable, always like for like and never changing the tactics even when it clearly merited it.
In the league we used 21 outfield players, of those only 13 played 20 or more games including substitute appearances, of the other 9 players, two Guly and Harrison Reed didn't start a game and only came of for fleeting sub appearances mostly to run down the clock, Yoshida, Hooiveld and Fox made the odd start due to injury, that left only three players who played a significant part outside of that core of 13, Osvaldo needs no introduction, Gaston Ramirez managed 3 starts and 15 off the bench and Sam Gallagher had identical stats.
The overview is clear, Pochettino could not use his squad to its full effect, yes some would say that was because he lacked the depth, but any Saints fan could have told you that and we made no efforts to strengthen the squad last summer apart from the so called marque signings, the worry for Spurs is that they do have a big squad and it needs to be utilised, Pochettino has no history of being able to do that, throughout his managerial career its been a question of the same players week in week out, sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't, when it doesn't there is no plan B.
3. Transfers
It has to be said that last summer the transfers were not solely in the hands of Pochettino, in fact he probably only had a say rather than a list of demands, we made three signings costing us in excess of £35 million, the first Lovren at around £7.5 million was a success, the second Wanyama at £12 million was also a success to a lesser degree, although in fairness injuries to him restricted his appearances and the third Osvaldo was an unmitigating disaster, however I do place the blame squarely on the manager here, he failed to deal with a situation that I preicted back in September by not making a choice between Lambert and Osvaldo and trying to play his system using them both which worked to a degree, but more due to the form of the team rather than the two individulas concerned, instead of players at the top of their form, we had two who were clearly not at their best because the manager could not decide which one to play, it was a question of who snapped first and it was Osvaldo.
But the overiding feeling last summer was that Lovren aside we had looked at two areas of the team that needed the least strengthening whilst overlooking others.
4. Tactics
This is an easy section, we could only play one way, Pochettino as shown used a core of players and only used other players in the starting line up when he had an injury to a position that he had no other choice, which is why Hooiveld, Fox and Yoshida got 13 starts between them, otherwise it was the same old same old week in week out, when it worked it worked well as was shown in some great results, notably Hull at home and Fulham away, but at other times it was painful to watch, when we went behind that was it, if like Cardiff you had parked the bus and were handling everything thrown at you with ease, there was no change around, no trying something different to catch them on the hop, it was always the same formation and the same substitutions.
As mentioned previously if we went behind we did not win a game, looking at all the results, astonishingly this was the case throughout Pochettino's time at the club, in his four wins in his first season, none came after the opposition scored first, this is a damning indictment of his tactical nous, if im honest I have to say that as a coach Pochettino is great, he knows how to get a team working for each other and passing the ball, but as a manager he lacks that decision making and ability to change a game, in football there are managers and there are coaches, rarely these days do you get one man who is both, a good manager will have a good coach alongside him, its a lot tougher to be a coach in charge of a team and have a manager under you, but essentially that is what you need in today's modern game, someone to do the coaches and someone who can make decisive decisions and changes to tactics when the occasion merits it.
In conclusion Pochettino is a great coach when he can work with a small core group and get them playing to a fixed style, anything other than that and he is out of his comfort zone.
5. Youth
There is a perception that Pochettino has brought on the youth at Saints, whilst his style of play has helped , the reality is that the likes of Shaw and James ward Prowse were already first team regulars when he arrived, this season Chambers played the opening games due to injury to Clyne and was then neglected for 3 months until Clyne got injured again, not even coming on as sub in that time and Gallagher has only got as many appearances as he has due to the injury to Rodriguez aligned with Osvaldos departure on loan leaving us desperately short.
Other than that youth has not got its chance, Harrison Reed has made four appearances as sub totaling 10 minutes in total, other than that all the famed promising youngsters have not got much of a chance, even in the final game against Man Utd with nothing to play for ochettino didnt take the opportunity to give the likes of Reed an extended run out, nor blood Targett, McQueen or Rowe for instance, again Pochettino is a manager who doesnt take chances, he want a small squad of experienced players, not one that he has to build..
Overall Pochettino has been good for Southampton Football Club, he has taken us forward, but the overiding feeling is that perhaps he would not be able to take us forward much more, indeed could any manager, look at the clubs who finished above us and its a hard task to move up even one place.
But I think this season has been one of a squad performing to its capabilities rather than one that has overperformed, on a points per game ratio we really should have got more, our inability to beat the top sides asks a big question of Pochettino and there is that feeling that he inherited a good squad about to blossom, yes he took it forward, but he in many respects steered the ship rather than set a new course.
This sounds a little like sour grapes, but those who have read my articles over a season will know that what I have said here is nothing more than I have been saying all year.
Mauricio Pochettino is a good coach, he has helped our players develop as players, his style is good that is for sure, but I do feel that as a head coach he lacks that something that can turn average sides into better ones, good coaches change games unfortunately Pochettino will never do that, his tactics either work or they don't and if they dont there is no Plan B
Good luck to Mauricio I do not blame him for taking his big chance when it came, but I do feel that he has not got the experience to deal with the Spurs squad in the way it needs to be dealt with, with games coming thick and fast in the Europa League he will struggle to use the squad and a fair chaunk of it may find themselves disalussioned by not playing much.