Pochettino has much more to worry about than just heavy loss
AS the humiliated Tottenham players trudged back into the dressing room, Mauricio Pochettino knew it was pointless to say too much. There was no hairdryer. He knew it wouldn’t serve much use at that moment.
By the time Pochettino did come out of the dressing room to speak to the media, however, there was one piece of analysis getting repeatedly stated. It was that this 7-2 loss was really just a freak case of everything Bayern Munich hit going in.
“They scored with every touch,” Pochettino argued. Opposing manager Nico Kovac backed him up.
“All of our shots made it, and Manuel Neuer made the difference,” the Croatian said. “Our balls hit the net. It didn’t happen that much the other way.”
Many of the stats back this up, particularly the xG. Bayern scored about three or four goals that, probability-wise, shouldn’t really have gone in. Hence it felt like absolutely everything they hit went in, and was thereby an outlier of a game.
As Pochettino did accurately add, too, Spurs had “a very good first 30 or 40 minutes” and “no one expected what happened in the second half”. But it doesn’t mean it was a total freak.
One of the reasons everything Bayern hit went in was because they were in the mood to try anything. It wasn’t just that Spurs had stopped pressing, in the way that was proving very effective in that impressive opening 40 minutes. It was that much more about their game had given way.
Their sharpness went, replaced by a laxness. They had gone from closing space to casually offering it up. Sensing this vulnerability, and buoyed by their own resilience, Bayern just went for them.
They pounced on everything. There was that predatory hunger to every Spurs slip, best displayed by Serge Gnabry and Robert Lewandowski.
Even though Pochettino (left) pointed to the last seven minutes as the spell where things really collapsed — and when Bayern scored three — it was a dynamic summed up by the third goal.
Serge Aurier was a little lax in getting too far ahead of Gnabry, but the forward fluidly rode Aurier’s desperate challenge before charging purposefully at goal and finishing with full conviction.
There was the realisation that Spurs were there for the taking, and that spread. It is ultimately why this was not just Pochettino’s worst ever defeat in terms of pure numbers. It was also his worst in terms of the feel of it.
That is why it presents far greater problems than just as regards getting through this group.
It does give some greater form to the growing suggestions that it’s just gone “stale”. There have, after all, already been team meetings to discuss issues, “clear-theairs”. And yet the air around the club now is not that optimistic.
It doesn’t mean this is insurmountable. Some of what Pochettino said remains true. But for a defeat this bad, this early? For a team to sense that they could be so easily got at?
That maybe says even more than the score, or any statement.
LAST NIGHT’S RESULTS Champions League
Group E
KRC Genk 0 Napoli 0 Liverpool 4 FC Red Bull Salzburg 3
Group F
Slavia Prague 0 B Dortmund 2
Barcelona 2 Inter Milan 1
Group G
RB Leipzig 0 Lyon 2 Zenit St Petersburg 3 Benfica 1
Group H
Lille 1 Chelsea 2 Valencia 0 Ajax 3
Sky Bet Championship
Barnsley 2 Derby County 2 Brentford 1 Bristol City 1
Cardiff City 3 QPR 0 Charlton 1 Swansea City 2
Luton Town 1 Millwall 1
TONIGHT’S FIXTURES (Kick-off 8pm unless stated) Europa League
Group A
F91 Dudelange v Qarabag Sevilla v APOEL Nicosia
Group B
Lugano v Dynamo Kiev Malmo v FC Copenhagen
Group C
FC Krasnodar v Getafe
Trabzonspor v Basel
Group D
Rosenborg v PSV Eindhoven
Sporting CP v LASK
Group E
Celtic v Cluj Lazio v Rennes
Group F
Arsenal v Standard Liege Vitoria v Eintracht Frankfurt
Group G
Feyenoord v Porto (5.55pm) Young Boys v Rangers (5.55pm)
Group H
CSKA Moscow v Espanyol (5.55pm) Ferencvaros v Ludogorets
(5.55pm)
Group I
Oleksandriya v Gent (5.55pm) Saint Etienne v Wolfsburg
(5.55pm)
Group J
Istanbul Basaksehir v Borussia
Monchengladbach (5.55pm) Wolfsberger AC v Roma (5.55pm)
Group K
Besiktas v Wolves (5.55pm) Braga v Slovan Bratislava (5.55pm)
Group L
FC Astana v Partizan Belgrade
(3.50pm)
AZ Alkmaar v Man United (5.55pm) Biting back: Luis Suarez hit a double as Barcelona won 2-1