A guest blog from our very own ARCANE, as ever a welcome counterbalance to my unhinged nonsense.
First the bad news: our squad is not nearly as strong as some people seem to think it is.
Now the good news: our squad is not nearly as strong as some people seem to think it is.
So much more positive than negative in this, and what happened last night.
First, it demonstrates that Poch is doing a great job of getting the team to perform above the level of the individual players at his disposal. The sign of a really good manager.
Secondly it’s a huge relief because last night proved Poch is NOT a flat-earth, blinkered believer in will-power/team spirit, and NOT blind to the limitations of our squad.
His repeated insistence that we had enough strikers etc etc, had worried us, and his refusal to compromise and buy in the last window, looked like it might be the mistake of a man who believed his own hype. Last night’s selection was a clear indication that what he says for public consumption, for the sake of team morale, and the prestige of the club, is not actually what he thinks.
And why the hell would anyone expect it to be? In that respect this job is comparable to that of any army general or ambitious politician in the middle of a campaign.
Last night he played the weakest team he possibly could without showing blatant disrespect to the club, the fans and the players themselves. That shows he had clearly weighed up his options realistically and decided to prioritise the PL.
So he knows our squad is not strong enough. He knows players like Caroll, Bentaleb, even Chadli, and dare I say it possibly Mason too, are just not good enough at this level, and that players like Dier, HK, Demb are not superhuman, do tire and lose form, and we do need like for like cover for them in due course.
It also had the added benefit of highlighting this for Levy, and all those who are inclined to delude themselves into thinking we’re fine, no need to buy, just blood a few more youngsters etc.
As to why he played Kane and Demb at all, well that just shows what a complex balance of psychological factors he has to weigh up. He needs his squad to keep believing in themselves.
Even though he sees their limitations and compromised accordingly, leaving the best players behind altogether would send too extreme a message of: you lot are the second team, you’re on your own and I don’t expect you to be good enough to get a result. He had to blur the lines a bit and make it look like we were still going for a positive result, or risk undermining their confidence too much, and damaging the squad’s mentality.
Also, whatever some of you may have felt in the heat of the night, there is no real shame in losing 3-0 away to a very good Dortmund side, but 4 or 5-0 might have started to get really unsettling, so strengthening the team, and giving Kane and Demb a run out that wasn’t too tiring made sense.
Finally the psychological blow to morale of losing? Nonsense, that was the cleverest part of all. Playing a weakened team ensured that whatever happened, his players, and particularly the core players, knew very clearly that they had NOT been allowed to measure themselves against Dortmund. Their self-belief remains in tact.
Poch foresaw the very real possibility, I would say probability, that had he played his strongest available team, they would still have lost, and been exhausted into the bargain. That was the real danger to morale. He avoided it.
He’s not just an inspirational visionary, he’s a realist too and a pragmatist when necessary. That’s the balance we need, and it’s great news.
