I asked Pochettino about Ndombele making a big difference.
— Jack Pitt-Brooke (@JackPittBrooke) October 27, 2019
“Big difference, doing what?”
“Those passes…”
“But the game was different, no? Be careful with how we assess. I was talking before the game, with 29 players, it’s so important to rotate and keep all motivated to play..”
“It’s so important to rotate and keep all motivated to play”, was Mauricio Pochettino’s explanation to the four changes he made from Tottenham Hotspur’s 5-0 win over Red Star Belgrade to Sunday’s 2-1 loss at Liverpool, one of which was leaving out record buy Tanguy Ndombele.
Spurs have already used 23 different players in the Premier League this season. The only clubs to have used as many are Norwich City, Watford, Newcastle United – three of the bottom four – and Manchester United.
Our conquerors at Anfield have used 20 different players, and while that doesn’t sound like a lot less, if you dig a little deeper there is a clear ruthlessless to Jurgen Klopp’s selection that Pochettino does not apply.
Four Liverpool players have started every league match this season, including three of the back four, another four have played nine out of 10. Tottenham have a total of five players across these two categories – Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Danny Rose, Moussa Sissoko and Toby Alderweireld.
In this case, with Liverpool unbeaten at the top of the table, consistency of personnel and tactics, established partnerships from back to front, and the momentum of playing regularly clearly trumps freshness and inclusivity.
Liverpool and city play 433. They play it EVERY single game. It’s not really rocket science to see that consistency in formation pays off. We have 9 players who can play in a midfield 3 and 8 that can play in a front 3
— TAS⚽️ (@coys100) October 28, 2019
Pochettino believes his rotation keeps the squad motivated, but how can you motivate players when good and bad form is treated equally? A player knows that he is only ever a couple of games away from a start, or the bench, regardless of whether he makes a howler or scores a hat-trick – see Serge Aurier and Lucas Moura for examples of either end of that spectrum.
But it hasn’t always been this way…
In our best two seasons under Poch – 2015-16 and 2016-17 – the Argentine only used 24 players across the whole league campaign, just one fewer than 2019-20 so far, and in both years this was the second fewest in the division.
He sold players he didn’t want, he exiled players who didn’t deserve to play. He knew his best team and within that, everybody knew their jobs.
Now he’s like the U10s manager trying to get everyone a game. This is the Premier League and Poch is too soft to play with the big boys like Klopp.
He just making the most of his 6 months or so in England.