Tottenham Must Move on from Past to Succeed Under Mauricio Pochettino

Tottenham Hotspur were criticised in some quarters last season for twin reasons: Failing to secure a top-four finish in the wake of a big summer spend, and also for rushing through two new, young head coaches once more during the campaign before appointing another new boss this past summer.

They are once more again expected to challenge for a Champions League spot in the 2014-15 Premier League season, but the early evidence is that, despite picking up some decent enough results already, Spurs will fall short in their ambitions this season.

Mauricio Pochettino is a young manager, but a very competent one. He is capable of taking Spurs into the top four and challenging for titles if they provide investment along the way—but until he can fix a squad still carrying too many passengers who don't fit his style or level of ability needed, they will continue to look in from the outside at those reaching the top Continental competition.

AVB and Timmy

Andre Villas-Boas, now excelling once more with Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia, was robbed of his best player in Gareth Bale in the summer of 2013. Sure, Spurs spent a bushel-load of money in replacing him, but none of the names of that transfer window have been standout for Tottenham, perhaps save for Christian Eriksen.

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Even the playmaking Dane, though, has had spells of indifferent form patched throughout his largely good performances.

Villas-Boas had Tottenham in fifth and sixth place yet was sacked, with Tim Sherwood, for all his talk of win percentages, was not able to improve that. And no real wonder. Neither man was afforded particularly long in the job, to arrange, structure and improve the play of a group which had undergone seismic changes over the course of a summer.

The hope, the expectancy, must be that Pochettino gets at least a full two campaigns to work his magic on a team which strives for the top four and the riches it brings, but in reality, has managed it just twice in the entire Premier League era.

Spurs might not be the mid-table side they were in the 90s, but they certainly aren't any part of a "core four" either. That will take time, patience and more investment yet.

Poch's Struggles for Balance

At Southampton, and even at Espanyol before that, Pochettino's work on the training ground focused on shape, movement and technique rather than talk of formations or numbers. That's fine, but it also demands that players be positionally aware, tactically astute and, above all else, physically and technically capable of coping with those expectations.

At Tottenham he has a deep squad to work with but many of those players are of a similar level, with no standout components in key areas.

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Take central midfield. Last season, Spurs featured Paulinho, Etienne Capoue, Moussa Dembele, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Nacer Chadli, Sandro and Nabil Bentaleb in the roles at different times. Did any establish themselves as an undisputed starter? Not at all. There wasn't even a clear shape or preference of a double-pivot or single controller at times.

Spurs played a three-man midfield, a 4-2-3-1 and a 4-4-2. It was confused, altering and, ultimately, unsuccessful.

Another summer of changes and Pochettino now has something similar, but including Benjamin Stambouli and he also chased his former midfielder at Southampton, Morgan Schneiderlin. Meanwhile, he faces an ongoing battle to get the best out of wide forward Erik Lamela, most decidedly not a wide midfielder or winger as he was expected to work as last term at times, and of course Spurs lack a genuine top-class threat up front.

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Emmanuel Adebayor might offer the team strength and link-up play, but they have little alternative to him and not enough scorers throughout the team at present.

Until Pochettino can fix that problem of a lack of penalty-box presence, Spurs will continue in the same vein: Difficult to beat, a bit of a "nice" team, but ultimately lacking in cut-throat ability in the games which matter, on a frequent-enough basis to breach that top four.

White Hart Pain

Spurs have won twice and lost twice at home this season, and while fans shouldn't expect that 50-50 ratio to continue all year, it does give an indication of the problems faced.

Tottenham have to come out more and attack at home, with the emphasis and impetus with them to try and take the three points. With the midfield still lacking in that balance and protection that Pochettino is seeking—perhaps simply lacking in familiarity after all those aforementioned changes—teams will, at times, hit Spurs on the counter. With their own attack not up to scratch, a single goal conceded could well signal that any given game will not be won by Spurs.

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Pochettino and his team are only outside the (ridiculously early table, admittedly) top four at present on goal difference...but that's the same problem. Just nine goals scored in seven games so far, after last-season's tally of 55 scored was only the league's seventh-best. Tottenham's goal difference last season was +4, the lowest out of any top-eight team.

While the heavy defeats of last season contributed to that, something which Pochettino will likely put an end to this season by and large, productivity at the other end will dictate how high Spurs can go.

They have a first XI which can give most sides a run for their money, but it doesn't yet have the killer instinct, the penetration or the reliability in attack which will come to characterise this season's top few sides once more.

Unless Spurs learn from the errors they made with Villas-Boas (and even before him), and allow the manager both the time and the actual style of players he requires to improve the team, they will remain one of the "nearly" clubs of the league, perpetually looking wistfully up at those just a place or two above them; so close, but perpetually out of reach.

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