Mauricio Pochettino Is Only Part of the Problem at Tottenham

Things are not looking that good at the moment for Tottenham Hotspur. They sit in 12th place in the Premier League, having suffered their fifth defeat of the season to Stoke on Sunday, their third limp reverse in the last four games.

As Thomas Cooper has noted elsewhere on Bleacher Report, the tinkering of manager Mauricio Pochettino hardly helps matters.

The Argentinian manager inexplicably elected to start with Federico Fazio in the heart of his defence despite his countryman's grim showing in the Europa League against Asteras Tripoli on Thursday, and while Harry Kane's introduction to the starting XI may well have been popular, the young striker thrives when with a partner rather than as a lone forward, with all but one of his goals scored this season when part of a two-man attack.

The persistence with Etienne Capoue is also curious, and the selection of Andros Townsend over Erik Lamela, who has started to show some form this season after a difficult first campaign in England, is another head-scratcher.

There is also a concern that, some six months after being appointed, he has yet to impose the sort of playing style on his Spurs team that made Southampton such a success. The famed "high press" is absent, and there doesn't seem to be any sort of obvious plan to Tottenham's games.

The former Saints boss at least recognises that there is a serious problem at the club. As quoted by Amy Lawrence of The Guardian, he said after the Stoke defeat:

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We are very disappointed and frustrated for the result and performance. We need to improve a lot. We need to improve quickly. You never have a lot of time in football. We need to find a solution and change mentality in the next few weeks. That is my challenge.

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However, while Pochettino could undoubtedly be doing better, Tottenham's primary problem is that their players simply aren't good enough. Mido, former Spurs player and latterly Zamalek manager in his native Egypt, described them on Twitter as the worst he's seen at White Hart Lane in a decade, and it's difficult to disagree with him.

Fazio has been a disaster so far, particularly when paired with Younes Kaboul, making one of the slowest and most indecisive central defensive pairings in the division. Daniel Rose is simply not a Premier League defender, and Kyle Naughton's sending-off against Stoke was brainless but not out of character.

In midfield, Ryan Mason shows promise, but Mousa Dembele has been underwhelming for a couple of years, Paulinho is an error waiting to happen, while Capoue has his moments but basically isn't good enough.

Ahead of them things look a little brighter, with Nacer Chadli providing the surprise of the season so far with his form. Christian Eriksen is always intelligent and probing, while Lamela seems to be recovering some of the form that made him so sought after when at Roma. Beyond them, though, Townsend's one trick of running quickly, cutting inside and shooting powerfully was found out long ago, while Aaron Lennon is a shadow of his former self.

Up front, Kane is promising but still raw, it's just about time to give up completely on Roberto Soldado, and Emmanuel Adebayor has been listless and ineffective, although with his contract set to expire in the summer, we can perhaps expect the traditional upturn in Adebayor's commitment around January time.

Simply put, if the entire Spurs squad was put up for sale today, how many would be picked up by teams towards the top end of any division? Hugo Lloris and Eriksen, possibly Lamela and the bafflingly underused Jan Vertonghen, but that's about it.

It's around this time in a struggling season that Daniel Levy's trigger finger starts to get itchy and he sacks another manager to mask his own and the players' failings. This time, though, it seems clear that the manager is at most only part of the problem.