Why Mauricio Pochettino Is Not to Blame for Tottenham's Woes

Mauricio Pochettino will have hoped for a better start to life at Tottenham Hotspur. On paper he was taking over a team with better talent than the Southampton side he had left in May. Tottenham finished sixth last season, two places and 13 points better off than the south coast club.

Instead, while his former Saints side sit second in the Premier League, Pochettino has presided over a Spurs team struggling to find themselves under his leadership.

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The 42-year-old is culpable in some respects for their current woes—there have undoubtedly been strategic missteps on his part so far this season. However, in an interview with L'Equipe last week, his goalkeeper Hugo Lloris identified a greater reason for the malaise that has set in around White Hart Lane.

"When it's the third coach in a year and there are problems, the coach is not necessarily the problem," Lloris told the French newspaper, via Sky Sports.

The third coach in a year also means the third such voice managing this group of players (give or take a few who have come and gone this summer). Lloris does not mention it specifically, but it is easy to imagine his point is the latest change of message is taking time to hit home and replace what has gone before it.

The previous two bosses, Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood, notably differed in their tactical approach, while their different personalities naturally meant differences in how they dealt with the players and media too.

Pochettino is arguably somewhere between his predecessors, certainly when it comes to the football he wants played.

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Stylistically he has more in common with the attack-minded Sherwood. His seemingly more intricate approach to implementing it bares more of a resemblance to Villas-Boas, though—likely a product of a continental-honed coaching upbringing more detailed than directer English methods.

Neither is necessarily better or worse than the other (and of course not everyone is strictly defined by their nationality or where they learned their specific methodology). The success of any system or philosophy depends on the qualities of the individual coach applying it.

Lloris was keen to note he believes in Pochettino's ability, despite Spurs' inconsistent form. "I do not blame him. I trust the coaching staff and the current head coach."

For a team conditioned to what appears to have been simpler instructions from Sherwood, it is understandable to an extent why the newer way is taking time to sink in.

"It is a simple game, though, isn't it?" Sherwood pondered after taking over at Spurs last December, per The Guardian's Jon Brodkin. "If you can't pass the ball to your own team-mates then you have a serious problem because you are going to have to keep on defending."

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In comparison, Pochettino's former Espanyol coach Paco Flores described him as "meticulous" to The Guardian's Sid Lowe last year. "We used to discuss tactics a lot; there would be debates and you always got something out of it."

Even if this is in reference to his playing days, it still speaks of Pochettino's personality, the one Spurs players are now having to get to know.

The club hierarchy's decision to change things up again with his appointment meant starting over again.

Pochettino was not doomed to such a mediocre start. Things could have clicked, and at times they have looked like doing so. For a variety of reasons, impressive wins over Queens Park Rangers and Southampton—as well as good cup form—were not built on.

But these things often take time. Southampton won just one game out of Pochettino's first seven in charge. They began to play as their manager asked, though, and the Argentinian barely looked back as he had the recently promoted side punching above their weight for the next year.

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There is only so much a manager can do when it comes to match-time anyway. Each individual Tottenham player is in large part responsible for their own performance. Even accounting for getting used to the demands now being asked of them, there have been sub-par efforts from several guys who should be doing better.

"We are working and trying to find answers," Spurs vice-captain Lloris noted last week.

There is scope for them to find them in the coming weeks. If things do not quite go to plan, remember it stems from a lack of direction at boardroom level larger than Pochettino.