Regarding Rodriguez, you are probably right – for all his trust in youth, Pochettino’s tactics aren’t *entirely* geared towards young players, something which is of course totally understandable, even for someone as faithful in youngsters as he is. Nevertheless, the general flexibility of the midfield and attack was a key feature of his Southampton side, and is a key feature of his current Spurs side. Admittedly, the Rodriguez example was probably not the best example of this to select!

On your final remark, it is easy to believe that Pochettino’s claim of “having no favourites” is not entirely true, and I wholly take your point on that. Yet, in motivational terms, the claim itself is enough – were a youngster looking to break through to the first team hear that the first team boss “has no favourites”, they may as well take such claim at face value and act upon it. In this way, Pochettino ensures all prospective academy graduates are that much keener to impress, whether or not his claim is honest. It is, to be more precise than I am in the article, the *appearance* of lacking favouritism that is so crucial in terms of bringing through young players. Not as important, though, as his conviction in his own judgments regarding such players in the first place!

1. Do you think that Pochettino’s emphasis on pressing suits youth, in purely fitness terms (something implied but not stated in the article explicitly)? Pepe Mel was similar at Betis.

2. Was Rodriguez not a separate decision relating to having pace out wide to provide vertical runs and a bustling number 9 in the same team.

3. Unsure on whether the link with lack of favouritism is right, Mourinho more recently always talks up being fair, but the rhetoric is just an excuse to continue his blindness towards introducing young players into first team football (even if his failures with young players are massively overstated in general terms). Don’t get me wrong, I think it helps to not have favourites, but it is almost an inverse kind of favouritism from Poch, a favouritism based upon flexibility, and fitness.

Of course, you say all this, just thought I would explicate it in more assertive terms.

Best,
Oliver

Thanks for the (pre-emptive!) praise. I really do want to make a piece on Chelsea’s different attacking options, because they are so diverse. From ultra-direct vertical movement (Schurrle), to more natural dribblers into spaces near edge of D to shoot/thread passes through (Hazard, Salah), to Oscar’s wonderful ability to compensate for other movements around him, and Willian (who is to me most obscure, and hence interesting). He is such an odd blend of a player, allying physical excellence with a dribble superb at retaining the ball and passing the ball into important (but perhaps not decisive) areas. His movement is genuinely wonderful, moves into positions where he can get on the half turn & ones in which he doesn’t move inside, yet allows full back overloads.

They may have to wait a while, since I want to give time to think and analyse+really see a complete set, probably a good month or more of games so they include big 6 games in which he feature. The city game this month will really be telling.

I invite you to look round the site for the other pieces, there may be other stuff to your taste (though nothing as explicitly ‘Chelsea’ as this, though myself being a fan means there will always be a disproportionate amount of content that has hints of Chelsea about it.

Once again, thanks for the generous praise.

a) The (hopefully observed) three category demarcation is wrong. You can have a highly unstructured team deliberately set up to be that anarchic.

b) I equate specialism with individualism at once point, and at others say that an acceptance of role is necessary for collectivism.

c) My case studies are wrong, or malused, or have a lack of detail.

d) The selectivity is incorrect, why not use Feyernoord 1970, Celtic 67, Aston Villa 81, Everton 04/05, Fulham 13/14.

I ultimately pursued a false line that interested me, and drove some intuitively interesting conclusions. I present this not as ultimate truth, this is intended most of all as a discussion to perhaps come closer to any objective truth in the footballing history as we can get.

Comments ahoy.

Thanks for the kind words, never expected the praise I have received, as always, if we stimulate or provoke our readers, we have done what we intended.

To address your points.

1. On Luis, it is interesting. One part of me suspects that it is an adaption process, wanting to let him settle in, while training him in specific defensive movements that are necessary as part of a Mourinho defence. Your theory is also my second, that Mourinho thinks both Ivanovic and Azpi are just better. Perhaps it is a sense of giving the two who performed so well last season the opportunity to keep their places, just to reward good performance/loyalty, while eventually planning to give Filipe a go. Still, a nice dilemma!

2. Yeah, Ramires is great. Almost a Park Ji Sung equivalent in hte sheer amount of tactical roles he can play to perfection (b2b in a 433, defensive winger on right and left, counter-attaking wide forward (see Benitez), a decent combative double pivot player (if limited when used this way). He is also (potentially significantly considering our manager) the BEST player for defeating possession hording teams, will close down everyone, and break into space at space.

Thanks for the comment,

Best,
Oliver

I’m only interested in seeing when Luis will get his run in the first team, since you’ve mentioned him as a starter (I expected him to start too, came from Atletico, and for a price that wasn’t naive). I am under the impression that Mourinho decided Ivanovic + Azpilicueta are better options after all (they really are fantastic, especially Ivanovic, and I feel that Azpilicueta could become the very best full back in the world in a couple of years, I like the boy very much).

I’m very happy we’ve kept Ramires. The guy’s a treasure, such a versatile player and complements pretty much any team.

Rami is great, but he does have his horrific concentration lapses.

Menez will very likely play out on the right. As for his defensive workrates and whether he’d fit well with Abate on the right, I can’t be sure. I think at some point this season, we’ll see De Sciglio take over the starting responsibilities for Abate with Armero on the left.

More likely than not, the Alex/Zapata pairing was exactly what you assumed it was for Pippo. I think he’s feeling out how high he wants his back line to play. That being said, I think Rami is the best centerback at the club. Would be a shame to not see him starting regularly, especially since he’s become a fan favorite.

Would expect to see a trio of Honda/Van Ginkel/De Jong, but I’m honestly not sure. May be too attacking if Van Ginkel gets caught forward? I do know he can put in a tackle, though.

EDIT: judging by the maps, what I say in the latter part appears to be untrue. Certainly in terms of shot location I am right, second half it did change, but overall build-up play moved rightwards for Costa. Hazard, stayed more leftwards second half, but appeared more effective regardless of Costa. Perhaps more open space 2nd half.

On Milan, Van Ginkel is interesting. With little knowledge of the club (Milan is a blind spot for me, I must say), I would guess a narrow 433-ish system with him as a shuttling midfielder to the right hand side, at a guess. Perhaps taking Muntari’s spot, shifting Poli to the right. There actually could be a case for dropping Poli deeper in some games and having two more energetic players ahead of him. I will be interested to see Torres, he can thrive in a ultra-counter-attacking system, but a 433 has never suited him, the balls coming in as service always came from too deep to be a threat or be accurate into open space. Interesting defensive choices, as you say, Zapata notorious for his pace, Alex certainly not know for it. Seems likely to be a Mourinho-esque cover-stopper type, one fairly agressive full back in Abate, Bonera more conservative. Would you expect Menez to get in instead of Honda (who always flatters to deceive at club level), long term?