Anas

HOW THIS GOES Mauricio Pochettino’s appointment is likely to make an immediate positive impact at United; boosting the players’ morale, increasing the tempo and intensity, and re-organizing the defensive block will do wonders in the short run. For a few games, United will seem suprisingly dynamic, focused and intense, and to some, even reborn. Clips of high pressing sequences will be shared; a return to United’s ethos of attacking quickly will be hailed. A few games in, opponents will now know what to expect; the high tempo approach, useful and fresh, will strart showing its cracks by Christmas. Shots will be conceded and goals shipped; every transition will expose the gaps. Pochettino, a smart and experienced man with a full understanding of the situation, will be forced drop some of his ideas and adapt to the players at hand. There comes a time for building and there comes a time for surviving, and this ain’t the time for building. Mid block will be used more often than not, intensity will be dialed back to conserve energy and help avoid yet another Shaw or Mount injury. All things considered, United will finish OK, in the upper part of the table, with a decent cup run rousing the faithful. Then the summer comes, the club will sell and buy, conduct its pre-season; Mauricio Pochettino will believe the time has come for building and soon he will learn two important things: A) the promised war chest to remake the squad won’t be there, and neither will the executive accumen to do so B) his ideas, though good, might not be as good as he thought, or at least not good enough in today’s PL That’s what has happened to almost every recent manager we’ve had: after a period of pragmatic compromises, in which they mostly swear on Obama’s doctrine of “Don’t do stupid shit”, in Year 2 they begin to implement their true vision, in order to raise the ceiling; and instead of raising the ceiling, which is never raised, the floor suffers a drastic collapse. My fear is that this will happen with Poch, as well. But at least United are likely to stop playing and losing like relegation favorites, which is not a bad outcome to begin with.