Pochettino Needs to Learn to Kill off Games

Tottenham are not a crisis club unlike West Ham and Arsenal who both have experienced much worse starts to the season, but they did not help themselves with the psychology of the "Wembley Curse" as they dropped 2 more points against a team they should have thumped.

One of those problems is Pochettino not yet being able to close out games the way that winners like Mourinho and Conte do.  His explanation for Burnley's last minute goal was a "mental problem" of his team, so he definitely was watching something different from what I saw and what commentators addressed, that his backs where in attacking positions with 2 minutes to go and that once Burnley played Tottenham's game against them of the high press, the response to it was extremely poor substitutions, bringing in on an ineffective Mousa Sissoko and the inexperienced Harry Winks. 

In the last five minutes of the game, Burnley's game plan of putting two forwards on and pressing Spurs was very effective, but that is due to the failure of Tottenham's strategy.  It is not the first time Pochettino has watched Tottenham throw away points by not learning to close games down, and that is a part of his managerial ability which leaves me still raw compared to the managers who are bonafide winners.  In a season where the only success measure is that this team now has to win silverware, it does Spurs no good not addressing where Tottenham have not developed a winners mentality - and maybe Mourinho will take Manchester United to the title this year, because Mourinho has won a major title in each of his 2nd year in command - but that is because Mourinho knows how to kill a game.

What Pochettino has brought to Spurs is a defensive steel, but the one crack in the back is when teams counter with the same style Spurs use, and then there is areas of naive choices.  Just a naive is watching how Spurs attacked today with the chief mentality being Harry Kane's inability to score a goal in the opening month of a new season.  So many chances went begging because Spurs were not calm, and here Pochettino is 100% right, but that calmness is in its attacking strategy - and ironically it is Burnley who showed that very calmness, instead wildly trying to hit the target, a very delicate ball was chipped into Woods path and Woods finish was clinical.  It was ironic to see Burnley open the Spurs defense up in a way the Spurs attack could not. 

Burnley could have won the game had it not been for an incredible tackle made by Spurs goalkeeper Lloris.  Lloris also made an important save earlier too.  It was Burnley's keeper who also made a couple of world class saves, but these were from speculative strikes, and not composed interplay to open up the Burnley defence.  There was a few moments when Spurs threatened to do so but that lack of calmness was not there.  The game changed due to Pochettino's poor substitutions and his players not having the nous to kill a game off and walk off with all three points. 

In just two home games Spurs now have lost 5pts from winning positions, and all season last year they had lost only 4pts at home.  That is a sign that the bigger pitch at Wembley and the lack of atmosphere, as well as opposition players who have never played at Wembley, are all factors that do come into play, but they are exacerbated by not killing games off, lack of depth coming off the bench and as Pochettino rightly said, a team that needs to find a more calm way of approaching the final ball and to foster a winners mentality.  Thankfully there is now a two week International break before Spurs play again away at Everton - and all of this can be put right, as well as Spurs buy a couple of players that may make a difference to the team at right back and people who can add to goal-scoring beyond Kane, Alli and Son.