Posted in: 05/07/2022 – 13:06Last updated: 05/07/2022 – 13:04
Paris (AFP) – Argentinian coach Mauricio Pochettino did not succeed in fulfilling his promises with Paris Saint-Germain due to a very monotonous playing style and lack of persuasive power in his speech, and therefore the club’s management decided to abandon his services on Tuesday before an expected announcement to sign local coach Christophe Galtier.
Pochettino had announced on the sidelines of a short-term camp in Doha recently, “Things are difficult for a club the size of Paris Saint-Germain because the expectations are very high. Sometimes when you win the domestic league title, it seems not enough and of course it is not enough for us either.”
Pochettino was highly respected when he defended the colors of Saint-Germain between 2001 and 2003 during the era of the brilliant Brazilian star Ronaldinho, but he lost this balance amid the pressures experienced by every coach who supervises the training of the capital team, especially since the Qatar Sports Investments Company acquired the club in 2011. And spending millions of dollars in order to include the best players in the world.
In a club that wants to win all the titles and quickly, the Argentine coach made many mistakes, as he lost the league to Lille the season before last (he had taken over in the middle of the season), then lost the Champions Cup match once morest Lille last August and came out of the narrow door of the competition French Cup in January as well.
Only the Champions League competition might have saved him, but he did not succeed in spreading the spirit of enthusiasm in a team that reached the Champions League final in 2020 during the era of his German predecessor Thomas Tochel and lost it to Bayern Munich 0-1, so he came out in the semi-finals once morest Manchester City in 2021 losing Home and away matches 1-2 and 0-2.
And last season, following he beat Real Madrid 1-0 in Paris in the final price, he lost to him 1-3 back in Madrid, despite the team’s support with Argentine star Lionel Messi.
Not enough flashes
Saint-Germain did not perform well in line with Pochettino’s aspirations, with the exception of some flashes from the trio of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Messi, and he was satisfied with winning the local league title for the tenth time, equaling the record recorded in the name of Saint-Etienne at the end of last season.
The injuries did not help Pochettino, who demanded some time for his players to put his ideas into practice, especially Neymar’s injury to his ankle and his absence from the stadiums for two and a half months. This was accompanied by a decline in the level of Messi, who was infected with the Covid-19 virus at the beginning of this year as well.
Italian playmaker Marco Verratti revealed the difficulties the team faced, defending its coach, saying, “In the first part of the season, we did not have time to do training. The poor coach was not able to do tactical training. Frankly, we were training while we played matches.”
Pochettino is considered close to the players and rarely criticizes them in public opinion, but he broke his silence following the humiliating defeat once morest Monaco 0-3, which came immediately following the continental exit once morest Real Madrid, describing what happened as a “shame”.
And if Pochettino criticized the refereeing during the match once morest Real Madrid when his team advanced 1-0 in the Spanish capital before conceding three goals within 17 minutes during the second half, he spared the players responsibility, despite the fact that his Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma committed a mistake that caused the goal The first is for French Karim Benzema, and his central defender and Brazilian captain Marquinhos played his worst match in the Saint-Germain shirt over the 9 years of his presence with him, while Neymar and Messi did not appear at their level.
Pochettino was unable to transfer the infection of the beautiful playing of his former team, Tottenham, who lost the Champions League final to Liverpool 0-2, to Saint-Germain, and his image in France will remain as hesitant in his choices, using wooden language in his press conferences.
After the Spaniard Unai Emery and Tuchel, Pochettino became the third coach in a row who did not spend more than three years at the helm of the technical staff of Saint-Germain. And if Pochettino did not live up to his expectations, Paris Saint-Germain does not give his coaches long either.
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© 2022 AFP