Pochettino Premier League tables illustrate why Man Utd made him No.1 choice

Man Utd next for Mauricio Pochettino Manchester United can only hope for the same impact in the Premier League as Mauricio Pochettino had at Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur…

United are set to appoint Pochettino to replace Michael Carrick, who they finally remembered to sack on Thursday morning.

Pochettino will take over with United languishing disgracefully in the relegation zone and in need of swift and dramatic improvement before the new boss worries about putting a plan in place for long-term success. Which, almost certainly, will be ignored by the board anyway.

United value Pochettino’s Premier League experience, which extends to spells in charge of Southampton, Spurs and Chelsea.

Here’s how he fared with each club…

Southampton Pochettino was received sceptically at first, taking over from Nigel Adkins, who had taken Southampton from League One to the Premier League and was axed on the back of two defeats in 12 games that had Saints in 15th place after 22 games.

“With due respect to Pochettino, what does he know about our game? What does he know about the Premier League? What does he know about the dressing room, does he speak English?”

It didn’t take Pochettino long to win over sceptics like Lawrie McMenemy. Saints lost only five of their remaining 18 games while beating Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea on the way to finishing 14th in their first season back in the top flight.

In Pochettino’s one full season at St Mary’s, 2013/14, Saints achieved their top-half aim by finishing eighth, below the big six and Everton, one place behind United in the first season of the post-Ferguson era.

Overall, it made Saints the Premier League’s eighth-best side during his 55 games in charge, while giving the club a platform to finish in the top eight in each of the next three seasons.

Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Jay Rodriguez also earned their first England caps while playing for Pochettino.

PL TABLE DURING POCHETTINO’S SAINTS REIGN

His success at St Mary’s led Spurs to move quickly to take Pochettino and appoint him in May 2014 as Tim Sherwood’s replacement.

Spurs had just placed sixth in the Premier League – Pochettino would better that finish in each of his five full seasons in charge.

2014/15: 5th 2015/16: 3rd 2016/17: 2nd 2017/18: 3rd 2018/19: 4th

In total, through 202 Premier League matches, only Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City accumulated more points. Though we can probably void City’s total because, as Pochettino put it recently: “We’ve lived through a period of deception.”

PL TABLE DURING POCHETTINO’S SPURS REIGN

City’s cheating grates with Pochettino more because of the restrictions he was working under while Spurs toed the FFP line while budgeting for a new stadium.

“If a team like us, Tottenham, was fighting for titles with those above us and every year in the top four, getting to the semi-finals of Champions League without being able to do a transfer for 18 months, all because we needed to get used to the financial controls? They were so strict with us but also so lenient with others.”

Pochettino was eventually fired, less than sixth months after taking Tottenham to the Champions League final, after his Spurs ran out of steam. They were 14th in the table after 12 matches and on their worst run since George Graham was in charge in 2000/01.

Chelsea Pochettino took just over a year out after leaving Spurs before taking the PSG job. In Paris, he won the Ligue 1 title in his only full season in charge – of course he did – but an ego-ravaged dressing room proved to difficult to mould into a side in the manager’s image.

Another year out followed before Pochettino was appointed at Chelsea as their sixth permanent manager in five years.

The Blues had finished 12th the season before Pochettino arrived, and a £400million-plus transfer splurge took Chelsea beyond a billion spent since Todd Boehly’s takeover in 2022.

Pochettino dragged Chelsea up to sixth but he quit the circus after only a season, during which the Blues were described as ‘billion-pound bottle jobs’ by Gary Neville after losing the Carabao Cup final to a weakened Liverpool side.

PL TABLE DURING POCHETTINO’S CHELSEA REIGN

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