Is Mauricio Pochettino the right man for the Manchester United job?

Manchester United’s search for a new manager is ongoing and one of the names highest up on the club’s shortlist is the current Paris Saint-Germain manager, Mauricio Pochettino. 

Who is he?

Pochettino has been around for a while now and is considered by many as one of the best managers in world football. The Argentine’s first managerial job was in Spain at Espanyol, a club he played for as a player. After nearly 4 years in charge at Espanyol, he was let go by the club. A few months later, he was appointed as manager of Southampton, where he really started to make a name for himself. In the 2013/14 season, the only full season he had at the club, he took the Saints to an impressive 8th place finish. In the summer of 2014, he left Southampton and joined Spurs where his profile as a young coach skyrocketed.

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The Argentine spent more than 5 years in north London where he took a relatively average Spurs team and turned them into real challengers. In the five full seasons, he was manager, he helped them to 3 top 4 finishes including a couple of firm title races. In the 2018/19 season, he managed the Tottenham side which made it all the way to the Champions League final. Their run to the final also wasn’t easy at all. In the knockout stages, they faced Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Erik ten Hag’s Ajax. Despite this, they ultimately fell short in the final against Liverpool. Pochettino made Spurs a very competitive side and he did this with very little money being spent in transfer windows compared to his rivals. However, they always seemed to fall short right at the end. Pochettino ended up leaving the club in November 2019 after a very poor start to the season.

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Pochettino is now in charge of Paris Saint-German where he’s won 1 French cup and 1 French Super Cup. He is also on track to win the Ligue 1 this season. However, various reports suggest Pochettino and PSG could potentially part ways this summer after being knocked out of the Champions League in the round of 16. United are known long-term admirers of the PSG boss and could potentially appoint him as their next manager this summer.

Style of Play

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Pochettino’s favoured formations are the 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. Out of possession, Pochettino usually uses a very effective high-press. He also typically favours attacking full-backs which means Diogo Dalot would more than likely be his favoured choice at right-back. While Telles is brilliant going forward, Pochettino worked closely with Luke Shaw at Southampton which means Shaw would most likely hold down the left-back spot at United. Pochettino also likes ball-playing centre-backs. If Maguire’s poor form continues into next season, Lindelof could fit in really well alongside Raphael Varane in a Pochettino system. In regard to the wide players, if Marcus Rashford can re-discover his form of old, he alongside Jadon Sancho would be best suited to playing in those roles under Pochettino.

Cristiano Ronaldo would most likely play in the no.9 role next season with some reports claiming he’s prepared to see out the rest of his Manchester United contract which expires in June 2023. However, according to various reports, should Pochettino be appointed manager of Manchester United, he’d like to bring Harry Kane with him to the club.

Verdict

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While Pochettino is a very good manager, his struggle to win trophies is something which he has been heavily criticised for. His time at Paris Saint-Germain has been far from smooth. At times, his side have looked more like 11 individuals rather than a team and some may argue that that’s the current issue as well with this Man United side. The club cannot afford to get it wrong again in regards to the next manager and it could be argued that there are too many doubts over Pochettino to take the risk and appoint him.

With that being said, he does have a lot of experience in the Premier League and he’d definitely play a good style of football. It’s been well known for a while that the United board are big fans of Pochettino. We’ll have to wait and see whether they decide to appoint him or Erik ten Hag, who’s seemingly his biggest rival for the job. Current Sevilla manager Julen Lopetegui is reportedly also under consideration for the job, along with Spain boss Luis Enrique however that would be the most complicated deal to do as he reportedly doesn’t want to leave Spain until after the World Cup.