Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

Russ1201 said:

That is an awful stat to have and why aren't Ange & the coaches not doing anything about it. Totally unacceptable.

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easley91 said:

Did you want him to put the ball away for Son Werner and Sarr? They missed golden chances to end that stat. Sometimes it just doesn't go in. We still created a few first half today and that itself is an improvement.

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Sp3akerboxxx said:

LWOS said that we haven't scored a first half goal since the 23rd of December away at Everton.

Crazy stat if true.

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chas vs dave said:

Wierd, since I'm certain we played them in January at goodison

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Sp3akerboxxx said:

LWOS said that we haven't scored a first half goal since the 23rd of December away at Everton.

Crazy stat if true.

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Russ1201 said:

Sorry i disagree i though the 1st half was yet again shocking. Overall we deserved to win due to a far better 2nd half

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easley91 said:

It wasn't great but it wasn't shocking. We should have had at least a couple of goals before half time.

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alfie103 said:

I don't expect us to spend the money Manchester City do but I think we should be able to match Liverpool and Arsenal's spending power. Otherwise, what was the point of the new stadium and the subsequent debt?

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dontcallme said:

I don’t want to turn this thread into an ENIC spending thread but if you look at our spending over the last 3 seasons we’re massively outspending Liverpool. By over £100m net over those 3 seasons.

Last 2 seasons we’re around £40m net spend behind Arsenal.

If we continue to spend in the same way I can’t see how anyone can criticise this and surely Ange feels he’s been backed.

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yido_number1 said:

I think the next window is gonna be really tough. We've got a much better squad now and improving it is gonna be really hard.

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Sp3akerboxxx said:

We should have had one goal. Sons double post.

Werner missing a golden chance is far more likely than him scoring it.

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dontcallme said:

I think we’re in a strong position. Our finances appear strong and we currently have a good transfer committee.

We need two wing backs and do something to rejuvenate the striker force. There is still a bit of work
To do to get the squad in a place to compete in several competitions.

ENIC’s spending really isn’t a problem at the moment and it’s a tired narrative to continue it in every thread.

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dontcallme said:

I think we’re in a strong position. Our finances appear strong and we currently have a good transfer committee.

We need two wing backs and do something to rejuvenate the strike force. There is still a bit of work To do to get the squad in a place to compete in several competitions.

ENIC’s spending really isn’t a problem at the moment and it’s a tired narrative to continue it in every thread.

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carmeldevil said:

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mpickard2087 said:

Alright chaps, been a while since I was on the forum.

Last time I was on here was during that rough spell of Nov/Dec, where it felt like everything that could go wrong was going wrong in terms of injuries and suspension. What had been a settled consistent team to start the campaign had been decimated, and at that time we couldn’t buy a win. Naturally the grumbling was starting amongst the fanbase, but I was still really positive and had no cause for alarm at that point. Some of those losses were really unlucky, and even with backup players and the likes of Emerson, Davies, Hojbjerg et al we were dominating the matches and zipping the ball about nicely, playing some great stuff that cut through teams and created chances. Results just weren’t coming, but that was always going to be temporary with those performances. The system and approach was still in place and showed excellent coaching, it just needed the stronger pieces of the puzzle to come back and our luck to turn.

Fast forward to the present and well, I’m less enthused about what I have been seeing. I think Ange is getting a bit of leeway currently about this great and scintillating football which has largely disappeared since the turn of the year. For me we’re rather limping along at the moment the best we can. I don’t care what people might say about the overall results recently, PPG, league position, whatever. In my opinion, and what concerns me, since Xmas there has been a marked difference in performance. Every team we play has adjusted to us now and we see common themes every week – stick a man on Bissouma, block the channels where our fullbacks want to roam into, get in behind the ball and funnel the play wide, etc etc. Results have been that we’re struggling to progress the ball (then doesn’t help that someone like Maddison just loses patience and comes to pick the ball off the centrebacks shoelaces for 90 minutes), where it used to be zipped about the park it’s now really sluggish, sharp passing moves to cut through teams have largely gone, and we’re struggling to create chances against low block defences now.

The primary gameplan – possession, dominate, force the opposition back – has become a real struggle and often quite dull and even error-strewn. The build up patterns, the runs (eg. that underlap by Udogie or Sarr), and so on are really basic and done to absolute death. Most goals, and patches of games, that have got us out of a hole in recent times have had to rely on counter/transition/attacking space (valid ways of scoring goals of course, but simpler to do and really not the primary game plan). Villa the other week a great example – first half they sat back and we created the square root of fuck all, second half they came out and pushed up, we caught them out early, then blasted them away as it fell apart for them. But you can’t be hoping to outgun and outrun teams in open games every week, we have to adapt these really quite basic patterns we overdo to the extreme, and our possession play and control must be rediscovered. That is more important for the long term, than squeaking a result at this point.

Then there is selection. Look we're a top PL team, these are still PL footballers, if you keep playing them of course they will have moments every game and still do good play, score goals, and get assists. But lets have some standards and be honest - the likes of Bissouma, Maddison, Bentancur, Kulusevski, Porro, and a few others have been pretty rubbish for weeks now. You can't have numerous players going out there and giving you "vast majority poor, small minority good" performances and fucking the ball away at will. Obviously our engine room firing would help the football and the results massively, and players have to account for themselves, but at some point if you’re not getting it from them then selection changes have to happen, a message needs to be sent to get a reaction and set some standards. Against teams that sit deep we also often have too many runners and not enough footballers.

We’ve also had another transfer window since I was last on here, and tbh I wasn’t thrilled with the direction we went in. Dragusin is pretty meh for me – even focusing on young defensive prospects there were better athletes out there, and also better technical ball playing defenders. We’ve plumped for someone who does a little of everything but nothing to an inspiring level. Werner I just don’t understand the logic, I’m actually not surprised we’re getting a contribution out of him but we just spunked god knows how much on Johnson a few months prior. Basically the same player, with the same strengths and same considerable weaknesses. Ok we needed a bit of cover at the time, but it will be barmy beyond belief to have Son, Johnson and Werner – all primarily off the ball runners - in the same squad next year. There is also the apparent obsession with Conor Gallagher, completely unnecessary when we already have a box-to-box option in Sarr. As I said previously the squad needs more technical footballers, and less athletes/off the ball runners, at this point, otherwise the tactics will never get where Ange wants them to get to.

I’ll end by saying that obviously Rome wasn't built in a day and it is the first season and there won't be linear progress, we should continue down this path absolutely. There is the potential there and I think we're on the cusp of being a serious team again. But I am a bit concerned and I’m not liking what is being served up at the moment – we often hear about other clubs where managers get critiqued for not being able to put in place their (effective) gameplan and relying on individuals having “moments” and we’re seeing this happen to us currently far too many weeks where we have to fall back to transitional basic football. In my opinion the performances (even in that tough spell in Nov/Dec) were of a marked difference in those first 3-4 months compared to those since Xmas/New Year. We've got to find the solutions, adjust to what the opposition now does against us, and get back the sharpness and verve to our play and start knocking the ball about better.

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