Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

thebenjamin said:

I think we are somewhat hampered by the fact we are a generally lightweight side with no one who wants to head the ball. Romero is half decent in the air, VDV is actively poor for such a big guy, we don't have a big centre forward to come back... There really ain't anyone to put their head on it

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14/04/91 said:

Yes it’s a season in transition and we are outperforming expectations.
However my worry is that we’re on the wrong trajectory. First 10 games great, next 12ish managing lots of injuries, next phase we’ve got everyone back and we seem to have stalled.

Defensively we seem more vulnerable than ever (particularly Fulham & yesterday) and we’ve lost some of our attacking verve at the same time.

I was expecting first half of the season to be teething problems whilst the players adapt but we seem to be the reserve of that right now. Maybe oppo managers have worked out how to stop us?

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Hazelton said:

Genuinely not sure what some people expected. For those even contemplating the idea of Ange out, who do we bring in? What happens the moment they begin to struggle? Keep bringing in manager after manager?

We're slowly putting pieces together, finally looking to establish a long term plan rather than quick fix managers and throwing money at players we can't offload if they fail, trying to move away from multiple years of desperation and chaos. I get that you're sick of waiting, we all are, but we still need to be patient whether we like it or not and the most important part of any project are the people leading it.

Ange has done a good job considering the mess he inherited, maybe not in terms of playing staff but definitely as a club and the mentality around it. Mourinho didn't work, Conte didn't work. Both have created a toxic environment because we needed someone to come in and nurture the club, create a new mentality and a calmness. Don't underestimate the "Spursy" title and the lack of trophies, that will run deep within the club until it's broken but the more desperate we are to win, the worse our chances get.

Judge Ange on next season because he'll be here either way and rightly so. Get angry when we have bad results, get excited when we have good ones. Above all else remember that we're building something and it won't be smooth the entire way but we're still getting there.

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Nick-TopSpursMan said:

1. Set Pieces.
Finally we could improve here by adding an aerially strong striker to our team along with an aerially strong 6.

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Dov67 said:

Completely agree, but a lot has to do with aggressively attacking the ball from corners. I think at one ppint they were first to the ball from 9 out of 10 corners. Some of that is coaching no doubt, but a lot is having balls and playing with aggression.

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Hazelton said:

Genuinely not sure what some people expected. For those even contemplating the idea of Ange out, who do we bring in? What happens the moment they begin to struggle? Keep bringing in manager after manager?

We're slowly putting pieces together, finally looking to establish a long term plan rather than quick fix managers and throwing money at players we can't offload if they fail, trying to move away from multiple years of desperation and chaos. I get that you're sick of waiting, we all are, but we still need to be patient whether we like it or not and the most important part of any project are the people leading it.

Ange has done a good job considering the mess he inherited, maybe not in terms of playing staff but definitely as a club and the mentality around it. Mourinho didn't work, Conte didn't work. Both have created a toxic environment because we needed someone to come in and nurture the club, create a new mentality and a calmness. Don't underestimate the "Spursy" title and the lack of trophies, that will run deep within the club until it's broken but the more desperate we are to win, the worse our chances get.

Judge Ange on next season because he'll be here either way and rightly so. Get angry when we have bad results, get excited when we have good ones. Above all else remember that we're building something and it won't be smooth the entire way but we're still getting there.

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DannyNZ said:

I don’t dislike him at all, I just feel he is getting a bit of a free ride and has been badly out of form for sometime. I do have an irrational view that GLC is not getting anything like the game time his cameos have warranted and what seems a much better fit Tactically. Sorry to bore you.

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Hazelton said:

Last thing I'll say but I honestly believe a second pre-season will work wonders, that's where the real tactical work and fine tuning happens and where we should have a squad that Ange can call his own after a few windows.

We've gone from a very defensive minded, counter attacking mindset to a possession based, almost gung-ho one and a lot of the players experienced both styles. I think a lot of the pre-season work was probably focused on how to attack and undoing the negative tactics and it shows in our defending, but another pre-season will fix that and we should see a more balanced, long term style of play next season.

I'm genuinely excited to see how we look after another transfer window and summer work. For the first time in a long time I trust the recruitment and we've seen it all before but we have some genuinely special players and characters. If we trim the fat, add the right supplementary pieces and it clicks then the future is very exciting.

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HildoSpur said:

Reading some of the posts in here is a genuinely depressing experience. This is clearly a season of transition and

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talkshowhost86 said:

There are still some glaring gaps in the squad which, if we sort it out, will massively help Ange next season.

We need a striker.

We need better wide-man options.

We need more strength in depth in key areas such as full-back and attacking midfield.

And I don't even know what we need to do with the midfield. We have some good players in midfield but I'm not sure any of them are consistent enough to be the long term answer.

But Ange also needs to add some other strings to his bow.

He had absolutely no answers to the poor performance yesterday and that HAS to come from the manager.

I think 5th is all we can hope for this season and whilst that feels like a disappointment, it's fine considering what Ange took over.

But he needs to learn. This isn't Scotland and he doesn't have the best squad in the country by far. So that means he has to change the approach, if only sometimes.

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Nick-TopSpursMan said:

I’ve already defended Ange and said that we need to have patience so I’m going to post the tactical areas I feel we are really struggling and what we need to do to improve them imo, both through new personnel and tweaks to our tactics.

1. Set Pieces. Simply put we are shocking on them, especially defensively. Part of the problem comes from the fact we simply don’t have any true aerial beasts in our team. Romero is ok but not amazing and VdV, despite his height is actually poor in the air.

To improve here we need VdV to develop this part of his game significantly, we need more coaching on set pieces and we need Vicario to become much more aggressive dealing with them.

Finally we could improve here by adding an aerially strong striker to our team along with an aerially strong 6.

2. Attacking Play. This is a mix of improving our movement in the final third but very importantly improving our personnel. Simply put we don’t have enough technical ability and connectivity in the attacking 3.

We need a striker who can link play more consistently and wide players who combine pace with technical ability, 1v1 skill and combination play.

Currently our attack fails to sustain attacks long enough which leads to regular counter attacks against us. With a better profiled attack we can sustain attacks longer and minimise the amount of counters we face.

3. Rest Defence. We currently build up in a 2-3 shape. At times this really allows us to dominate opponents but more and more teams are starting to exploit the 2 and counter us in the space too easily.

Now as a team who want to play front foot football and dominate possession, we are always going to be open to counter attacks. That’s just the way it is for top teams. Look at City, Scum, Pool etc, they concede chances on the counter. We concede too many though and need to control it better.

We have two ways of improving this. Firstly we need to add a number 6 who is a huge defensive presence on the pitch, who covers a lot of ground, reads the game proactively defensively but who also still has good ability in build up play. This position will make a massive difference to us.

Secondly I really think Ange needs to tweak the shape, certainly for at least some games, to a 3-2 rest defence. This could either be one of Udogie or Porro inverting to midfield while the other forms a back 3 with Romero and VdV. Alternatively the 6 would drop in to the middle of Romero and VdV and the fullbacks would both invert to midfield, with 2 from either of them or the 8s becoming the shield for the 3 man defence.

These are things that can be done both with coaching, tweaks and adding new personnel. I think all of this is achievable for next season once the players have fully bought in to Ange philosophy this season.

If we make these changes, added to our current way of playing, I think it will see us improve significantly. I see no reason Ange can’t work on this over the summer for next season.

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Joe Bjorn Hotspur said:

Spot on. What’s concerning about modern day fandom, exacerbated by the various social media sites and podcasts, is the impatience. I know every fanbase goes through this but in 5 years we’ve had (including caretakers) 8 managers (Poch, Jose, Mason, Nuno, Conte, Stellini, Mason and Ange)

Don’t want people to get me wrong, various aspects such as individual errors, tactical mistakes, set pieces, zonal marking etc warrant criticism.

However, this is expected in a manager’s first season who was dealt with cards such as Kane’s exit, after surprising everyone after the first 10 PL games faced an injury/ suspension list that curtailed momentum: ever since we’ve stuttered and it’s been very inconsistent.

Getting fed up of some saying this isn’t Scotland, Japan or Australia Ange. I’m sure he’s fully aware of this and it’s embarrassing with those that have huge followings on podcasts saying this. This is why for long periods of time I stay away from it all as rationality goes out of the window.

The optimist in me is looking forward to going to the NLD and cheering the mighty Spurs on seeing how Ange reacts to that shite display yesterday.

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fishhhandaricecake said:

Yea a lot of podcasters speak a load of drivel. You go to those same podcasts after 10 games into the season and Ange is a genius and his background league experience is irrelevant and it’s a master stroke us having hired him, fast forward to a few losses and he’s a useless joker with no top level league experience, just ignore all the noise, the reality is Ange has done a fantastic job so far especially after losing Kane but of course there are areas he and the team need to improve and that will be done mostly this summer with a pre season and with hopefully some significant new signings.

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