Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[Garbob]

Really disappointed in that team he put out tonight. When he said he wanted to win and win everything I had high hopes before seeing that line up. Thought this was one cup we would go all out for.

 

[GioW]

Oh man ....he's had a mare hasn't he?! Ffs

 

[felmani26]

I look at it the other way. I think he massively let down those players who he knows are staying in his squad by playing players he knows are probably going.

Just Biss or Maddison to start in midfield. And probaly Vic (though Fraser was decent) just to keep the continuity at the back.

Really should have kept the backline intact with Vicario to not only keep that solid base but don't forget how productive those inverted fullbacks are in Ange's system.

Would have given Lo Celso and Solomon starts in place of Son/Kulu and Sarr.

No point whatsoever starting someone like Sanchez who's touted to be leaving imminently - what are you going to learn from playing someone who's got one eye on his next endeavour?!

Not his fault, this is on the management.

 

[jimbo]

We know football is a squad game now. A club our size ought to be able to make wholesale changes and not see such a dramatic drop off.

Nine changes is a lot, but Ange said we were just starting with the rebuild and it will take time. We all said there would be bumps in the road. This is a bump.

We’ve had one window to help him build the squad he needs, it will take more than that - especially at the pace we do business. The starting XI isn’t where he’d want it I expect so we have a long way to go before we have a squad capable of playing the way he wants us to. Until we sort that out we will have nights like this.

I think maybe a few of us got a bit carried away with our good start - we’ve a long way to go yet. Ange will have learned from this, and I hope the hierarchy will have to. There’s a lot of work ahead, best be prepared for it, all of us.

 

[BujuBanton]

So disappointed with him. We’ve got years worth of evidence to show why Davies, Sanchez, Hojberg, Skipp, etc arent good enough. He made too many changes, ruining our best chance of a trophy.
Plus its too late in the window to do anything about it.

 

[isaac94]

surely he took a look through our records in cups and saw we are a car crash when making wholesale changes

 

[jurgen]

Hopefully he won't need to be told twice that a Hojbjerg/Skipp combination is fundamentally unable to do what a Bissouma/Sarr pairing can do. He cannot play his football with such a lumpen midfield.

 

[tottenhamlad]

We got a prem team away not league 2.

Get the result.

 

[Yiddo100]

Really annoying but he’ll learn who he can and can’t trust, get in the ones he wants in and get out the ones he wants gone before Friday. Move onto Burnley and win the FA cup.

 

[Impspur1]

Was a really naive selection.

It’s almost as though he didn’t expect our reserves to be this bad. Until we shift the likes of PEH and Sanchez this will happen. How some say we are strengthening by selling PEH to UTD is beyond me!

 

[SambaSpurs]

9 changes was alway going to produce that away at premier league opposition. Also to only change Scarlett before 70mins was so disappointing.

There is a balance between keeping squad morale up and practically throwing games. Make 5 changes (full backs, Forster, Solomon and a CM) then with your subs potentially can bring on a few more non starters. He did it all at once and that does nothing for the guys that rotated in either, playing in a disjointed team and knowing they have let the squad and fans down.

I think he is going to be brilliant for our club but that is a major misstep and has killed the positive momentum we had building.

 

[DarwinSpur]

Really should have kept the backline intact with Vicario to not only keep that solid base but don't forget how productive those inverted fullbacks are in Ange's system.

Would have given Lo Celso and Solomon starts in place of Son/Kulu and Sarr.

No point whatsoever starting someone like Sanchez who's touted to be leaving imminently - what are you going to learn from playing someone who's got one eye on his next endeavour?!

Not his fault, this is on the management.

Oddly I was fine with Sanchez as I'm fine with him staying as back up - he has performed well under Ange with a better balanced team.

Agree re Lo celso. And thought front 3 was fine. And actually don't mind playing Hojbeg. Just... not all of them at once. Absolutely had to have one of Biss or Maddison start as well as Vic for continuity.

Oh well. It is what it is. He will have his reasons.

 

[Impspur1]

surely he took a look through our records in cups and saw we are a car crash when making wholesale changes

we’ve played 3 games so not sure why such refresh was needed

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

He has to take some blame but it’s 2 months into hopefully a 4 year project, rotation was needed to give the other squad players some minutes.

The issue is moreso that we still lack some quality depth a good 3-4 players (CB, CM, RW, ST) if we are completely honest and until we have that we aren’t able to pick our 2nd choice XI in these cup games and expect to go through especially away to PL sides.

 

[felmani26]

A point made elsewhere but our 'Leadership' group of Maddison, Son and Romero - not a single one starting!

More I think about this game, the more i'm scratching my head over the choices Ange made.

 

[isaac94]

Oddly I was fine with Sanchez as I'm fine with him staying as back up - he has performed well under Ange with a better balanced team.

Agree re Lo celso. And thought front 3 was fine. And actually don't mind playing Hojbeg. Just... not all of them at once. Absolutely had to have one of Biss or Maddison start as well as Vic for continuity.

Oh well. It is what it is. He will have his reasons.

we need to stop clinging to hope with sanchez, he is simply not a good footballer, and a mistake waiting to happen, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

[dimiSpur]

My biggest issue is allowing Sanchez to take the pen. Take control. Was there anyone alive that's seen Davinson Sanchez play, after having a very poor game, who expected anything other than a miss? Take over and tell them no.

Team selection in hindsight was wrong, but I'm angrier that our second XI is so poor. Meaning I'm more upset that we haven't strengthened the squad yet with the Kane money.

 

[Tucker]

He has to take some blame but it’s 2 months into hopefully a 4 year project, rotation was needed to give the other squad players some minutes.

The issue is moreso that we still lack some quality depth a good 3-4 players (CB, CM, RW, ST) if we are completely honest and until we have that we aren’t able to pick our 2nd choice XI in these cup games and expect to go through especially away to PL sides.

There’s rotation, and then there’s taking the spine out of your team. This was naive, and the only explanation I can come up with is that we decided not to take this competition seriously. It’s disappointing.

 

[Cochise]

A lot of you are insane. Three good performances into the season and you're believing that we are going to win it all it seems.

Well welcome back to reality.

We have a core of players that cannot be playing every three days, especially at the start of the season. Imagine Maddison aggravating that ankle because he had to start tonight and then missing the next month. The squad players should have aspirations of starting games and tonight they showed why they shouldn't be. He's given them a chance and he's learned a few things.

I thought the posters on here knew to expect teething problems. Knew to expect that it would take more than a single transfer window to change our squad and knew that this was not the season we were going to win things. This was the season we were going to lay foundations before looking to trouble people in 2024.

 

[Yiddo100]

Is there a post match presser?