Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[Styopa]

As I say, I think 5/6th will be a disappointment considering the cup performances. Kane may have left but we have a better all round squad than we've had in a long time. The investment and recruitment has been very good over the past couple of years.

Just to echo what @mil1lion said, I think the cup situation was a bit unfortunate. No excuses going out to Fulham - apart from it being very early days for Ange - but Man C? Most if not all teams would have gone out to Man C. They won the treble last season! If we are using that as a barometer then our expectations are way too high imo.

 

[mill]

We don't need 2. We have far too many attacking players as it is. Richarlison and Son are quality established players. We just need 1 more unless Werner comes good enough. Then the rest would be young players developing. We need to show some patience rather than keep signing more players. Kulusevski, Gil and Johnson are all young while Soloman sort of fits between the experienced and young players.

For me I would sign 1 established attacker with end product to start with Son and Richarlison unless Werner shows he can. Then you have young developing players like Kulusevski (who can also cover Maddison), Johnson, Veliz and one of Soloman or Gil competing while growing.

Yeah I did ideally, I’m certainly not expecting it, I we definitely need one though

It’s a shame Solomon’s been injured so much be nice to see more of what he can offer, I feel there’s question marks over the majority of our forwards currently

 

[dannyo]

Ange is a victim of his own success right now, I think. No one expected us to start so well and when we did, it raised expectations. This was always going to be a longer journey.

As I’ve said before, for me, if this season it was actually enjoyable going to games and we could see some sort of plan and progress, that was all I could ask for. He did that within the first month.. I think the future is incredibly bright, and I think we’ll be a real force next season. He’s still learning but I have complete faith that he’s the right man to take us forward. Always frustrating when we don’t play well, or we drop points where maybe we shouldn’t, but you’ve got to keep that perspective in mind.

All that said, I hope Everton get another points deduction and take their Neanderthal football down to the championship

 

[Rout-Ledge]

At the beginning of the season the target for most of us was getting the good vibes flowing again, playing better football, and creating a feeling that we were heading in the right direction again. I think when the season is over we will all agree that those targets have been achieved.

Next season will be more difficult because we will need to see progress in terms of league position and good runs in the cups and Europe.

My only real complaint this season about Ange is the Carabao Cup exit. Without Europe it was absolutely crazy not to go hard on that competition. There really was no excuse for putting out a weakened team.

 

[SpursSince1980]

Tough, ugly game. Evrtn did what Dyche teams do, and it worked out nicely today. Two very scrappy and somewhat fortunate goals. But they controlled the midfield and played the perfect Dyche game. But still only got one point. They are incapable of playing better than that. The onus is more on us taking better care of the ball and being more ruthless. But we don’t really have that in our locker yet. Getting there.

Right now, I’m still excited to see we are heading toward a top 6 finish. A lot to play yet. But with more time between games, the more players returning…. We can make a run at fourth, if we can go up through the gears over the next three months.

Unfortunate today. But still got a point. So, I don’t really have any complaints.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

On paper, Udogie, VDV, Romero & Porro is one of the best defences in the league…the fact we’ve still then conceded 35 league goals and have a conceded xG of 40.5 suggests there’s a huge problem with the system we’re playing. I understand the all out attack nature of our football but we need to be wiser. Even with injuries, we’d second in the league had we managed to see out the Wolves game.

I think we’re having a fantastic season and really can’t complain as we’re vastly above my own expectations at the start of the season but it’s frustrating to think where we would be had we been a little smarter at the end of matches.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Saw someone post a stat that on the history of the premier league, a team has scored and conceded 60 goals only twice.

Both times were Spurs

Be interesting for it to happen again.

 

[Jamturk]

I would offer up that it is not wise to play a midfield 3 that won't see out the match forcing you to end a match with a far inferior midfield coming down the final furlong.

Surely you start Maddison or Bentancaur, this way you will be able to replace quality with quality.

We ended up without a player to get on the ball in the final minutes and paid the price.

 

[DiVaio]

On paper, Udogie, VDV, Romero & Porro is one of the best defences in the league…the fact we’ve still then conceded 35 league goals and have a conceded xG of 40.5 suggests there’s a huge problem with the system we’re playing. I understand the all out attack nature of our football but we need to be wiser. Even with injuries, we’d second in the league had we managed to see out the Wolves game.

I think we’re having a fantastic season and really can’t complain as we’re vastly above my own expectations at the start of the season but it’s frustrating to think where we would be had we been a little smarter at the end of matches.

xG is bad but the reason of it are injuries. When both Romero and Van de Ven are playing we are actually conceding 1,04 goals(3rd best) and ~1,2 npxG per game which makes it 4th best defence in the league. Even today we were absolutely awful at defending set pieces but they created basically nothing from open play

 

[Pleat_Out]

After three years of assorted Chelsea dinosaurs I was just hoping we'd actually attack and finish top 6 this season. So we've more than exceeded that.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Very much depends on whether we intend to let other attacking options leave and/or we are going to still go out spend big on a quality forward?

If Werner doesn’t show that he can regain his form from a few years ago and he’s our only attacking signing then even for £15m I wouldn’t want him.

We have a lot of attacking players on our books, but at the moment it feels a bit quantity over quality for me.

Yep agree, as I said we’d need to sign another TOP attacking player ideally RW in addition to Werner.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

You have to remember that without Son and Maddison( not being 100% yet) taking Romero off would leave you with no captains on the field.

Its sod's law that Dragusin was needed earlier and as soon as sign him Romero returns but Son is off away.

I think had we had Son, Maddison and others available, he would have been fine to give Dragusin a start.

Good points.

 

[spurs9]

On paper, Udogie, VDV, Romero & Porro is one of the best defences in the league…the fact we’ve still then conceded 35 league goals and have a conceded xG of 40.5 suggests there’s a huge problem with the system we’re playing. I understand the all out attack nature of our football but we need to be wiser. Even with injuries, we’d second in the league had we managed to see out the Wolves game.

I think we’re having a fantastic season and really can’t complain as we’re vastly above my own expectations at the start of the season but it’s frustrating to think where we would be had we been a little smarter at the end of matches.

As @DiVaio said, xG conceded is much better in the few games Romero and VdV have both played but just to add to that, the average age of that back 4 is 23 with the oldest Player being 25, that is extremely young.

They have also only played 13.5 games together, so to have conceded an average of 1.05 per game together, is actually pretty good considering.

The last 5 goals we have conceded, 2 have come from mistakes from our 21 year old LB (he will learn from them) but 3 have come from set pieces, which is the biggest concern IMO.

That being said, have 3 games in 8 days, doesn't give much time into working on defending set pieces, so hopefully we rectify that over the next few weeks.

 

[rossdapep]

Dont think people are looking at the defensive issues correctly.

Its the midfield.

Earlier in the season we had spells where a team would cause us issues but we would overcome it and gain control.

Usually finishing the game well.

In the past few weeks, we have had

- Bissouma without Sarr.
- Sarr but no Bentancur or Bissouma to beat the press.
- Lo Celso or Kulusevski fill in at AM.
- Bentancur return but still not 100%.
- Maddison only just return.

This has really effected us as we have had to play Skipp and Hojbjerg who cant connect or cover ground as well.

Not too mention that Bissouma, Sarr and Maddison built up a great understanding so we could connect better and ease pressure off the defence.

We have not played the same 3 in midfield since.

Therefore our build up and control has suffered.

 

[mil1lion]

I would offer up that it is not wise to play a midfield 3 that won't see out the match forcing you to end a match with a far inferior midfield coming down the final furlong.

Surely you start Maddison or Bentancaur, this way you will be able to replace quality with quality.

We ended up without a player to get on the ball in the final minutes and paid the price.

I would have preferred Kulusevski on for Maddison to play central and hold onto the ball. He didn't cope well on the right but think he would have done better central.

 

[ButchCassidy]

xG is bad but the reason of it are injuries. When both Romero and Van de Ven are playing we are actually conceding 1,04 goals(3rd best) and ~1,2 npxG per game which makes it 4th best defence in the league. Even today we were absolutely awful at defending set pieces but they created basically nothing from open play

Don’t forget Bissouma as well, he’s more of a defensive player in this system than either fullback and the other options at DM just don’t provide the same level of cover for the defense.

 

[jurgen]

Think managers are now seeing that being super physical with us is a tactic that bears fruit as long as refs don’t clamp down on it which they don’t.

We either lose our heads a bit or make mistakes, but I think the second can be mitigated somewhat by having all our most technical players on the field which hasn’t happened for a while.

We’re still the most fouled team in the league by a long way, but guys like the Brentford fella can get in a good 6 hits in while on a yellow and still not get sent off against us, so even that stat doesn’t paint a full picture.

 

[SpursSince1980]

Think managers are now seeing that being super physical with us is a tactic that bears fruit as long as refs don’t clamp down on it which they don’t.

We either lose our heads a bit or make mistakes, but I think the second can be mitigated somewhat by having all our most technical players on the field which hasn’t happened for a while.

We’re still the most fouled team in the league by a long way, but guys like the Brentford fella can get in a good 6 hits in while on a yellow and still not get sent off against us, so even that stat doesn’t paint a full picture.

Feels like a lot changed after the Liverpool game. But you can see that it is now a tactic for most teams to rough up our players in first 30 mins as the ref is seemingly unwilling to give out yellows. So, if you know that as a player, you can take two or three potshots during that period and won’t get penalized.

Meanwhile… how many VAR decisions and ref calls have turned up roses for Liverpool since that game? Funny that we are getting punished for VAR and the officiating team being fuck ups that day. Whereas they’ve been going out of their way to avoid any wrongheaded decisions against Pool.

Yes…. I’ve recently been fitted for my tinfoil hat!

 

[eViL]

Dont think people are looking at the defensive issues correctly.

Its the midfield.

It has been ever since we lost Dembele.

We give it away so cheaply at times it's unreal. Main culprit = Hojbjerg.

The amount of goals we give away from fucking around in the middle third is unprecedent. A loose sideways or backwards pass, either followed by a desperate foul in a dangerous area for a set piece, or clear run in on goal.

Watch em back, rarely do we have a good goal scored against us, it's normally us.

 

[Bluto Blutarsky]

Dont think people are looking at the defensive issues correctly.

Its the midfield.

Earlier in the season we had spells where a team would cause us issues but we would overcome it and gain control.

Usually finishing the game well.

In the past few weeks, we have had

- Bissouma without Sarr.
- Sarr but no Bentancur or Bissouma to beat the press.
- Lo Celso or Kulusevski fill in at AM.
- Bentancur return but still not 100%.
- Maddison only just return.

This has really effected us as we have had to play Skipp and Hojbjerg who cant connect or cover ground as well.

Not too mention that Bissouma, Sarr and Maddison built up a great understanding so we could connect better and ease pressure off the defence.

We have not played the same 3 in midfield since.

Therefore our build up and control has suffered.

Just to add to this - it appears that Ange feels limited at the 6 spot to Hojbjerg or Bissouma (maybe Skipp).


Against Brentford -Ange dropped Skipp and Bentancur to play Hojbjerg as the 6, and Kulusevski as one of the more advanced CMs.

Today, instead of Bentancur and Sarr, Ange opted for Hojbjerg again to play the 6, and Bentancur the 8.


As long as Ange feels compelled to start one of Skipp or Hojbjerg in the midfield - I think we will struggle to really control the ball building out from the back.