Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[dimiSpur]

Fun fact - at the same point last season, we had 30 points under Conte, we currently have 27. You should probably do some research before spouting things like this with such conviction.

The rest of your post is pretty spot on though.

And where did we finish?

That's like saying I raced Usain Bolt and for the first 5m I was ahead, therefore I'm quicker than him.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

I couldn't disagree more. We aren't losing due to the system, we are losing because we aren't putting teams to bed when we are dominating and we are making silly errors and being punished by teams who are showing us what being clinical looks like.

Let me put it another way. If the ricochet goal didn't materialise, and we went on to win 2-1 in the 80th minute, would you be here today bemoaning the performance or Ange's rigidity? I don't think so.

I would argue that the killer instinct up front is probably the only thing missing right now. We could've easily been 3-0 up at half time and the game would've been dead and buried.

Small margins. We need to be clinical.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Every single manager we've had since the invention of the internet has been criticised for a lack of a Plan B. All of them

We need to start signing Alphabet managers

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

And where did we finish?

That's like saying I raced Usain Bolt and for the first 5m I was ahead, therefore I'm quicker than him.

That's irrelevant and an obvious false equivalency. Ange hasn't completed a season yet.

You said we would be 14th under those two managers, we've never even been close to that low under either of them.

 

[glacierSpurs]

If Maddison played last night we win.

Players missing a hat full of chances against Villa or a player passing back poorly to his keeper isn’t on Ange.

We need better quality in the final third we know that, but it’s going to take time and players.

I actually thought we are missing Perisic the most (since now we have Lo Celso), someone who is comfortable with either foot and put in crosses first time with accuracy. Just forget about whether Son can head in the ball, but we seriously need to whip in balls with pace to trouble the opposition defence and goalkeepers. 2nd balls may just fall to one of our players who can still attack it. It's a bit appalling for Ange to place so much emphasis on wing play and yet the amount of crosses and the quality from our supposed wingers are so so limited.

 

[dimiSpur]

I would argue that the killer instinct up front is probably the only thing missing right now. We could've easily been 3-0 up at half time and the game would've been dead and buried.

Small margins. We need to be clinical.

Totally. That's a personnel issue though. We don't have clinical goalscorers, that's a fact. We miss Maddison's cutting edge in the final third too. We got a little predictable towards the end, in that Kulu was running back into traffic on the right, whereas Sonny had a quiet game. Johnson, who I'm sure will improve, looked more like Dele Alli towards the end of his Spurs career than the 50m fast winger we supposedly signed.

Richy missed a sitter a few minutes before they scored the 2nd, that's another striker who can't strike. We need personnel.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Every single manager we've had since the invention of the internet has been criticised for a lack of a Plan B. All of them

We need to start signing Alphabet managers

I need a plan B but not for our managers, for the 4 I took home for a one night stand

Spoiler: Spoiler

This post is a lie, no one on this site gets laid

 

[dimiSpur]

That's irrelevant and an obvious false equivalency. Ange hasn't completed a season yet.

You said we would be 14th under those two managers, we've never even been close to that low under either of them.

I said we'd be 14th with those managers and this squad.

If Harry was in this team, I don't think we'd have lost against Villa or Wham.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Totally. That's a personnel issue though. We don't have clinical goalscorers, that's a fact. We miss Maddison's cutting edge in the final third too. We got a little predictable towards the end, in that Kulu was running back into traffic on the right, whereas Sonny had a quiet game. Johnson, who I'm sure will improve, looked more like Dele Alli towards the end of his Spurs career than the 50m fast winger we supposedly signed.

Richy missed a sitter a few minutes before they scored the 2nd, that's another striker who can't strike. We need personnel.

Johnson will come good with time, but I suspect we may have reached a ceiling with Kulu down the wing. He needs to play centrally.

It's glaringly obvious that without Kane or Maddison's magic we have a serious lack of cutting edge in both creativity and that clinical finishing.

I wonder how long it will take the board to address these glaring issues.

 

[Metalhead]

And where did we finish?

That's like saying I raced Usain Bolt and for the first 5m I was ahead, therefore I'm quicker than him.

Well done though.

 

[TommyW]

The defensive mistakes are the main problem. Yes we missed chances, but it's not realistic to expect we can put 3 or 4 goals past every team we play. Sometimes a 1 goal lead needs to be enough.

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

I don't think anyone is saying Ange out. But last night was average and that stops with him sadly. Actually think people are being quite relaxed given the run we are on

Ultimately stops with Levy. Squad was left short in a few areas. It’s going to end up taking a few windows. Ange told us that. Our general play is some of the best I’ve seen from us in a long time. I’ve seen enough from this manager to know he’s the real deal. Levy is the one I’m worried about

 

[dimiSpur]

Johnson will come good with time, but I suspect we may have reached a ceiling with Kulu down the wing. He needs to play centrally.

It's glaringly obvious that without Kane or Maddison's magic we have a serious lack of cutting edge in both creativity and that clinical finishing.

I wonder how long it will take the board to address these glaring issues.

I think Johnson will improve too, it will take time. He needs to stop playing within himself.

I wouldn't hold my breath re-the board. They've been letting us down for decades.

My ultimate point though is that we have a manager who, if we back properly, can achieve great things. That's one thing I'm sure of.

 

[THOWIG]

The defensive mistakes are the main problem. Yes we missed chances, but it's not realistic to expect we can put 3 or 4 goals past every team we play. Sometimes a 1 goal lead needs to be enough.

Both goals last night were avoidable.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

I think Johnson will improve too, it will take time. He needs to stop playing within himself.

I wouldn't hold my breath re-the board. They've been letting us down for decades.

My ultimate point though is that we have a manager who, if we back properly, can achieve great things. That's one thing I'm sure of.

I have zero doubt in my mind that Ange is the man for the job going forward.

Whether or not the board will be pulling in the same direction is anyone's guess.

We would probably be in a title race right now if those two red cards and countless injuries hadn't happened.

The fact that we're competing at this level, with little to no adequate back up for YEARS is the crux of the problem.

The board needs to take full accountability here.

 

[PaulM]

What a load of shit. We would be 14th with our squad under Conte and Mourinho. You can't pick and choose moments. Both the football and the results ultimately under both those managers was shit. Piss poor shit. Their plans were keep it tight and wait for Kane and/or Sonny to do something extraordinary. And by the way, we couldn't keep it tight.

Were you not creaming in the first half last night when the passing was coming off? We can't have it both ways. We take risks to play the football we play. What we need to cut out is the silly mistakes, like Udogie's and Bissouma's. That's not down to the manager, that's personal lapses in concentration which, you'd hope, will slowly eradicate.

Destiny is 21 and this is his first season in England. As far as I'm concerned he's hit the ground running and will improve even more as time goes by. In fact, I'd be surprised if he's not at a City, Real or Bayern by the time he's 26.

There are so many positives to our side. As Ange said, if we had a little more conviction, Villa and West Ham would have been 5-0 drubbings. Alas, they weren't. But when we say we have some way to go, its to iron out and eradicate these kinds of situations.

Let's not forget we are playing without our two best performers so far this season in Madders and VDV, whilst arguably our most talented CM has played a total of 45 minutes for us (Bentancur).

Most goals we've conceded are not down to the system but personal player errors. As for your suggestion that our defensive line is too high on set pieces, the one time we were deep was against Villa for Torres' equaliser. Deep doesn't mean your facing the ball, it means you allow deep runners to gain momentum on you and inevitably win headers in dangerous areas.

I can't believe people are questioning the method. We play the best football in the league with half a team out. May I remind everyone of the depression we were in in the summer, when we sold our greatest ever goalscorer and replaced him with NO ONE. How optimistic were we about the season? Not very. Now all of a sudden we are giving it the large one.

We need to stick with the team. Results since the disastrous game that was Chelsea have been poor, of course. But the wheels literally fell off that night and yet still, we are playing a system despite personnel. I find it impressive. What we lack is goals to kill teams off. Guess why we aren't doing that. Could it be because apart from Sonny we have no goalscorers? It might be you know.

You're being a bit emotional/defensive. I'm a fan of Ange's, I think his approach is a breath of fresh air and I'm enjoying it. But it's not perfect and I've outlined why I believe that to be the case. It's constructive criticism for the sake of discussion. For the record, Conte or Mourinho never had us 14th. It's nonsense to say they'd be 14th now even without Kane.

The high line on the free kick against Villa was madness to me. We allow Torres to get a run, our defenders are now facing their own goal. We've left too big a gap between Vicario and the defensive line which allows Villa to drop a ball into space and allows Torres to get a run on us.

I'm questioning the method insofar as I don't believe that we'll ever challenge the big boys with it. We'll finish around the top 6 and maybe threaten the top 4. That's okay - that's kinda par for the course with ENIC's ownership model.

Players have always made mistakes and will always make mistakes. You try and develop a system that will cover some of those errors. In my view, we're so gung ho that any errors at the back leave us very exposed. That's not a call to bring back Jose, Conte or their approach, it's not me thinking we can do better than Ange. He deserves time and is doing a good job. It's just an opinion on where I see the weaknesses in our approach.

 

[RuskyM]

Every single manager we've had since the invention of the internet has been criticised for a lack of a Plan B. All of them

We need to start signing Alphabet managers

No one says "we need a Plan B" when they win, even if it's jammy and they don't deserve it. People look at defeats and assume fault, which just seems reactionary rather than anything else.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

I said we'd be 14th with those managers and this squad.

If Harry was in this team, I don't think we'd have lost against Villa or Wham.

I'm sure you can admit and see that this is pure conjecture though.

We won't ever know for sure how good or bad they would've done without Kane or with the new additions we have now.

I could argue we would've done better last season had Conte had VDV to rely on and not Dier/Lenglet. But again, this is pure conjecture.

Like I said, the majority of your post was accurate and I agree with it. I just pulled up the points thing for perspective.

 

[djhotspur]

I love him and he needs the tools to succeed but he’s still make selection mistakes, sun mistakes etc.
My big worry is we seem to run out of steam second half of games which lets teams back in.
Have to wait until we’ve got players back to judge and can’t fully judge until next season once the squad looks better but he’s still gotta improve.

 

[Gareth88]

Love the guy but for the life of me wen you need a goal do you take off our only creatine cm for Oliver skipp. He’s done it 3 times now how can you not Learn.

Gio wasnt able to find anything in front of him there was no space, I was thinking when he took him off Deki was going to comw central and Gil on the right.