Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[easley91]

Also Sarr was on White second half at corners and it worked. So someone did notice it, though a little too late. I just hope they do something before the games from now on.

 

[Shanks]

I can't disagree with anything he says here and he does not look to be a happy chappy!

This is it really, recognises there is an issue, but he seems more than just that issue.

Still maintain that we played really well yesterday bar those few moments

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

I really really really hate myself for saying this. Sack Ange close season.

Embarrassing

 

[Gassin's finest]

Players are largely at the same level they were last season, minus a Harry Kane. First 10 games were a buoyant post-conte/new manager bounce. Then reality kicked in. The fact we're 5th shows how the flip to attacking football has helped. Just got to sort that weird slow start/strong finish paradox that we're in. Yesterday went exactly as I expected.

Ange has a lot of hard work and harder decisions to do this summer, on the tactics board, on the training ground, and in the transfer market.

 

[philll]

This is it really, recognises there is an issue, but he seems more than just that issue.

Still maintain that we played really well yesterday bar those few moments

We did but those "few moments" cost us 3 goals. Spend the time fixing that issue (changing who's coaching set pieces, bringing specialists in, whatever), concede fewer goals, and give us less of a mountain to climb.

 

[muppetman]

This is it really, recognises there is an issue, but he seems more than just that issue.

Still maintain that we played really well yesterday bar those few moments

Fundamentally, we got done by 2 set pieces and a ball over the top, but we have to expect naivety at this stage of the rebuild I think. We don't have a single player who is really dominant in the air and miss Kane at defensive set pieces badly (as well as elsewhere!)

If we can up the tempo, up the urgency and aggression then I think we will be absolutely fine.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

I can't disagree with anything he says here and he does not look to be a happy chappy!

The game is for TV now and it is officiated by TV now

Pipe the atmosphere in, CGI the crowd and give them all a half n half scarf!

Can someone tell me how there was only 6mins of injury/time wasting time and the ref blew only added a further 6seconds - That was a 10min job at least

Anyone would think sky wants this title race to go down to the wire!

 

[Gilzeanking]

Kane left and everyone said we'd be lucky to get top 6.

Hate this kind of remark. 'everyone said' is utter tosh.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Hate this kind of remark. 'everyone said' is utter tosh.

Ok, everyone except you

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Jesus, I often wonder if we watch the same things, or if fans have gone that far into 'social media soundbites' to reflect games.

Fee areas need sorting but it's such a massive improvement on last season, it's actually a joke.

Yesterday was small bargains, a 2nd goal that should never have been (kulu pen), unlucky OG, a stronger keeper and a dodgy offside call

It's no where near us rolling over and not playing, we actually played well, really well, other than those fee moments.

Totally agree with this. We actually played better than I was expecting. We were always in the match but conceded sloppy goals. Tightening up our defensive corners and improving our defending in transitions are achievable with better personnel and coaching. Just have to trust the process.

Ange is not naive. He’s an experienced manager who has a proven track record of success. He’ll know where we need to improve. Just because he’s not spouting off at every opportunity to the media where our weaknesses are, it in no way means he hasn’t identified them. He would have had similar challenges in all his previous jobs which required him to adapt, tweak and improve on his philosophy. Fans need understand this is a project where the expectation is we progress over the course of a few seasons. This is not the peak of what Ange is expecting to achieve. Arsenal are over 4 seasons into their project and had numerous bumps in the road on the way. We need to stick with Ange and hope for similar outcomes to what that lot are achieving.

 

[Danny1]

People who want Ange gone now or at the end of the season are mad but I don't like seeing (entirely valid) concerns that have been raised after the majority of our matches since January (and more occasionally, before) dismissed as "knee jerk reactions". How can that be knee jerk?

Of course Ange should be here next season - the club has never felt more aligned across the first team management/recruitment and all of the age groups. But that's not to say he doesn't have to improve because he really really does.

His stubbornness with set piece coaching in particular is worrying - he's said before that he views them as an extension of the way they play so doesn't need specialist coaches for them but it's painfully obvious that that's not working. Either Mason and Jedinak aren't up to it or you simply can't approach set pieces with that kind of blasé attitude at this level (or both).

I'm excited to see what the Summer transfer window brings and excited to see us next season but there's a nagging worry that how Ange ideally wants to play just isn't compatible with football at this level and, assuming the issues are systemic and can't be fixed with transfers, the question is then - is he going to be willing to make compromises to the going forward bit in order to strengthen the defensive bit and, in general, make us less easy to set up against? And, given that he's said he only knows how to coach one way, will he swallow his pride and make backroom changes to bring in people better suited to the task (this applies to set pieces as well)?

The problem is that an awful lot of the criticism I've seen has been with a certain level of vitriol or hyperbole that just isn't needed or helpful.

This season was always going to be an interesting one:

• New manager new to the league.
• Kane leaving.
• African & Asian Cup where we had a high amount of important players missing.
• New young players (Udogie, VDV, Sarr, Johnson).
• New style of play.
• Lots of long term injuries to key players (Maddison, VDV, Bentancur, Udogie, Richarlison & Solomon)

Now being honest, on the day that Kane left, most people would have taken 5th place and watching the kind of football we have been this season. I've enjoyed this season more than I've enjoyed any football since the end of the 18/19 season. How ridiculous is that. We have seen some excellent free flowing football, fantastic individual & team goals, amazing come backs and we have seen young players growing throughout the season, in particular Sarr & Johnson.

I get that yesterday was disappointing, I hate losing to that lot. However, and as my neutral mates said, we were the better team and had the better chances. It could have been a whole lot different.

For those who seem to keep repeating the issue with the corner defending I urge you to watch the post match press conference. Ange is absolutely fuming and to sit here and think he doesn't see it is naive. They will be working on it and hopefully over time it will improve and yes right now the whole team needs criticising for that aspect of our game.

All of this 'gone by October', 'sack him close season', 'he won't last' needs to stop. The team we lost to yesterday have spent £700m in 5 years with the same manager and still might win the same as us this season. We all know this squad needs a rebuild, just look at the players who realistically might leave in the summer:

Davies / Sessegnon / Spence / Rodon / Tanganga / Reguilon / Ndombele / Holjbjerg / Skipp / Lo Celso / Gil.

We are in the start/middle of the rebuild. The need for patience is now, it's certainly not the time for snap judgements or 'forecasting' when our current manager is going to leave.

Last point, can I just remind everyone of how good times have been this season:

• Stadium rocking for the first time in years.
• Charismatic and caring manager.
• Some amazing results.
• Brave losses (I mean that sincerely).
• Seeing Sonny as our Captain.

COYS.

 

[For the love of Spurs]

Then what?

Fans manage the team via daily opinion polls.

 

[idontgetit]

If we played like we did against Arsenal yesterday for most of the second half of the season we'd have walked into the Champions League places. The big questions are over games like Newcastle and Fulham, when teams have completely outplayed us and shut down our play style.

Why yesterday did our midfield have the run of things but couldn't keep the ball for ten seconds against Fulham? Fixing defending corners is easy compared to that.

 

[For the love of Spurs]

If we played like we did against Arsenal yesterday for most of the second half of the season we'd have walked into the Champions League places. The big questions are over games like Newcastle and Fulham, when teams have completely outplayed us and shut down our play style.

Why yesterday did our midfield have the run of things but couldn't keep the ball for ten seconds against Fulham? Fixing defending corners is easy compared to that.

Yep we were the better team and dominated Arsenal play wise, they just killed us in key moments. Fulham and Newcastle are not as good as Arsenal, our players looked lethargic in those games, why?

 

[idontgetit]

Yep we were the better team and dominated Arsenal play wise, they just killed us in key moments. Fulham and Newcastle are not as good as Arsenal, our players looked lethargic in those games, why?

It's not just as simple as whether a team sits off or presses us either, it's seems to be about how the formations match up and how and who they press. I'm not saying Ange needs to consider plan B and C etc every time things get a little difficult, perhaps plan A might need a little evolving though to cope with opposition adaption.

 

[whenstevewentup]

These people saying they’ve seen brilliant football this season and how much more enjoyable it’s been, please can u name the fixtures you’re talking about - post October .
mine are Newcastle home , Villa home 1st half , villa away 2nd half .
our away performances have been horrific and last minute winners paper over a lot of cracks .
As a unit , this is one of the Worst spurs teams I’ve seen for a long time .
Most teams this season have scored 2 against us or at least created 3 very very good chances to score . Forest at home is a prime example .
Lots of work to be done before I start patting Ange on the back . I want to give him a window and an opportunity to see what next season looks like but I have to remember he said the first 6 months would be tricky but once the players got used to the system we would look a lot better .
Not seeing that mate !

 

[Riandor]

Whilst there were some mitigating circumstances, yesterday the football looked the same as always, predictable.

Teams are dropping deep so quickly that we seem reluctant to risk forward passes, cementing the opponents ability to shut up shop even more. We conrol games by and large, but we are only winning the Jürgen Klopp possession trophy. Chances are too far and inbetween and we end up with the sideways push and probe and then either get done on the counter, or stuff up set pieces.

We need to be sharper and faster in transition. We have pacy forwards, use it, cause a little mayhem at the risk of losing the ball. At the beginning of the season we invited teams on to us, relinquished a little control and hurt them with being press resistant. We moaned then too I recall, but frankly, since then, we seem to have adapted to a more control based football, but one that makes us easy to defend against and often nullifying the pace of the forwards (not always of course).

 

[philll]

For those who seem to keep repeating the issue with the corner defending I urge you to watch the post match press conference. Ange is absolutely fuming and to sit here and think he doesn't see it is naive. They will be working on it and hopefully over time it will improve and yes right now the whole team needs criticising for that aspect of our game.

I largely agree with everything else you said but the issues with the corner defending are being repeated because it keeps happening and no improvement has been seen.

This is what he said at the start of March when he was asked directly about it:

If it had been addressed since then, we'd surely have seen an improvement.

This is what I mean when I say he needs to swallow his pride and change the personnel or his treatment of set pieces. He came in with a system, it's blatantly not working. I don't care how comfortable you are with it, Ange, what you're doing in this area is failing miserably and we're throwing points away as a result of it.

It feels like he thinks he can just focus on attack attack attack and it'll get us out of any hole that deficiencies in other areas might put us in. The problem is, when other teams make our attack look as impotent as they have been doing, it exposes those deficiencies for all to see. Maybe better attacking personnel will mask that next season but set pieces are such an easy (relatively) aspect to compartmentalise and focus on separately, it'll be nothing short of negligence if we're still this bad at them next season.

 

[Yantino]

Ange has my full support.

 

[CheeseGromit]

I do think we should not be blinded by thinking we did ok against them
The midfield dream team of Bentancur and Maddison were pedestrian and we did not not hurt them in the final third. Sarr and Bissouma livened it up but that snot to say they would have from the off.
We are knocked off the ball to easily Often coming off second best
The ball over the top of our defensive has to rectified. Not changing tactic changing the mindset and being switched on
set pieces are a nightmare We are poor in the air and do not compete to make things difficult for the attacker
As Ange says a lot to work on