Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[fishhhandaricecake]

I wonder what Ange's track record is like for replacing backroom staff during his time at clubs...

Don't think he's often replaced them. At Celtic he brought in Harry Kewell to add to the mix after his 1st season. I think he'd rather focus on the staff he has improving rather than ripping it up and getting new people in as he'd have to get them to buy into his methods all over again.

That being said if set pieces don't improve especially defensively then ofc there is a very strong argument for Ange to bring in a specialist set piece coach and that might require him to not be so stubborn. We shall see.

 

[Albertbarich]

Don't think he's often replaced them. At Celtic he brought in Harry Kewell to add to the mix after his 1st season. I think he'd rather focus on the staff he has improving rather than ripping it up and getting new people in as he'd have to get them to buy into his methods all over again.

That being said if set pieces don't improve especially defensively then ofc there is a very strong argument for Ange to bring in a specialist set piece coach and that might require him to not be so stubborn. We shall see.

Bring back Ledley to do it

Sentiment alone makes him the best for the job.

 

[rossdapep]

I think the feeling is made worse because we started so well and the expectation (or mine, certainly) was that we would get Micky and Maddison back in January and everything would just click again (or, if not then, after AFCON and The Asian Cup) and it... just didn't happen and still hasn't happened. If anything we've been worse over these last few months than when we were in the depths of that injury crisis, with a couple of exceptions. So it doesn't feel like progress is being made, if anything it feels like we're going backwards.

It feels too easy to say Ange has been figured out but Eddie Howe absolutely ran rings around him a couple of weeks ago, and Marco Silva not long before then, and Moyes (to a degree), and Gary O'Neil... Even Arteta did what I thought he would which was to put their "style of play" on hold, sit back and counter because why not? It works against us. That's what tactical flexibility offers you and what we're sorely lacking. We're simply not capable of playing in another way. It's all very well saying "plan B is to do plan A better" but if teams have worked out to stop plan A, plan B ain't gonna work either.

I hope we have a storming Summer window and create a team that's good enough at plan A to overwhelm opponents regardless of how they set up because I have to say I'm pretty downbeat about Ange's chances if he has to come up with a different approach we can switch to if the game state demands it.

Just one thing.

Arteta did not set up differently and sit defensively. We pushed them back, that's from the mouth

 

[newbie]

we dont have many short players but we don’t have anyone big, our biggest out field player was vdv, Kai is a lot bigger. I think we need a big physical CF who can help defend set pieces and add a set piece threat and hold up play, we do miss Kane..

richy and bis made a big difference

tbh we played pretty well it’s only a few tweaks, experience, set pieces and luck two decisions have gone our way we could’ve won the gane comfortably

 

[mil1lion]

I thought it might have improved after 2 weeks training before meeting the best set piece team in the league . Seems to have got worse. When Sporting played Arsenal, Pepe just picked up White and threw him towards the pen spot. You can do anything before the corner is taken. Just run into White and flatten him.

Pull someone's curly hair

 

[Shanks]

I agree.

I noted before that for Arsenal's third goal, Vicario doesn't once look to his side. He's fixed on the ball.

That meant that he didn't see White step across ready to block him.

Therefore he was in a static situation and had no momentum.

Little details like checking to see men around him and he could have taken a step to the side and then used momentum to brush off White.

If he's jumping and White is still blocking him then there's a chance he gets a freekick.

But anyway, it's all about the finer details.

Players attacking there zone and not standing static.

I said yesterday that Hojbjerg didn't even put out an arm to protect that space and lean into it.

Again finer details.

Don't know if you agree with me regarding Vicario?

I don't like to critique GKs as it's not an area of expertise but I don't think he's helping himself.

I do agree, even more so, in rhe vacario thread I've detailed out where I'd like to see an improvement, it's the one position I really understand, there is a lot more he could do to protect himself and his area when it comes to corners

I'm no coach though, but would love to heat this from a coaches point of view

 

[spursfast]

Pull someone's curly hair

they got no coaching on set prices
it happens over and over again

 

[Danny1]

1st Season at Celtic they conceded the joint 5th most in the league from set pieces (10).
2nd Season they conceded the least (6).

Most people will be surprised by this, but we have only conceded 6 more than Arsenal from set pieces this season and only City have conceded fewer than them.

We have conceded 24 more goals in total than Arsenal so far this year, so whilst set pieces are a problem, they are not THE problem.

Which funnily enough is exactly what Ange said in his press conference. Almost like he knows what he is talking about and, unfortunately, a large amount on here do not haha.

 

[Cochraam]

I am actually feeling pretty positive for our run in this season and what is possible for us next season. Obviously set pieces and defensive counters are an issue but I'm going to have some faith that Ange's plan isn't to totally ignore addressing our glaring weaknesses, even if it's very frustrating that they haven't been addressed yet.

I just don't think we're close at all to seeing the full implementation of Ange's ideas and tactics, so I anticipate improvement in multiple areas next season as we learn. I also feel like there are enough positives in how we are pushing teams back and making them change their plans for us that we will really be a force when our players are more synced up and on the same page. Again, though, very frustrating we aren't further along in the process at this point in the season.

 

[spurs9]

So if he learnt at Celtic what the problem is, why has he not organised the team to defend the corners like he did in the second season up there in a much more set piece heavy league?

He should have learnt from previous mistakes. It’s arbitrary to say it will improve second season here because it did there. He should turn up with the second season at Celtic ability to set up a team to defend set pieces as he already has the experience.

Lots of possibilities on this one.

- He is prioritising implementing his style over fixing it.
- Its a different "problem" to the one he had at Celtic.
- He is, but the players are having trouble implementing the fix.
- Maybe they are not just "mistakes: but just part of a learning curve and we are currently bottom of the curve.

The will be other possibilities I haven't thought of off the top of my head too.

 

[RuskyM]

Set pieces HAVE to improve, they simply have to. The difference between now and his clubs before is the quality of opposition players, and any weakness will cause problems every single game. In the Prem every team has players that have great delivery from set pieces and men that WILL get on the end of those deliveries. There is no way we can be a title challenging team conceding 15+ set piece goals a season. Certain teams will literally start playing for them if things persist, because it represents a high chance of a goal.

Fuck me Opta may as well start adding points to the opponents Xg every time we concede a corner things are so bad in that regard right now.

I've not disagreed with this - I'm saying there's a danger of ignoring all the good he has done in favour of this. Of course it needs improving - I'm suggesting there's a forest beyond the trees.

 

[tevezito]

Set pieces HAVE to improve, they simply have to. The difference between now and his clubs before is the quality of opposition players, and any weakness will cause problems every single game. In the Prem every team has players that have great delivery from set pieces and men that WILL get on the end of those deliveries. There is no way we can be a title challenging team conceding 15+ set piece goals a season. Certain teams will literally start playing for them if things persist, because it represents a high chance of a goal.

Well hopefully he’s watching the Kane Jude derby right now to pick up some tips because two champions league semi finalists can’t possibly use a zonal marking system at corners, can they? Trix told me it was dead.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

tbh we played pretty well it’s only a few tweaks, experience, set pieces and luck two decisions have gone our way we could’ve won the gane comfortably

This is my overriding feeling. In general play we were much the better team. Arsenal are dominant in the majority of matches they play, and we limited them to very few chances, and possession.

I'd would have been much more concerned if they had opened us up regularly during the match, and we had minimal control. As it was, the goals we conceded were down to our mistakes rather than good play from them. Tightening up on corners and being more switched on in transitions is stuff that can be easily coached. Overall a lot more positive about our trajectory then I was going into the match. If we have the same level of performance against Chelsea we should win quite comfortably.

 

[mil1lion]

Well hopefully he’s watching the Kane Jude derby right now to pick up some tips because two champions league semi finalists can’t possibly use a zonal marking system at corners, can they? Trix told me it was dead.

I said the other day I'm sure other teams use it. I also don't think it's even a full zonal system as we do also have some markers. It's definitely a problem but I think it's just in need of a bit of a tweek. I still personally believe the players need to do better as well. Get Richarlison starting and helping out for starters. Makes me miss Dawson all this set piece talk.