Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[Albertbarich]

To add a point I forgot to make to the last post

I’ve been thinking how our players would massively suit a 352. The only player in the squad it would hurt is Odabert.

Sure we would need more centre backs but it suits every single player, even allowing Sonny and Johnson to play as second strikers which lets them be pure finishers.

Makes me wonder just how many players were brought for Conte and Ange is just now getting some scraps., but that sounds more negative than I mean the post to be.

I reckon Inzhagi would love our team, it would suit his style perfectly. I’m aware he wouldn’t come here in a billion years by the way.

 

[philll]

 

[Gilzeanking]

It is a transition season but it's arse about face. How many transitional seasons have you witnessed where you get results against the best teams and fail against the lesser teams? Again it's context that is key here, and our season thus far makes no sense whatsoever even if you were expecting it to be a rollercoaster as far as consistency was concerned.

I'm like a broken record saying this again, but there actually IS complete sense in our results. They are only baffling if you solely concentrate analysis on Spurs.

Teams that rough us up, press fiercely and show urgency/energy always do better against us. City gave us space, Palace didn't. How is this so totally beyond people's comprehension that we lost one and won the other ? Teams lower in the league must be energetic to compensate for the lack of expensive technical players, therefore we find them difficult to beat as they have to be intense to survive.

We are a team who must have space to play or we lose interest/get scared of losing the ball to energetic presses and turn in flat performances.

So a quick solution to this bafflement here. Stop assessing opposition with reference to their table position and start looking at what they do on the field before deciding who we should be beating.

 

[tevezito]

I'm like a broken record saying this again, but there actually IS complete sense in our results. They are only baffling if you solely concentrate analysis on Spurs.

Teams that rough us up, press fiercely and show urgency/energy always do better against us. City gave us space, Palace didn't. How is this so totally beyond people's comprehension that we lost one and won the other ? Teams lower in the league must be energetic to compensate for the lack of expensive technical players, therefore we find them difficult to beat as they have to be intense to survive.

We are a team who must have space to play or we lose interest/get scared of losing the ball to energetic presses and turn in flat performances.

So a quick solution to this bafflement here. Stop assessing opposition with reference to their table position and start looking at what they do on the field before deciding who we should be beating.

And they can be energetic because they didn't play in the previous few days in Europe. I wonder how we'd be doing if the fixutre computer had matched us up against other teams in Europe on Sundays after Europa league games, instead of week-rested teams battling for their Premier league livelihoods.

 

[mil1lion]

We clearly suffer playing teams with a full week rest where we have a Thursday night game. It's OK though because we also have a league game selected for Thursday and our League Cup game is Thursday too. Gotta love it. The only team we've done well against post Europe was Utd who are also in Europa.

 

[bubble07]

He made it clear he needs to strengthen front 3rd over next 2 windows

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

The only way to know if Lankshear could make a difference is to give him a run of meaningless minutes. Otherwise, why bother with the youth team? No point in thinking players are good enough if they don't get a chance

Agree and a start in an important home match against Fulham isn’t ’meaningless minutes’ whereas a start against a lesser side in a cup or in a very hard away fixture in the EL which we kind of wrote off with a ton of rotation are perfect times to play him.

I think Ange is managing him and Moore really well

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I'm like a broken record saying this again, but there actually IS complete sense in our results. They are only baffling if you solely concentrate analysis on Spurs.

Teams that rough us up, press fiercely and show urgency/energy always do better against us. City gave us space, Palace didn't. How is this so totally beyond people's comprehension that we lost one and won the other ? Teams lower in the league must be energetic to compensate for the lack of expensive technical players, therefore we find them difficult to beat as they have to be intense to survive.

We are a team who must have space to play or we lose interest/get scared of losing the ball to energetic presses and turn in flat performances.

So a quick solution to this bafflement here. Stop assessing opposition with reference to their table position and start looking at what they do on the field before deciding who we should be beating.

Fantastic post

 

[kd2000]

I enjoyed his thoughts on building the squad and the transition between age groups. It was a little reassuring that there is a lot of thought (a plan if you will) in relation to the direction of the club and in particular signing young players.

I know many think we should just be signing ready made players who can perform at a high level now but these same people also complain when we dont sign the younger players that the likes of Brighton do. Unfortunately we are never going to do both, not under the current stewardship anyway

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

He made it clear he needs to strengthen front 3rd over next 2 windows

Did he say that today ? I hope he did.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I enjoyed his thoughts on building the squad and the transition between age groups. It was a little reassuring that there is a lot of thought (a plan if you will) in relation to the direction of the club and in particular signing young players.

I know many think we should just be signing ready made players who can perform at a high level now but these same people also complain when we dont sign the younger players that the likes of Brighton do. Unfortunately we are never going to do both, not under the current stewardship anyway

A mix is fine, we just went too hard towards the 18-21 player range this summer and the first XI and quality depth around that is suffering now as a result.

 

[TOLBINY]

Why not ? I thought the stadium would allow us to compete with clubs at that financial level?
I could dig out the quotes but we all know what was said.

We clearly suffer playing teams with a full week rest where we have a Thursday night game. It's OK though because we also have a league game selected for Thursday and our League Cup game is Thursday too. Gotta love it. The only team we've done well against post Europe was Utd who are also in Europa.

What was our excuse last season for poor results when we had a full weeks rest?

 

[TOLBINY]

I'm like a broken record saying this again, but there actually IS complete sense in our results. They are only baffling if you solely concentrate analysis on Spurs.

Teams that rough us up, press fiercely and show urgency/energy always do better against us. City gave us space, Palace didn't. How is this so totally beyond people's comprehension that we lost one and won the other ? Teams lower in the league must be energetic to compensate for the lack of expensive technical players, therefore we find them difficult to beat as they have to be intense to survive.

We are a team who must have space to play or we lose interest/get scared of losing the ball to energetic presses and turn in flat performances.

So a quick solution to this bafflement here. Stop assessing opposition with reference to their table position and start looking at what they do on the field before deciding who we should be beating.

So are you saying we should not expect to be beating teams like Leicester, Ipswich, Fulham because of the way they play?

 

[mil1lion]

What was our excuse last season for poor results when we had a full weeks rest?

We finished 5th post Kane which is about the right position with the players we had. So no excuses necessary as far as I'm concerned. We will be inconsistent with this squad regardless. I'm just saying that it's proving even more difficult this season with the extra European games. Not that there are not other issues which were present last season. We should expect that though. 5th without European football and 1 senior signing wasn't going to change that.

 

[cliff jones]

And they can be energetic because they didn't play in the previous few days in Europe. I wonder how we'd be doing if the fixutre computer had matched us up against other teams in Europe on Sundays after Europa league games, instead of week-rested teams battling for their Premier league livelihoods.

Europe is of course a challenge but it is for all successful teams. Levy gave Ange a squad that isn't deep enough to compete across all comps. The moment we run into difficult fixtures in it we tank, and generally on Sundays afterwards.

It's not just energy though, it's physicality. Kulu for example was kicked up by Palace, and lost his focus. Son ain't for the trenches, nor Werner, nor BJ. Maddison? Nope. Pedro? Playing a technical game, against a nice high line, they love it.

Lerma or Will Hughes coming through the back of you (ooer) every five mins, don't fancy that, ref- ref?

 

[TOLBINY]

We finished 5th post Kane which is about the right position with the players we had. So no excuses necessary as far as I'm concerned. We will be inconsistent with this squad regardless. I'm just saying that it's proving even more difficult this season with the extra European games. Not that there are not other issues which were present last season. We should expect that though. 5th without European football and 1 senior signing wasn't going to change that.

But your post was not about where we finished last season or the fact we, like every team we played last season and this (friendly v BM aside), don't have Kane, it states "We clearly suffer playing teams with a full week rest where we have a Thursday night game". This suggests you are proffering Thursday night football as an excuse / reason for some of our poor results.

So last season, where we did not have Thursday night games but had a poor result at the weekend, sometimes against teams who did have a mid week game, what, as my original post asked, was the excuse / reason for those poor results?

 

[Ghost Hardware]

He made it clear he needs to strengthen front 3rd over next 2 windows

He seemed pretty clear about it which is encouraging I just really hope Lange and Ange get their targets right. I am still yet to be sold on Lange.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

Did he say that today ? I hope he did.

Yeah he did. He was asked about Richy being injured and if that would make us look for another striker and he replied saying we need to strengthen the front 3rd over the next two windows. Here's hoping

 

[mil1lion]

But your post was not about where we finished last season or the fact we, like every team we played last season and this (friendly v BM aside), don't have Kane, it states "We clearly suffer playing teams with a full week rest where we have a Thursday night game". This suggests you are proffering Thursday night football as an excuse / reason for some of our poor results.

So last season, where we did not have Thursday night games but had a poor result at the weekend, sometimes against teams who did have a mid week game, what, as my original post asked, was the excuse / reason for those poor results?

Sorry but that's just your weird interpretation of what I said. Why is it an excuse? All I said was we suffer after those games which the results clearly show we do. That isn't an excuse is it? It's just a general statement.

 

[TOLBINY]

Sorry but that's just your weird interpretation of what I said. Why is it an excuse? All I said was we suffer after those games which the results clearly show we do. That isn't an excuse is it? It's just a general statement.

You highlighted us playing Thursdays and then getting poor results at the weekend against teams who have had a full week to prepare. My interpretation was that you were inferring there is a correlation. Is that interpretation incorrect?