Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[bbunc]

It’s such a weak squad

It really is shocking. I don’t think a single one of our attackers (maybe oustide Deki) would be anything but a deep rotation / mop up sub on any other top team. We need two top wingers and a top #10 asap. You know, the exact same thing we needed going into last summer.

Johnson, Werner, Son (where he is now) and Maddison simply are not top level players. Not even close.

Solanke I think does work as a workhorse 9 as long as he’s surrounded by top quality (ie he could be Firminho if we had Salah / Mane) but he needs another player to rotate with. He can’t press like a maniac 180 mins per week.

Our midfield is nowhere near good enough. Biss simply is not consistent enough to be a top tier 6, it’s not Bentacurs best position either. Sarr can run for days but is technically still very poor and we have no backup for him. He should be a deep depth option, not anywhere near the starting lineup.

We ask Porro and Udogie to do way too much with no rotation.

We have two good but extremely injury prone CBs. We need at least 2 more quality CBs.

and we play in a single style of play that is completely reliant on the positions we have the least depth and least quality in.

our 9 foot 7 40 year old backup GK just stood there while the opponent got a free header on a back post corner 3 feet away from him.

bottom line, we should be looking to upgrade every single starter and every single player on the roster. There is nobody that is even close to good enough to make it hard to upgrade.

hallelujah holy shit where’s the Tylenol

 

[snakehipsspurs]

The full quote this question is really interesting, and shows the long term perspective Ange has. He's willing to sacrific short term for the future benefit of the club. When have we ever had a manager in recent times, bar early Poch maybe, who was willing to stake their reputation and short term success for the benefit of the club?

And some people want to abuse him or call him a fraud. It just makes me sad tbh...

 

[mil1lion]

In other words we have to be prepared for another few years of this. I don't agree with not signing experience. We need leaders for the youth to develop alongside.

 

[HildoSpur]

It really is shocking. I don’t think a single one of our attackers (maybe oustide Deki) would be anything but a deep rotation / mop up sub on any other top team. We need two top wingers and a top #10 asap. You know, the exact same thing we needed going into last summer.

Johnson, Werner, Son (where he is now) and Maddison simply are not top level players. Not even close.

Solanke I think does work as a workhorse 9 as long as he’s surrounded by top quality (ie he could be Firminho if we had Salah / Mane) but he needs another player to rotate with. He can’t press like a maniac 180 mins per week.

Our midfield is nowhere near good enough. Biss simply is not consistent enough to be a top tier 6, it’s not Bentacurs best position either. Sarr can run for days but is technically still very poor and we have no backup for him. He should be a deep depth option, not anywhere near the starting lineup.

We ask Porro and Udogie to do way too much with no rotation.

We have two good but extremely injury prone CBs. We need at least 2 more quality CBs.

and we play in a single style of play that is completely reliant on the positions we have the least depth and least quality in.

our 9 foot 7 40 year old backup GK just stood there while the opponent got a free header on a back post corner 3 feet away from him.

bottom line, we should be looking to upgrade every single starter and every single player on the roster. There is nobody that is even close to good enough to make it hard to upgrade.

hallelujah holy shit where’s the Tylenol

This isn't football manager.

 

[Scot-Spur]

At the end of the day we need to stick by him, is he the right man for the job, who knows. We have started to rebuild but it takes time. The next few windows will be telling for me, we have a foundation but we need to kick on with the caliber of players we bring through the door.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

I said I would give him till the end of next season and then we can properly assess.

Feels right to me - though I’m starting to fear the worst. I like Ange a lot and really hope he succeeds. But he just doesn’t seem to be getting a tune out of these players

I’d question Lange too, albeit I recognise it’s very early to judge

 

[HildoSpur]

In other words we have to be prepared for another few years of this. I don't agree with not signing experience. We need leaders for the youth to develop alongside.

We are in for another few years of this whether Ange stays or goes - the squad needs huge work and it's going to take 4 or 5 windows.

 

[mil1lion]

We are in for another few years of this whether Ange stays or goes - the squad needs huge work and it's going to take 4 or 5 windows.

We've been saying we need x amount of windows forever though

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

The full quote this question is really interesting, and shows the long term perspective Ange has. He's willing to sacrific short term for the future benefit of the club. When have we ever had a manager in recent times, bar early Poch maybe, who was willing to stake their reputation and short term success for the benefit of the club?

And some people want to abuse him or call him a fraud. It just makes me sad tbh...

Love the quotes and his belief and passion but if he truely pushed us in that direction and/or willingly accepted it then he is part of the problem as there has to be a balance of young talented players and ready made players, we signed too many young ‘talented’ ones, who by the way may or may develop into world beaters, we just don’t know.

Also if Ange signed off or pushed for Werner, Johnson etc then his influence on the recruitment is a problem for us.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

We are in for another few years of this whether Ange stays or goes - the squad needs huge work and it's going to take 4 or 5 windows.

Unfortunately agree but it’s tiring as is been like that for ages.

It could be fixed in 2 really good solid windows but the way we purchase players it’ll take 4-6 more windows and by then it’ll be too late as Son will be gone, Romero likely gone etc etc etc and we will continue just chasing our tail.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

We've been saying we need x amount of windows forever though

Probably because when we say it, at some point after we change managers and the whole sorry process starts again.

 

[felmani26]

The full quote this question is really interesting, and shows the long term perspective Ange has. He's willing to sacrific short term for the future benefit of the club. When have we ever had a manager in recent times, bar early Poch maybe, who was willing to stake their reputation and short term success for the benefit of the club?

And some people want to abuse him or call him a fraud. It just makes me sad tbh...

Yes, I was trying to inbed the full quotes for context as opposed to paraphrasing to suit a narrative.

I agree with you and he's always been refreshingly honesty in this regard and whilst I understand where he's coming from regarding an injection of youth to mold into a squad of his image, I do think it was naive and short sighted to ignore signing bona fide 1st teamers.

The balance between youth and experience was wholly wrong this summer even if the profile of player was largely correct.

 

[danielneeds]

10th and winning the Europa League won't be so bad

In fact this is what many of the celebrated sides of the past did. 81 FA Cup winners, 10th. 84 Uefa Cup winners, 8th. 91 FA Cup winners, 10th….

There’s something to be said for putting the entire squad’s focus
on a cup run.

 

[HildoSpur]

We've been saying we need x amount of windows forever though

We have yes but normally we are only looking for one or two players to finish off the squad. At the moment we are looking to replace and upgrade probably half of our first team. This is the start of a total rebuild of the squad.

 

[Mannnos]

Some thoughts after watching last night.

We can't defend set pieces.
We're no threat from offensive set pieces.
Most of the goals we concede are caused by individual errors.
Our opponent always has the option to switch the play wide, where there is always a player in acres of space.
Our injury record is absolutely dreadful.

All of these things are down to coaching.

I really wanted to get behind Ange and stay there and see it through with him, as passing the buck onto another manager solves nothing. We know where the real problem lies but there's nothing we can do about that. I only see this ending one way now.

We are 3rd best in goals conceded in the league
We are 4th best in goals scored in the league
Arsenal & Man Utd have conceded more goals off set pieces & Aston Villa the same
We are 5th in attacking set pieces goals scored, just 1 less than arsenal.

All of these things are down to coaching

 

[mil1lion]

Love the quotes and his belief and passion but if he truely pushed us in that direction and/or willingly accepted it then he is part of the problem as there has to be a balance of young talented players and ready made players, we signed too many young ‘talented’ ones, who by the way may or may develop into world beaters, we just don’t know.

Also if Ange signed off or pushed for Werner, Johnson etc then his influence on the recruitment is a problem for us.

This is the thing. We had a rebuild under Poch but we had experience when he came in. We also signed Alderweireld and Wanyama for him. We just needed the sort of young signings we've made now about 2-3 years into his time. We wasn't close then either and we sold Bale just like we had sold Kane. Like you say we got Werner, we also got Solanke in his late 20s. We've kept Forster and Davies (not saying that's a bad thing). It just doesn't add up fully.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Probably because when we say it, at some point after we change managers and the whole sorry process starts again.

You still all in on wanting us to stick this one out with the big Aussie chief?

We have to right! But he does need to tighten us up a bit as we give up too many big chances.

 

[k1cks77]

I love the guy as a person, straight talking and he has charisma. After having two self centred ego’s in mourinho and conte who always felt to me had their own interests above the clubs, its great to see a manager who is thinking of the club first.

When we are good, we look incredible and results show we can genuinely beat anybody on their day. But when we are bad, we look diabolical and could concede 5 goals in some matches. I dont see any point in changing mid season and I would want him to have till the end of the season to see if he can get the balance and consistency right, but all i really hope is that he turns this around.

 

[mil1lion]

We have yes but normally we are only looking for one or two players to finish off the squad. At the moment we are looking to replace and upgrade probably half of our first team. This is the start of a total rebuild of the squad.

When was the last time we just needed 1 or 2? Probably a short time under Poch you could say that. Trouble is when people say just a few signings finish the squad, it's elite players that we never sign. So that's why it's always an endless cycle of needing more players because we replace not good enough with not good enough. This process could work in a few years if they develop into elite players so we'll see. It's a big gamble though.

 

[mil1lion]

Probably because when we say it, at some point after we change managers and the whole sorry process starts again.

The process shouldn't start again though. If you sign top players they won't need replacing regardless of manager. Most of the Poch best team was here before he came. He just added a few more like Alderweireld and Wanyama.