Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[dontcallme]

Ange has a clear style of playing and is trying to implement it. It's hard to do this in the first few seasons as the manager will never have a squad of players that suit that style.

I get people asking for flexibility but I'm fine with him trying to drill in his playing style.

There is always frustration in this early stages and things like being bad at defensive set-pieces always happens.

My biggest frustration right now is playing a few players who clearly aren't performing. Maddison and Bissouma coming off the bench would be great but they shouldn't be starting right now over Hojbjerg and Lo Celso.

 

[dontcallme]

How many project managers have had success in the Prem? Sir Alex, Klopp, Arteta are often cited as examples of why we should be patient with Ange, give him two or three seasons (which by the way I have posted he should get as long as we are not in freefall and at risk of relegation) but for the life of me I cannot understand why the same did not apply when it comes to Conte. Yes the football wasn't great at times, it hasn't always been as good as some have made out under Ange, so if you are going for a longer term project why not stick with a man who knows what it takes to win the Prem? Conte asked for time and patience a few days before his last game - does that sound like a bloke who doesn't want to be here or does it sound like a bloke who recognises this is a longer term project?

This post is not a dig at you or your views or a dig at Ange, but what is it in Ange's CV that leads people to believe he is a good choice as a longer term project manger for a club that is aiming to challenge for Prem titles? He doesn't seem to stay anywhere that long at club level, he is 58 years of age (older than Conte) with no previous experience at this level, let alone success?

1996–2000 South Melbourne
2000–2005 Australia U17
2005–2007 Australia U20
2008 Panachaiki
2009 Whittlesea Zebras
2009–2012 Brisbane Roar
2012–2013 Melbourne Victory
2013–2017 Australia
2018–2021 Yokohama F. Marinos
2021–2023 Celtic

You going on about Conte all the time is beyond tiring and much of what you say is simply wrong.

Most here were extremely excited by his hiring and we wanted to give him time until he made it clear he wasn't here for the long term. Why we would give time and patience to a manager looking to leave is beyond me.

 

[GutBucket]

I'm perfectly happy with him and there was nobody better who was available anyway. Maybe Amorim but we'll see how he does at Liverpool, it could be a similar story if Salah leaves. Like others have said, I wish he would drop unperforming players, he had no problems dropping Kulusevski and Richarlison but Maddison and Bissouma are too often exceptions. And he needs a better set piece coach plus most teams seem to be better at pressing or moving when they are out of possession. But he can't teach them everything in one season. I am glad that Bergvall will have him as a coach next year, he seems to be good at improving youngsters.

 

[Shanks]

How many project managers have had success in the Prem? Sir Alex, Klopp, Arteta are often cited as examples of why we should be patient with Ange, give him two or three seasons (which by the way I have posted he should get as long as we are not in freefall and at risk of relegation) but for the life of me I cannot understand why the same did not apply when it comes to Conte. Yes the football wasn't great at times, it hasn't always been as good as some have made out under Ange, so if you are going for a longer term project why not stick with a man who knows what it takes to win the Prem? Conte asked for time and patience a few days before his last game - does that sound like a bloke who doesn't want to be here or does it sound like a bloke who recognises this is a longer term project?

This post is not a dig at you or your views or a dig at Ange, but what is it in Ange's CV that leads people to believe he is a good choice as a longer term project manger for a club that is aiming to challenge for Prem titles? He doesn't seem to stay anywhere that long at club level, he is 58 years of age (older than Conte) with no previous experience at this level, let alone success?

1996–2000 South Melbourne
2000–2005 Australia U17
2005–2007 Australia U20
2008 Panachaiki
2009 Whittlesea Zebras
2009–2012 Brisbane Roar
2012–2013 Melbourne Victory
2013–2017 Australia
2018–2021 Yokohama F. Marinos
2021–2023 Celtic

Only an opinion RE conte, but i suspect it more thst conte didnt want a projecr, just wantes to buy shit load of top players, win something quick and move on, not specifically for the future but the here and now, plus conte's style of football is and was tedious as fuck.

Which you can accept if you win, but when losing, it was awful.

 

[Styopa]

Agree that Ange seems to be using too many players who are out form, like Bissouma and Maddison, and when they are not playing well the whole system falters.

I think you can get away with someone like Werner or Johnson floating in and out of the game a bit, but we can’t afford not to control the midfield. Because when we’re not in control of the midfield we are too easy to play through and we don’t assert ourselves on games like we should.

At the start of the season Bissouma and Maddison were arguably our best players and we dominated teams. I think the biggest single difference between then and now is their loss of form. If those two are playing as well, we are a totally different proposition.

 

[Whazam]

Another week watching Maddison struggle and Ange bringing on an out of form Kulu. For the life of me I don’t get his confidence in these two and his reluctance to give GLC any meaningful minutes. He looks like our only midfielder that has the ability to see passes and move the ball quickly and accurately, that front three of ours need quicker releases not the laboured build up we’re seeing. Ange talks about bravery but his team selections can be a bit safe and predictable. Time Madds Biss, and Kulu got the real message that what they’re serving up isn’t good enough, and that means bench time.

Your takes on Kulusevski are so odd, man.

The other week you accused him of "lumbering around" (the only thing he couldn't be accused of then) and just before this post you complained about the lack of movement among the front three – which became significantly better with Deki.

The agenda line is boring, BUT many of your otherwise great posts and points are hard to take seriously when you get stuck on your dislike for him. At least when you criticize him for things where he actually does good.

Edit: Sorry, just realized this is off topic for this thread.

 

[TOLBINY]

You going on about Conte all the time is beyond tiring and much of what you say is simply wrong.

Most here were extremely excited by his hiring and we wanted to give him time until he made it clear he wasn't here for the long term. Why we would give time and patience to a manager looking to leave is beyond me.

I was not aware he made it clear he did not want to be here and that he was looking to leave. I am aware of a press conference a few days prior to his last game where he asked for time and patience and to me at least that indicates he wanted time and patience not that he was looking to leave. Others appear to have interpreted his comments differently.

 

[Kirito]

This thread time traveled back to May 2023. Impressive!

You would have thought that being 5th in a transition season would be enough for most, but the mood feels like we’re sitting in the bottom half with no plan.

In reality it’s likely that a smart man like Ange already knows all of the issues and will seek to address them over time.

 

[talkshowhost86]

There are still some glaring gaps in the squad which, if we sort it out, will massively help Ange next season.

We need a striker.

We need better wide-man options.

We need more strength in depth in key areas such as full-back and attacking midfield.

And I don't even know what we need to do with the midfield. We have some good players in midfield but I'm not sure any of them are consistent enough to be the long term answer.

But Ange also needs to add some other strings to his bow.

He had absolutely no answers to the poor performance yesterday and that HAS to come from the manager.

I think 5th is all we can hope for this season and whilst that feels like a disappointment, it's fine considering what Ange took over.

But he needs to learn. This isn't Scotland and he doesn't have the best squad in the country by far. So that means he has to change the approach, if only sometimes.

 

[DannyNZ]

Your takes on Kulusevski are so odd, man.

The other week you accused him of "lumbering around" (the only thing he couldn't be accused of then) and just before this post you complained about the lack of movement among the front three – which became significantly better with Deki.

The agenda line is boring, BUT many of your otherwise great posts and points are hard to take seriously when you get stuck on your dislike for him. At least when you criticize him for things where he actually does good.

Edit: Sorry, just realized this is off topic for this thread.

I don’t dislike him at all, I just feel he is getting a bit of a free ride and has been badly out of form for sometime. I do have an irrational view that GLC is not getting anything like the game time his cameos have warranted and what seems a much better fit Tactically. Sorry to bore you.

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

I’ve already defended Ange and said that we need to have patience so I’m going to post the tactical areas I feel we are really struggling and what we need to do to improve them imo, both through new personnel and tweaks to our tactics.

1. Set Pieces. Simply put we are shocking on them, especially defensively. Part of the problem comes from the fact we simply don’t have any true aerial beasts in our team. Romero is ok but not amazing and VdV, despite his height is actually poor in the air.

To improve here we need VdV to develop this part of his game significantly, we need more coaching on set pieces and we need Vicario to become much more aggressive dealing with them.

Finally we could improve here by adding an aerially strong striker to our team along with an aerially strong 6.

2. Attacking Play. This is a mix of improving our movement in the final third but very importantly improving our personnel. Simply put we don’t have enough technical ability and connectivity in the attacking 3.

We need a striker who can link play more consistently and wide players who combine pace with technical ability, 1v1 skill and combination play.

Currently our attack fails to sustain attacks long enough which leads to regular counter attacks against us. With a better profiled attack we can sustain attacks longer and minimise the amount of counters we face.

3. Rest Defence. We currently build up in a 2-3 shape. At times this really allows us to dominate opponents but more and more teams are starting to exploit the 2 and counter us in the space too easily.

Now as a team who want to play front foot football and dominate possession, we are always going to be open to counter attacks. That’s just the way it is for top teams. Look at City, Scum, Pool etc, they concede chances on the counter. We concede too many though and need to control it better.

We have two ways of improving this. Firstly we need to add a number 6 who is a huge defensive presence on the pitch, who covers a lot of ground, reads the game proactively defensively but who also still has good ability in build up play. This position will make a massive difference to us.

Secondly I really think Ange needs to tweak the shape, certainly for at least some games, to a 3-2 rest defence. This could either be one of Udogie or Porro inverting to midfield while the other forms a back 3 with Romero and VdV. Alternatively the 6 would drop in to the middle of Romero and VdV and the fullbacks would both invert to midfield, with 2 from either of them or the 8s becoming the shield for the 3 man defence.

These are things that can be done both with coaching, tweaks and adding new personnel. I think all of this is achievable for next season once the players have fully bought in to Ange philosophy this season.

If we make these changes, added to our current way of playing, I think it will see us improve significantly. I see no reason Ange can’t work on this over the summer for next season.

 

[dontcallme]

I don’t dislike him at all, I just feel he is getting a bit of a free ride and has been badly out of form for sometime. I do have an irrational view that GLC is not getting anything like the game time his cameos have warranted and what seems a much better fit Tactically. Sorry to bore you.

Free ride? The manager has dropped him in several games and his poor form gets mentioned all the time on the forum.

 

[PLTuck]

Considering some on here were predicting relegation when Kane left its been a pretty stellar season tbh.

Even the more sane folks who were saying 8th - 10th should be over the moon with tied for 4th with 5 left to play?

 

[dontcallme]

Considering some on here were predicting relegation when Kane left its been a pretty stellar season tbh.

Even the more sane folks who were saying 8th - 10th should be over the moon with tied for 4th with 5 left to play?

If there were 5 games to go we'd all be over the moon and confident.

But there's 6, we're fucked.

 

[greaves]

I’ve already defended Ange and said that we need to have patience so I’m going to post the tactical areas I feel we are really struggling and what we need to do to improve them imo, both through new personnel and tweaks to our tactics.

1. Set Pieces. Simply put we are shocking on them, especially defensively. Part of the problem comes from the fact we simply don’t have any true aerial beasts in our team. Romero is ok but not amazing and VdV, despite his height is actually poor in the air.

To improve here we need VdV to develop this part of his game significantly, we need more coaching on set pieces and we need Vicario to become much more aggressive dealing with them.

Finally we could improve here by adding an aerially strong striker to our team along with an aerially strong 6.

2. Attacking Play. This is a mix of improving our movement in the final third but very importantly improving our personnel. Simply put we don’t have enough technical ability and connectivity in the attacking 3.

We need a striker who can link play more consistently and wide players who combine pace with technical ability, 1v1 skill and combination play.

Currently our attack fails to sustain attacks long enough which leads to regular counter attacks against us. With a better profiled attack we can sustain attacks longer and minimise the amount of counters we face.

3. Rest Defence. We currently build up in a 2-3 shape. At times this really allows us to dominate opponents but more and more teams are starting to exploit the 2 and counter us in the space too easily.

Now as a team who want to play front foot football and dominate possession, we are always going to be open to counter attacks. That’s just the way it is for top teams. Look at City, Scum, Pool etc, they concede chances on the counter. We concede too many though and need to control it better.

We have two ways of improving this. Firstly we need to add a number 6 who is a huge defensive presence on the pitch, who covers a lot of ground, reads the game proactively defensively but who also still has good ability in build up play. This position will make a massive difference to us.

Secondly I really think Ange needs to tweak the shape, certainly for at least some games, to a 3-2 rest defence. This could either be one of Udogie or Porro inverting to midfield while the other forms a back 3 with Romero and VdV. Alternatively the 6 would drop in to the middle of Romero and VdV and the fullbacks would both invert to midfield, with 2 from either of them or the 8s becoming the shield for the 3 man defence.

These are things that can be done both with coaching, tweaks and adding new personnel. I think all of this is achievable for next season once the players have fully bought in to Ange philosophy this season.

If we make these changes, added to our current way of playing, I think it will see us improve significantly. I see no reason Ange can’t work on this over the summer for next season.

A positive, thoughtful and sensible post. Thank you!

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Considering some on here were predicting relegation when Kane left its been a pretty stellar season tbh.

Even the more sane folks who were saying 8th - 10th should be over the moon with tied for 4th with 5 left to play?

A plurality of voters on this forum predicted 4th in the poll we had.

I have seen no one on here saying we would get relegated.

 

[Styopa]

A plurality of voters on this forum predicted 4th in the poll we had.

I have seen no one on here saying we would get relegated.

Yeah but in fairness I think most people voted before we sold Kane, which was the weekend of the start of the season.

Last season lots of people made dramatic comments about us being in a relegation scrap if it weren’t for a Kane.

 

[thebenjamin]

Yep, so much so we’re now resorting to taking short corners every time. Painful

I think we are somewhat hampered by the fact we are a generally lightweight side with no one who wants to head the ball. Romero is half decent in the air, VDV is actively poor for such a big guy, we don't have a big centre forward to come back... There really ain't anyone to put their head on it

 

[PLTuck]

A plurality of voters on this forum predicted 4th in the poll we had.

I have seen no one on here saying we would get relegated.

"If Kane leaves we'll be in a relegation fight next season" was a pretty common theme on here.

Personally I thought anything from 4th-8th so I'm pretty happy overall. Yesterday was really horrible though.

And yes, better set pieces and a bit of flexibility is needed from the manager. I'm sure he knows this.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

I’ve already defended Ange and said that we need to have patience so I’m going to post the tactical areas I feel we are really struggling and what we need to do to improve them imo, both through new personnel and tweaks to our tactics.

1. Set Pieces. Simply put we are shocking on them, especially defensively. Part of the problem comes from the fact we simply don’t have any true aerial beasts in our team. Romero is ok but not amazing and VdV, despite his height is actually poor in the air.

To improve here we need VdV to develop this part of his game significantly, we need more coaching on set pieces and we need Vicario to become much more aggressive dealing with them.

Finally we could improve here by adding an aerially strong striker to our team along with an aerially strong 6.

2. Attacking Play. This is a mix of improving our movement in the final third but very importantly improving our personnel. Simply put we don’t have enough technical ability and connectivity in the attacking 3.

We need a striker who can link play more consistently and wide players who combine pace with technical ability, 1v1 skill and combination play.

Currently our attack fails to sustain attacks long enough which leads to regular counter attacks against us. With a better profiled attack we can sustain attacks longer and minimise the amount of counters we face.

3. Rest Defence. We currently build up in a 2-3 shape. At times this really allows us to dominate opponents but more and more teams are starting to exploit the 2 and counter us in the space too easily.

Now as a team who want to play front foot football and dominate possession, we are always going to be open to counter attacks. That’s just the way it is for top teams. Look at City, Scum, Pool etc, they concede chances on the counter. We concede too many though and need to control it better.

We have two ways of improving this. Firstly we need to add a number 6 who is a huge defensive presence on the pitch, who covers a lot of ground, reads the game proactively defensively but who also still has good ability in build up play. This position will make a massive difference to us.

Secondly I really think Ange needs to tweak the shape, certainly for at least some games, to a 3-2 rest defence. This could either be one of Udogie or Porro inverting to midfield while the other forms a back 3 with Romero and VdV. Alternatively the 6 would drop in to the middle of Romero and VdV and the fullbacks would both invert to midfield, with 2 from either of them or the 8s becoming the shield for the 3 man defence.

These are things that can be done both with coaching, tweaks and adding new personnel. I think all of this is achievable for next season once the players have fully bought in to Ange philosophy this season.

If we make these changes, added to our current way of playing, I think it will see us improve significantly. I see no reason Ange can’t work on this over the summer for next season.

We werent always shocking defending corners. It was almost Xmas when we conceded our first v Everton at home. It seems to have started from the City cup game when they bullied Vicario.
So why can’t we cope. Over to you, Ryan.