• The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...

    Get involved!

Manager Ange Postecoglou

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports


View: https://x.com/hbrooks_coach/status/1836188641569444250?s=46&t=fbqxNuG9CT4qTaiJx8mBjg

There’s a lot of truth to what Harry said here and it’s not just fans, it’s the way he’s being reported in the media as well. The way quotes are spun and the way questions are phrased to appeal to the mentality Harry is describing.

There are people who don’t want to believe success outside Europe can translate.


But he’s uhhh like proving it doesn’t translate, people don’t need to cope or make stuff up to show that, the proof is in the pudding.
 
But he’s uhhh like proving it doesn’t translate, people don’t need to cope or make stuff up to show that, the proof is in the pudding.
Not really mate.

People are deciding it’s proven before it is because they need to be right to justify their own insecurities. That’s point of the tweet.

And they lean towards anything negative they can because it gets them closer to being proven right.
 
For other manager I would say he needs to reinvient himself and work on other tactics. But he only has one tactic, so we should sack him.
Well he had all summer to evaluate last seasons performances in between his punditry. Surely they would analyse games to see what went wrong what could be better and so on? However it looks he’s done nothing really different. I mean it is on him alone if he is unwilling to even contemplate that may be things could be done differently.
 
THEY HAD NO MIDFIELD.

We did exactly what they wanted because they know we’re piss weak from set pieces. Keep it tight, hold us at arms length and win it without having much quality or trying that hard.

At home. With a fully fit lineup.

Clown world to justify this.
Some people just don’t get it. Arteta used his loaf. Why go all out and get your players knackered when they don’t need to do anything out of this world to win. They have confidence in their defence to see it through.
 
Nah I’m sorry, I love him

“To sit down and write something abusive anonymously… say it in front of me, you’ll get a punch on the nose, you won’t do it again, mate. But they won’t do that. They’ll hide behind this…”

He talks a lot of sense here and he’s right about the prats who go online and abuse footballers - which is pointless anyway as they don’t do their own social media nowadays so aren’t reading it.

Whether you think BJ is a good enough player to improve us and Ange is the man to take us forward are two separate issues. Reasoned discussion of those issues shouldn’t be off the table.
 
You can't take the end of last year into account for this season imo - its stupid. Thats like saying we won two league titles under Poch because over a two year period we were statistically the best team in the country.
We have ditched about ten players, brought in youth for the future and not properly backed the manager with starting 11 ready attackers in the summer. All bets are off for me - give him the season, see how we do in the cups and then reevaluate next summer is the only sensible option at the moment.
What are some people expecting this squad to do this year and who would get them doing this?

Yes you can. You have to take the previous 30 games into account, it's crazy not to. It's a huge sample size which shows results have been poor for a long time.

Ange has made Romero, Maddison and Son his senior key players and all are having stinkers? Isn't that an indication to you or anyone else that Ange is failing? They aren't performing for him and he's made them undroppable.

Either Ange needs to grow a pair and drop them and mix things up, or they will continue to let him down. But the reality is its because of Ange that they aren't performing. Emery or Howe would get a better tune out of this squad, no doubt about it.

Son is passed it and useless on the left. Maddison is largely responsible for our useless chance creation, and Romero has cost us goals every game this season.

For me it's quite clear the project is falling apart. Ange's strategy for the squad has failed. Making Son captain was a disastrous decision, we now have a captain who is undroppable but at the same time one of our worst players. A ambitious club would have upgraded on Son and Johnson in the summer, it was obvious that Son's time was coming to an end, but no sign of a succession plan with a top replacement? Signing Odobert from Burnley as a punt is not it. And Werner on loan? lol jfc.
 
Last edited:
Yes you can. You have to take the previous 30 games into account, it's crazy not to. It's a huge sample size which shows results have been poor for a long time.
On the whole we have more of the ball and ARE defending better in these four games but the overall results are the same, awful return on points and playing only one way. He has to be more savvy with how we execute this dominance because it's so easy to play against. It's why we are only beating the worst teams in the league. This season and last.

We are not playing like we did in those first ten games, despite improvements. We have to get to that level or it'll be more of the same.
 
Nah I’m sorry, I love him

“To sit down and write something abusive anonymously… say it in front of me, you’ll get a punch on the nose, you won’t do it again, mate. But they won’t do that. They’ll hide behind this…”

Talks a great game at times

Shame he doesn't coach one
 
The problem we have currently is we are too slow to progress an attack from the middle third to the final third, allowing the opposition defence to get set in a low block. The wide players are a major factor in this as they slow the game down in two ways:

1. They stopped playing instinctive first time balls into the space behind their marker. Porro and Udogie often make the underlap run but rarely get that ball to chase. Son is particularly guilty of this. Watching goals from the first 10 games last season we did this in almost very attack. Richarlison was a more effective LW in Ange's system at the start of last season than Son is this.

2. When they have space to run into Son and Johnson often take a bad first touch and end up turning back. They need to aggressively attack the penalty area and be prepared to take their marker on in a 1-on-1.

It is also frustrating how poor (and few) our aerial crosses are, as Solanke (and Richarlison) will win a lot of headers in the box.

I would not mind experimenting with Porro as the RW and Gray at RB. I think it will make us stronger defensively, give us another 'big un' to defend set pieces (both Kulu and Johnson are very weak aerially compared to Gray) , whilst improving our right flank crossing.

Odobert has to play on the left when he plays as he is much better that side. No idea why we loaned Werner - I can only assume to give us depth of squad whilst Mikey Moore develops without blocking him. But seeing as we have Son and Odobert that side, I would have Mikey Moore ahead of Werner in the pecking order and end Werner's loan at the first opportunity.

Lastly, Kulusevski's emergence as a number 8 / 10 seems to have blocked Bergvall getting minutes. I would love to see Bergvall and Kulusevski play ahead of Bissouma and rest Maddison. Or play Maddison as one of the WFs (like he was often used to at Leicester and for England). Imagine Maddison and Son as impact subs?
 
Last edited:
You can't take the end of last year into account for this season imo - its stupid. Thats like saying we won two league titles under Poch because over a two year period we were statistically the best team in the country.
We have ditched about ten players, brought in youth for the future and not properly backed the manager with starting 11 ready attackers in the summer. All bets are off for me - give him the season, see how we do in the cups and then reevaluate next summer is the only sensible option at the moment.
What are some people expecting this squad to do this year and who would get them doing this?
Its pretty much the same team and certainly the same tactics so how we ended last season and our form in 2024 as a whole should very much be taken into concideration. If we had 4 or 5 new starters then maybe it would be easier to seperate the 2.

We've had 3 other managers under ENIC where poor form in the last third of the season bled into the next, Hoddle, Ramos and Poch. They lasted 6, 8 and 12 league games respectively. Thats a club legend, a bloke who won a trophy and our best manager in 40 years. Other than perhaps Ramos they werent sacked solely on a poor start to the season.
 
The problem we have currently is we are too slow to progress an attack from the middle third to the final third, allowing the opposition defence to get set in a low block. The wide players are a major factor in this as they slow the game down in two ways:

1. They stopped playing instinctive first time balls into the space behind their marker. Porro and Udogie often make the underlap run but never get that ball to chase. Watching goals from the first 10 games last season we did this in almost very attack.

2. When they have space to run into Son and Johnson often take a bad first touch and end up turning back. They need to aggressively attack the penalty area and be prepared to take their marker on in a 1-on-1.

It is also frustrating how poor (and few) our aerial crosses are, as Solanke (and Richarlison) will win a lot of headers in the box.

I would not mind experimenting with Porro as the RW and Gray at RB. I think it will make us stronger defensively, give us another 'big un' to defend set pieces (both Kulu and Johnson are very weak aerially compared to Gray) , whilst improving our right flank crossing.
Porro is better at everything Johnson is supposed to do.

And it's massively obvious that we don't play with the same intelligence and intensity as we did in those first 10 games. We scored all sorts of goals in those matches and were quickly with the transitions.

It's all very laboured now. If they did it before and now aren't you have to ask why. Because they don't want to or don't believe in it is the most pertinent.
 
On the whole we have more of the ball and ARE defending better in these four games but the overall results are the same, awful return on points and playing only one way. He has to be more savvy with how we execute this dominance because it's so easy to play against. It's why we are only beating the worst teams in the league. This season and last.

We are not playing like we did in those first ten games, despite improvements. We have to get to that level or it'll be more of the same.

The problem is when we play well and still lose, alarm bells start ringing. I know we can say well playing badly and winning is also concerning,, and yes because if performances are good, results should follow and vice versa. However at least winning whilst playing poorly buys you time. If results don't come soon, Ange will be out of a job and rightly so.

To me it's really worrying that whilst we played reasonably well against Newcastle, Leicester and Woolwich, we still got nothing. Well 1 point. It points to a naivety which I've seen under Ange's whole time here. Teams don't have to play well to beat us.

As you say we are still miles away from the fluency of those first 10 games which is looking much less to do with Ange, and alot more to do with a post manager bounce after Conte.
 
The problem is when we play well and still lose, alarm bells start ringing. I know we can say well playing badly and winning is also concerning,, and yes because if performances are good, results should follow and vice versa. However at least winning whilst playing poorly buys you time. If results don't come soon, Ange will be out of a job and rightly so.

To me it's really worrying that whilst we played reasonably well against Newcastle, Leicester and Woolwich, we still got nothing. Well 1 point. It points to a naivety which I've seen under Ange's whole time here. Teams don't have to play well to beat us.

As you say we are still miles away from the fluency of those first 10 games which is looking much less to do with Ange, and alot more to do with a post manager bounce after Conte.
And this is my concern. We were levels above in those games, although we did have elements of riding our luck. We had a determination that's not been seen since, with late winners, bravery, variety in chances etc. we are going through the motions. Was it just a new manager bounce, or is that the true us but the players don't try hard enough?

We clearly have that in us. So why has it not returned?
 
agree we are slow & laboured when we attack why ? is its Ange's way ? well he doesm't seem to be shouting & pointing at the players when its slowed down, So surely Ange is happy to play slow
 
Those wanting rid of Ange will be welcoming Southgate through the door. So when that happens I hope you’ll all be happy with yourselves because you’ll deserve it. Meanwhile those of us who actually go to games will have to suffer it the most.
 
Those wanting rid of Ange will be welcoming Southgate through the door. So when that happens I hope you’ll all be happy with yourselves because you’ll deserve it. Meanwhile those of us who actually go to games will have to suffer it the most.

None of these next manager threads should be called "next manager". They should all be called:

"Next Manager We Decide Is One Dimensional In 12 Months Time".

Because as soon as that quick hit of new manager freshness wears off, that's exactly what they will all be doing. Sky Sports and the gooner press will also start clucking for some Spurs controversy clicks by that time as well and they always get what they want from us.
 
Back
Top