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Manager Ange Postecoglou

Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports

Was sacking Ange a good idea?

  • Yes, I think it was a good idea.

    Votes: 73 64.6%

  • No, I think it was a bad idea.

    Votes: 40 35.4%
  • Total voters
    113
Shotgunofmichalebrow said:
Who wrote this crap?
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GIF by The Telegraph
 
Mick Cooper said:
Today's Telegraph article

Tottenham are flat-track bullies – they are too easy to play against
Spurs are style over substance under Ange Postecoglou and if that doesn’t change, he’ll be under pressure
Shortly after appointing Ange Postecoglou, Daniel Levy addressed a supporters’ meeting and confidently stated: “We have our Tottenham back.”
Cynics will say the chairman has been proven right. Under Postecoglou, Spurs are pleasing on the eye but inconsistent, miles off being a title contender and their best chance of a successful season is winning a cup.
This has been the Tottenham way for most of my lifetime.
Whenever Spurs visit the toughest venues – as they will when heading to Manchester United this weekend – you anticipate an entertaining game and a home win. I would never turn off the TV if Spurs are playing because there is an expectation of goals at both ends.
Postecoglou was welcomed in north London because it is clear what he is not as much as what he is. He could ride a wave for following a plan far removed from Antonio Conte and being the anti-Jose Mourinho. There was relief that the era of pragmatic, ultra-tactical defensive football was over, the new manager was a breath of fresh air.

“I just feel we’re seeing football we used to see, and that is all we want.” Levy told an enthusiastic audience.
Twelve months on, Levy’s comments are not ageing so well. While ambitious tactics are the minimum requirement for a Spurs coach to be accepted, there has to be a higher remit for a club of such stature.
The initial goodwill for Postecoglou has eroded because since the second half of last season there has been a worrying downturn.

Spurs head to Old Trafford after Thursday night’s 3-0 win over Qarabag in the Europa League having lost seven of their last 12 Premier League games. That run absorbed two North London derby defeats, which will not be unrelated to the growing murmurs from supporters about the team’s direction, even if the majority are patient enough to see if his principles pay off. Two seasons ago Tottenham finished above Woolwich, but now they have seen their rivals reap the reward of sticking to a long-term plan. Postecoglou needs statement results and performances during an ongoing transitional period to maintain trust that his side is on a similar trajectory to Mikel Arteta’s, who suffered plenty of bumps before getting where they are today.
Over Postecoglou’s 18 games against the clubs which finished in the top nine last season, Spurs have won four. They are in danger of being seen as flat-track bullies. That must change.
As is often the case with managers when the questions get tougher, the demeanour and remarks which were greeted with excitement during a honeymoon period can start to wear thin and become a stick with which to beat a coach when the mood changes.
Saying your beliefs were honed by mentor Ferenc Puskas’s idea that “we will win 5-4 every week and I’ll enjoy it” plays well to the gallery when winning eight of your first 10 games, but not so much when your side has three clean sheets in the past 26 Premier League games.
Shrugging off vulnerabilities from set-piece defending may be tolerated after occasional lapses in concentration, but not after conceding from corners in consecutive matches against your bitterest rivals. As a centre-back pairing, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven – a World Cup winner alongside one of the quickest defenders in the world – have the potential to be one of the best in the Premier League. It is a valid tactical discussion as to whether they are being left too exposed and might benefit from a more balanced set-up.
The investment in the Tottenham squad under Postecoglou has been significant. Around £379 million has been spent, albeit a significant portion of that was due to the sale of Harry Kane. Eye-catching fees were paid for Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson and the jury is out on whether they can elevate themselves from good players to Champions League class. Most of the money has been spent on youngsters rather than ready-made, senior players to improve the starting XI.
These are all worthy talking points for supporters, media and pundits who judge Postecoglou on more than whether his team is a good watch. That is why the press conferences which were box-office for entertaining one-liners when Postecoglou was at Celtic and first arrived at Spurs now seem more tense. The friendly tone now sounds more confrontational, as if the Tottenham manager feels he is being unfairly challenged.
In Postecoglou’s defence, he may be asking himself if the excellent start last season was more of a curse than blessing as it heightened immediate expectations.
Part of the problem in assessing Spurs in 2024 is it is difficult to know what the summit of their ambition truly is.
Watching the video of that meeting between Levy and the fans, as an outsider it is interesting to consider what ‘having our Tottenham back’ really means in terms of tangible success.
If Manchester United, Liverpool, Woolwich or Chelsea declare themselves ‘back’ they mean they are chasing and winning Premier League titles.
Does having Tottenham ‘back’ refer to the recent past, when Mauricio Pochettino led the club to four successive Champions League qualifications and a final?
Does it mean going back to the Keith Burkinshaw era of the 1980s, when they won FA Cups and a European trophy?
If it is purely about entertaining football, Postecoglou can consider himself one of the safest managers in the country.
When thinking about the classic Spurs identity, I immediately remember the classic 1980s line-up with Glenn Hoddle and Ossie Ardiles. They were a creative team that won major honours – famously winning back-to-back FA Cups in 1981 and 1982 – and were more consistent than many remember in the league, too.
Between 1981 and 1990, Spurs finished in the top four on five occasions. Despite that, even the great Spurs side of that era had a reputation for lacking the consistency to beat the best over a league season.
When Pochettino’s Spurs side finished second in 2017 it was the club’s highest league finish since 1963.
After finishing fifth last season, at any other of the biggest clubs in England the next logical step would be regarded as qualifying for the Champions League and winning a trophy.
At Spurs? I am genuinely unsure if the manager and his chairman would welcome or bristle at the idea that anything less than that in 2024-25 would be a failure. That may be a cultural problem which has held Spurs back too often whenever they need to propel themselves towards titles.
Every club wants its own style, and there is no question Postecoglou has restored Tottenham’s. Now he needs more substance.
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Spelling mistake in line 220
 
Starks said:
We've conceded 1 goal from 40 corners against us this season. And that was to the team known for being the best in the world at them and even then, most people think it was a foul anyway.

It's a lazy narrative for those who haven't really watched us this season. Our set up for defending corners has changed and as such, we're quite clearly much better at defending them. Which surprises me as Carragher seems to want to come across as a respected pundit.

In terms of our defence panicking when overloaded, not entirely sure that's a true example for us being easy to play against this season just on the basis that I can't think of a single time this season where we've conceded due to being overloaded.

We've got the 3rd best defence in terms of limiting opponents to chances in the entire league. Behind City, who've won the league in 6 of the last 7 years and Liverpool (who've conceded 1 goal all season)

Thats the definition of not being easy to play against.

Again, if Carraghers whole premise is that "easy to play against" means give us the ball and see if we can break down a low block then sure. But he could have wrote that article for City following the Woolwich game.
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7 points out of 15 doesn't suggest we are a nightmare to play against and we've taken points off an abysmal Everton, Brentford and Leicester, all of whom are worse off than we are.
That's my devil's advocate defence.
Personally I think that in general he's right.
I also think we are on the cusp of clicking into gear and making him eat his words.
As soon as we can show more composure in defence when we lose the ball and get attacked at pace.
I think we have a potentially great player in Bergvall and wish he would start him, and sadly I think Son is slowly transitioning into Werner and needs to get less starts. I would love to see a place being found for Moore to see if there is a"Harry Kane" in there somewhere. 3 minute cameos are pointless IMHO.
 
Jamie Carragher, a man who played over 500 times for Liverpool ( a reasonably successful football team in the toughest league in the world) he played 38 times for his country and has won medals for winning FA, League, European Champions League, EUFA cup etc etc.

Remind us all of your top flight footballing pedigree
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You think Jamie Carragher actually wrote that himself?

laurence fishburne GIF
 
Richard Arlison said:
Jamie Carragher, a man who played over 500 times for Liverpool ( a reasonably successful football team in the toughest league in the world) he played 38 times for his country and has won medals for winning FA, League, European Champions League, EUFA cup etc etc.

Remind us all of your top flight footballing pedigree
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You think Jamie Carragher actually wrote that himself?

laurence fishburne GIF

[/QUOTE]
The basic source material either as voice notes or possibly written/typed - yes they will be his content. The actual piece will have been written by a staffer on the Telegraphs books, or possibly someone Carragher pays to put this stuff together on his behalf. You can see from the stuff he comes up with on the fly during live TV broadcasts that he's one of the more articulate ex pro's and he often adds real value to the in or end game analysis.
If you can actually bear to listen to his screeching Scouse accent
 
Mick Cooper said:
You think Jamie Carragher actually wrote that himself?

laurence fishburne GIF
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The basic source material either as voice notes or possibly written/typed - yes they will be his content. The actual piece will have been written by a staffer on the Telegraphs books, or possibly someone Carragher pays to put this stuff together on his behalf. You can see from the stuff he comes up with on the fly during live TV broadcasts that he's one of the more articulate ex pro's and he often adds real value to the in or end game analysis.
If you can actually bear to listen to his screeching Scouse accent
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Spits at little girls though
 
Billy Bob mate said:
The basic source material either as voice notes or possibly written/typed - yes they will be his content. The actual piece will have been written by a staffer on the Telegraphs books, or possibly someone Carragher pays to put this stuff together on his behalf. You can see from the stuff he comes up with on the fly during live TV broadcasts that he's one of the more articulate ex pro's and he often adds real value to the in or end game analysis.
If you can actually bear to listen to his screeching Scouse accent
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Spits at little girls though
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Not his finest moment
 
Dark Shadow said:
I had the same argument at a Halloween party last year.
Being Spain the mix of fans was incredible from Rangers to Brighton. I heard a Brummie accent telling a group of golfers that Spurs couldn't sustain a title charge once injuries bit.Beer fuelled i took him to task but soon came the Chelsea game the point that I decided Postecoglu was a useless fraud.
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Fraud after the first game we lost last season?? Youre the type that revels when we dont do well id say
 
dudu said:
Reads as if it were written by a teenager who is desperate for attention.

Click-bait lovers will lap it up
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I think it’s a fair article. So far Ange’s tactics have only worked against lesser teams who don’t have the quality to exploit the mistakes and huge spaces that we give opponents. Do we want to be an entertaining team or a serious team? Fair question to ask.

But I do think that if you look at the underlying performances in the league, they are better than last season. The games are not as chaotic as before and we are doing better at creating chances. Teams are finding it much harder to play against us. Wastefulness is our biggest issue, fix that and win some games and the narrative will change quickly. At the end of the day any manager who can’t win league matches is going to be under pressure.
 
StripiestPilot said:
I think it’s a fair article. So far Ange’s tactics have only worked against lesser teams who don’t have the quality to exploit the mistakes and huge spaces that we give opponents. Do we want to be an entertaining team or a serious team? Fair question to ask.

But I do think that if you look at the underlying performances in the league, they are better than last season. The games are not as chaotic as before and we are doing better at creating chances. Teams are finding it much harder to play against us. Wastefulness is our biggest issue, fix that and win some games and the narrative will change quickly. At the end of the day any manager who can’t win league matches is going to be under pressure.
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It just lacks any real substance and is all very surface, jumping from one vague point to another without actually getting to the heart of what we are trying to do.

I agree with your last paragraph completely. I think Ange has shown he can beat or stand toe to toe with the teams higher up the table. Last season vs Man U, City, Woolwich, Newcastle, Villa, Liverpool.... we got some decent results but sure we have to start proving we are able to do it again, and more consistently.

Honestly, last season, I was more concerned with the points we dropped to Wolves x2 West Hamx 2 and Fulham, win those and we are on 80 points, comfortably 3rd.
 
StripiestPilot said:
I think it’s a fair article. So far Ange’s tactics have only worked against lesser teams who don’t have the quality to exploit the mistakes and huge spaces that we give opponents. Do we want to be an entertaining team or a serious team? Fair question to ask.
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This season you mean?

Bc last season we took:

4pts from UTD
3 pts from Liverpool
3 pts from Villa
3 pts from Newcastle
1 pt from City

And we did that with a squad decimated by injuries or Asiacup/AFCON

Scum and Chelsea were the pain points but even then the tactics were clearly working in the first Chelsea game until the red card and injuries.

This team needs to get better at the big games but you can’t say the system doesn’t work against better teams.
 
Richard Arlison said:
This season you mean?

Bc last season we took:

4pts from UTD
3 pts from Liverpool
3 pts from Villa
3 pts from Newcastle
1 pt from City

And we did that with a squad decimated by injuries or Asiacup/AFCON

Scum and Chelsea were the pain points but even then the tactics were clearly working in the first Chelsea game until the red card and injuries.

This team needs to get better at the big games but you can’t say the system doesn’t work against better teams.
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We also took a point away at Woolwich mate.
 
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