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Manager Ange Postecoglou

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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
Because Liverpool has been so successful people tend to forget that, under Klopp, they were often near the league's highest injury rates. His team's had better depth than Spurs do so anything resembling Man City or Liverpool's press utilized with less depth is inviting injuries.

Their key players NEVER got hurt though. VVD other than a freak Pickford hack, Wijnadldum, Fabinho, Salah, Mane those guys were just always available.

You can handle injuries if you can keep your best players fit and firing.
 
hes there to score goals aint he, get the ball in the box and near him and you have half a chance.

everyone trying to play like city but a lot of wingers are counter attacking players, city at their best didnt really have wingers, they had wide playmakers, theres a big difference.

us trying to pin sides in and boss possession with wingers like son and johnson is frankly retarded.
Interesting. I hadn't thought of the Man City players like that until you mentioned it. And, you're right about Son and Johnson. If you dominate possession there's not a lot of counters for them to show their ability to stretch the pitch.
 
Their key players NEVER got hurt though. VVD other than a freak Pickford hack, Wijnadldum, Fabinho, Salah, Mane those guys were just always available.

You can handle injuries if you can keep your best players fit and firing.
It seems like Jota always has a knock of some kind, but recently the rest stay available recently. I know in 2023 they had a lot of injuries, but to your point maybe not so much the key guys.
 
I doubt the players decided to play differently. I think is was more that without van de vyn and with so many games in such a short window it wasn't practical to play Ange Ball. The upside is the players showed good defensive concentration. For Brentford to get that number of corners and not put the ball in the net makes a positive statement. And, for all the criticism of Bissouma he was instrumental in pressuring the Brentford keeper on their own goal.
But in many aspects we did still try and play "Ange ball" last weekend.

We still had our very high press on the Brentford kick offs, but because we were playing Davies and Gray at CB our back four were way too deep, so the press was ineffective and they were basically always able to play through it. So many times Porro was late to his man and Bentancur had to hare over to come and babysit him leaving a huge gaping hole in the middle of the pitch.

The fact Brentford didn't end up exploiting that - like Leicester did the previous weekend - I put more on Brentford's crap attacking than on us. We gave them enough chances. They ended the game with 2.5xG. The idea we were defensively impressive this game is nonsense.

Where we didn't play Ange ball was when we defended in a low block - we know Ange hates that because he has some stupid notion that it's anti-football or something, as he indicated after the recent Woolwich game when he thought our chaotic 2nd half was better than the first purely because we weren't so deep.

Just displays a fundamental misunderstanding of football, sometimes tight defending in a low block is required by every team. And I don't see why having been so angry with our Woolwich low block he'd have suddenly employed that tactic against Brentford. Think it's far more likely the players had had quite enough of losing thank you very much and did what they needed to do to protect a lead.
 
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Klopp’s whole deal was the gegenpress. Yet Ange is blamed as if he’s doing something so out there.

Sometimes you have bad runs. Sometimes you can have susceptible players.
If you think our press is anything like what Klopp was employing at Liverpool you simply don't understand football.

Klopp is one of the best pressing tacticians of the modern era. Ange can't coach a coherent press if his life depended on it.

Laughable comparison.
 
Their key players NEVER got hurt though. VVD other than a freak Pickford hack, Wijnadldum, Fabinho, Salah, Mane those guys were just always available.

You can handle injuries if you can keep your best players fit and firing.
They all did develop terrible asthma all of sudden after signing though…strange

Marvel Studios Smile GIF by Disney+
 
But in many aspects we did still try and play "Ange ball" last weekend.

We still had our very high press on the Brentford kick offs, but because we were playing Davies and Gray at CB our back four were way too deep, so the press was ineffective and they were basically always able to play through it. So many times Porro was late to his man and Bentancur had to hare over to come and babysit him leaving a huge gaping hole in the middle of the pitch.

The fact Brentford didn't end up exploiting that - like Leicester did the previous weekend - I put more on Brentford's crap attacking than on us. We gave them enough chances. They ended the game with 2.5xG. The idea we were defensively impressive this game is nonsense.

Where we didn't play Ange ball was when we defended in a low block - we know Ange hates that because he has some stupid notion that it's anti-football or something, as he indicated after the recent Woolwich game when he thought our chaotic 2nd half was better than the first purely because we weren't so deep.

Just displays a fundamental misunderstanding of football, sometimes tight defending in a low block is required by every team. And I don't see why having been so angry with our Woolwich low block he'd have suddenly employed that tactic against Brentford. Think it's far more likely the players had had quite enough of losing thank you very much and did what they needed to do to protect a lead.
It's an interesting idea. They were dropped back deep and, to their credit, they hung in against an onslaught of crosses. It did seem unlike anything Postecoglou values. If Brentford still had Andrew Toney he might have taken advantage of some of those chances. Wissa is good, but he's not the pure striker Toney was.
 
If you think our press is anything like what Klopp was employing at Liverpool you simply don't understand football.

Klopp is one of the best pressing tacticians of the modern era. Ange can't coach a coherent press if his life depended on it.

Pretty sure that when we had a full team earlier this season, Spurs had the best pressing stats in Europe. Our winning of the ball in opposition 3rd was off the scale at one point.

In fact just looking at some comparisons now and we are still neck and neck with Gooners (one of the more effective high press teams going around) at 84% and our press has been fucked for months. For further comparison Scousers at 88% and Bournemouth 85.5%

But maybe the stats guru guys don't understand football quite as well as you do. 🤷‍♂️

I think its fair to say that when he has a full team Postecoglou's press is one of the best in the world.

It would also be fair to say it's ludicrous to keep attempting that press when most of your first 11 is out through injury.

And I'd also suggest that having a great press is all well and good but meaningless if you're not winning games.

And finally I'd suggest that anyone who goes on football forums, makes grandiose statements that are quickly and easily proved false with just a quick google, while also telling everyone they "don't understand football" - is acting a like a bit of a twat. :cautious:
 
Tel, odebert, gray, Bergvill, vdv, dragusin, Moore, sar, Spence,
Great to have kids, however very difficult to win trophies

It was very difficult to win trophies when we had the greatest goalscorer of the last 50 years in our team!

We had the most winning of winning managers and still couldn’t win trophies.

Small Kids and Big Aussies is the way forward!!!
 
If you think our press is anything like what Klopp was employing at Liverpool you simply don't understand football.

Klopp is one of the best pressing tacticians of the modern era. Ange can't coach a coherent press if his life depended on it.

Laughable comparison.
Complete misreading of what I posted. I simply stated that a press. Which involved lots of running and pressing isn’t unique to Ange and that injuries aren’t directly correlated.
 
Glad we are letting Ange finish out the season. Judge him in May and he'll be gone if things don't dramatically improve
Ooooorrrrrrr.....
Here's a left field idea:

If Ange had as big a say, and influence on Tel changing his mind to come here, likewise (by all accounts) convincing Gray and Bergwall their futures lie here, then if the Coaching gig doesn't work out, why not keep him on to do the motivational speaking role for Lange & Levy...

He's clearly got the gift of the gab, why not use it to our advantage, if he really IS so out of his depth as a Coach?!

I was joking to start with ..
But the more I think about it.... 🤔

:ange-hmm: :sonhmm: :kanehand:

fucking hell, it all makes sense now!:ange-arms:
Ange to be our new D.O.F!!

You heard it here first!!!!
 
Just a thought, but if we do lose these two tough cup matches this week, thinking about Europe through the league.

Given it’s almost locked that the PL gets the 5th CL spot this year. If we lose the league cup semi, then that Europa League spot will go to 7th in the league. Given the FA Cup winners are usually one of big boys, Europa League could go down to 8th and Conference League 9th…

9th is not unattainable if we’re out of the cups and can get fit and go on a run.
 
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