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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

Ange Postecoglou has said he finds some of the criticism towards him “offensive” and vowed to carry on ignoring Jamie Carragher after the former Liverpool defender urged the Tottenham Hotspur players to go against their head coach’s instructions.

Postecoglou’s side came through a chaotic Carabao Cup quarter-final against Manchester United on Thursday, eventually winning 4-3 after letting a 3-0 lead slip to 3-2 after two errors caused by back-passes to the goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

Carragher, the Sky Sports pundit, suggested that the 59-year-old’s approach was to blame and that his players should have rejected his instructions. “The manager has told you to play a certain way but someone has to get a grip and say, ‘No, we are changing for the next five or ten minutes,’ ” he said.


“It frustrates me when players can’t see how the game state changes and recognise they have to change their approach to suit it.”


On Friday Postecoglou responded by saying: “There is some stuff out there I find just offensive towards me. I’m up here with a silly accent and maybe I don’t take things as seriously as people want me to and I’m fairly dismissive of them, but that’s all right. I love my life and I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.

“I don’t need validation from anybody to do what I do. I love the fact people are talking about and analysing our games. I’d rather that than us be anonymous and no one talk about us, or we’re just grinding out an existence.

“You have to be prepared for scrutiny, you have to be prepared for criticism, but it won’t change what I believe, because what I believe is born from a lifetime of experiences and values that I won’t let anyone tamper with from the outside.

“Because if you’re going to jump every time, it tells me you don’t really have a lot of belief in this building about what we’re doing, if we’re always going to worry about what he is saying.



“Someone like Jamie is there to give his opinion and will not stand there and say, ‘I’ve got nothing to say.’ Some of the other stuff I don’t understand, because it’s just about getting headlines, but again if you react to that [then] it kind of says more about you than anything else.”

Postecoglou believes Aston Villa manager Unai Emery had been treated unfairly when he was at Woolwich, and Nottingham Forest’s Nuno Espirito Santo in a brief spell at Spurs.

“You kind of feel that 26 years of hard graft should get you a little more respect and I’m not the only one,” he said. “I have seen it happen to Unai and Nuno when he was here.

“I get that not everyone will be a fan of the way I do things and even the way I play people will have different opinions. That’s normal, that’s healthy but some of it has been pretty dismissive.”


Slot is such a fan of Angeball that he declared he hoped Spurs win a trophy under him because it would be “good for football”.

Postecoglou did not see himself as a Messiah figure or a showman, though.

“I don’t think I’m an evangelist for the whole game,” he said. “To quote Monty Python, I’m just a naughty little boy.

“It’s what I love about football. There has got to be differences, people who are prepared to do thing a little bit differently.

“That allows opinion, that allows emotion. I hate to think people think I am some sort of showman — I want to win. That is still the core of my being.”

Postecoglou also insisted Joshua Zirkzee’s goal for United, which made it 3-1 would have been ruled out by VAR had it been in operation.

The Australian also revealed he had told the EFL, who consulted all the clubs involved in the last-eight ties before deciding to do without VAR until the semi-finals, that he did not want it on the night.

“Zirkzee was actually in the box pressing when he should have been — what he did was illegal,” he said. “But anyway we’ll let that run because there was no VAR last night. That was my decision so I’m happy with that.”

Tottenham’s win set up a Carabao Cup quarter-final meeting with Carragher’s former side Liverpool, who they also face at home in the Premier League on Sunday.
God he's thin skinned.

Yeah it's the accent mate. Definitely not the batshit insane football you serve up.
 

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Yeah this is actually true, he is just happy to be here and thankful whereas other coaches felt they could challenge the board.

He is well behaved so as long as that continues he will keep getting fed treats.
Listening to him talk he talks big so not 100% sure he is happy to be here and go along with levy/ munns plans. Although there’s one thing talk big like he does but his actions speak the other way.
 
God he's thin skinned.

Yeah it's the accent mate. Definitely not the batshit insane football you serve up.

I'm struggling to think of many other managers who would have their tactics scrutinized after a win that sent his team into a semi final or at least use some critical thought in their analysis. The story of that match was all about the tactics or lack of it when it should have been about the win and the tactics weren't the reason why Utd came back into it anyway.

We all know how the media play foreign managers and especially those foreign who need to prove themselves which is why he mentioned Emery and Nuno, it's the typical snide remarks and questioning of said tactics get amplified when it comes to a foreigner but the media won't keep the same energy when it's a Gerrard or Lampard or Rooney.
 
I'm struggling to think of many other managers who would have their tactics scrutinized after a win that sent his team into a semi final or at least use some critical thought in their analysis.

Come on mate. If he was doing really well this season the tactics wouldn't be over-analysed. The reason they are being over analysed is because we are struggling in the league and have had two games where we've lost after getting a 2-0 lead. Going to the wire after being 3-0 up is always going to attract criticism when you are having a topsy turvy season and have fucked up leads repeatedly.

If we go on an amazing run and end up pushing our way back in the top four, the pundits will be all praise again. They were when he first joined, loved him. I agree that English managers get an easier ride but let's be honest, guys like Lampard have mates in the media. Is Redknapp gonna hammer someone he's probably quite good friends with?
 
Come on mate. If he was doing really well this season the tactics wouldn't be over-analysed. The reason they are being over analysed is because we are struggling in the league and have had two games where we've lost after getting a 2-0 lead. Going to the wire after being 3-0 up is always going to attract criticism when you are having a topsy turvy season and have fucked up leads repeatedly.

If we go on an amazing run and end up pushing our way back in the top four, the pundits will be all praise again. They were when he first joined, loved him. I agree that English managers get an easier ride but let's be honest, guys like Lampard have mates in the media. Is Redknapp gonna hammer someone he's probably quite good friends with?
This is all true but Neville and Carracgher started from game 2 vs United when they went absolutely ballistic because Tottenham dared to play out from the back when only City were only allowed to dare such shenanigans :rolleyes: :roflmao:
 
It’s a bit OTT for me the whole media thing. I don’t think Carragher or a Redknapp said anything bad, Carragher even said he hopes we win something.

They’ve just said for them it’s a bit naive that we don’t seem to adapt to game states, it’s a fair enough point that they are literally paid to put across. Are their other teams they could say things about? Sure. But let’s not make out like they’ve been horrendous and said wildly out of order things about Ange here, they’ve just given their views on the style. If Ange is so resolute in his style, and he’s telling the truth when he says he won’t ever change then why would he care? I get he’s answering questions put to him direct but I don’t think the pundits said anything out of order tbh.

Plus what was it Ange himself said? “It’s not criticism, it’s an assessment” maybe Carragher and Redknapp weren’t criticising him. Maybe they were assessing him.
 
This is all true but Neville and Carracgher started from game 2 vs United when they went absolutely ballistic because Tottenham dared to play out from the back when only City were only allowed to dare such shenanigans :rolleyes: :roflmao:

In fairness - Pep got it too didn't he? When he first joined anyway. We had Merson & co desperate to assert it wouldn't work and the Premier League was different.

I have absolutely zero issue with playing out, high lines etc, never been any of my issues with Ange. The media are mostly made up of dinosaurs from a different era of football with very few exceptions to that. Occasionally you get some insight, usually when a foreign pundit who is an ex-manager pops up.
 
Come on mate. If he was doing really well this season the tactics wouldn't be over-analysed. The reason they are being over analysed is because we are struggling in the league and have had two games where we've lost after getting a 2-0 lead. Going to the wire after being 3-0 up is always going to attract criticism when you are having a topsy turvy season and have fucked up leads repeatedly.

If we go on an amazing run and end up pushing our way back in the top four, the pundits will be all praise again. They were when he first joined, loved him. I agree that English managers get an easier ride but let's be honest, guys like Lampard have mates in the media. Is Redknapp gonna hammer someone he's probably quite good friends with?

I think you've missed my overall point.

The media are entirely selective of their criticism of certain coaches, it's not even about Ange, it's about where the manager comes from as opposed to what his performance is, they clearly don't respect or rate his background, that's fine but they are very quick to dismiss coaches and players that haven't done anything in the Premier League, we've seen it before.

We saw it with AVB for example when he was here, I distinctly remember Neil Custis from the Sun going at him before matches and putting pressure on him before he went to Old Trafford and won 3-2. That's why Ange bought up Emery and Nuno into it because they've suffered the same fate.

Garanteed an English manager wouldn't be getting the same stick, when Lampard and Gerrard was stinking out the place as managers not a peep from the media, they were offered so much sympathy when they were managing in the Premier League.

This press conference Ange spoke in came in the wake of the win against Utd and they were talking exclusively about Carragher's comments, I listened to Carragher throughout the match and he couldn't wait to stick the boot in. It's fair enough to say that he is right to question Ange's tactics from what he's seen so far but peddling a lazy narrative during that particular match is boring and easy to do, it's so forced and if these pundits actually did their job properly and call it down the line they probably wouldn't be so quick to point to the manager after the match.

I made this exact point in the match thread, he has a short memory when he kept bringing up Porro goign into midfield and Sarr having to cover him when this is how Klopp played with Trent and Henderson/Wijnaldum, he knows it works or has worked before so why did he act like it's the first time we've seen in in this league and that it doesn't work? And yes we know that Klopp won the league blah blah but the point is that he was hammering tactics that have been successful in this league before.
 
Soton are terrible and we barely survived the worst Man Utd team in the last 30+ years.

Let’s see what happens the next few games so we can get a better idea of where we stand against competent football clubs.
 
I think you've missed my overall point.

The media are entirely selective of their criticism of certain coaches, it's not even about Ange, it's about where the manager comes from as opposed to what his performance is, they clearly don't respect or rate his background, that's fine but they are very quick to dismiss coaches and players that haven't done anything in the Premier League, we've seen it before.

We saw it with AVB for example when he was here, I distinctly remember Neil Custis from the Sun going at him before matches and putting pressure on him before he went to Old Trafford and won 3-2. That's why Ange bought up Emery and Nuno into it because they've suffered the same fate.

Garanteed an English manager wouldn't be getting the same stick, when Lampard and Gerrard was stinking out the place as managers not a peep from the media, they were offered so much sympathy when they were managing in the Premier League.

This press conference Ange spoke in came in the wake of the win against Utd and they were talking exclusively about Carragher's comments, I listened to Carragher throughout the match and he couldn't wait to stick the boot in. It's fair enough to say that he is right to question Ange's tactics from what he's seen so far but peddling a lazy narrative during that particular match is boring and easy to do, it's so forced and if these pundits actually did their job properly and call it down the line they probably wouldn't be so quick to point to the manager after the match.

I made this exact point in the match thread, he has a short memory when he kept bringing up Porro goign into midfield and Sarr having to cover him when this is how Klopp played with Trent and Henderson/Wijnaldum, he knows it works or has worked before so why did he act like it's the first time we've seen in in this league and that it doesn't work? And yes we know that Klopp won the league blah blah but the point is that he was hammering tactics that have been successful in this league before.
One note on this, the ranks of pundits in the English media include almost universally very successful and experienced players who have a lifetime of experience in what it's like to be out there playing for these clubs.

And unless I'm missing someone, not a single former manager of any substance whatsoever now that Graeme Souness is gone?

(EDIT: I'm forgetting Glenn Hoddle I guess, though he hasn't coached in almost two decades, kind of an exception that proves the rule)

These guys know the game and they know the culture of these clubs and the English supporters, but they don't know jack shit about management.

It's a weird blind spot given how much of the coverage is about managers and management. Managers want to manage, so it's harder to hire and keep someone who knows what they're talking about, but they ought to try.
 
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