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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
That's probably where we have different positions - Ange's team ceiling in long run. I'm just afraid he will be tactically outmatched more times than less - especially when our rival is focused on countering our setup, rather than forcing their way of play. I dont believe we will see consistent run of games like we have against Manchesters. Hope i'm wrong, will see.
Are you basing that view on results ?

If it’s tactical, specifically which tactics do you not believe in?

I’m asking because I haven’t seen an anti Angeball tactic that works against us more often than not. I’ve seen us have rough results and some shoddy performances but when we’ve played well, I’m not sure there’s a tactic that “works “. Different tactics have been a challenge on different days but that’s different. IMO at least
 
We can point to 25 years of Levy doing the exact opposite to this. Why the steadfast belief he won't this time?
I think selling Harry Kane was a big turning point. The instant win now at all costs pressure was lifted. For the first time since Poch, the model became a rebuild project where bringing down the wages, age of squad, and going back to an attacking style were the initial goals for year 1. I think there will be an expectation to be competitive again this year but I don't think there is an expectation to win yet. That'll come once we invest properly in the team or when young players develop into top players. Just like how it did under Poch.

Thats why I think Ange is getting the season. Its not the same intense pressure that Jose and Conte had to win something with Harry Kane
 
Looked impressive, but hardly the most convincing of a press, a yard and a half late by Soton. We have to learn when and when not to play out like this. A more "motivated" side would have probably nicked the ball and had at least tested Forster.

I don't see the evidence that you claim, they literally hemmed us in when we had 5 players near the touchline and got out of it because we were patient and waited for the opening.
 
Looked impressive, but hardly the most convincing of a press, a yard and a half late by Soton. We have to learn when and when not to play out like this. A more "motivated" side would have probably nicked the ball and had at least tested Forster.
We’ve done that to every single team we’ve played at least once and I can’t remember a time where they turned us over and scored.

Not saying it never happened but I can’t remember it.
 
Right.

Just because Postecoglou signed off on Gray, Odobert,and Bergvall as players he can work with, that doesn’t mean he didn’t want players who are ready now as well. It’s a credit to him that he didn’t throw his toys out the pram when the club told him he’s getting potential and not established,

It’s also why those noises from the club about backing him because they went with a youth oriented transfer policy, need to be true.

Should the club still charge top whack ticket prices and ask the fans to be similarly patient? Very different question but they must know from the chants from fans they can’t palm that blame off onto the manager now. If they even wanted to this time.

I don't think any manager is ever guaranteed a season. I have no doubt the club intend to weather the storm and keep him here. Managers are almost always a few terrible results from the sack, unless they're goldplated like Pep is. Maybe we have suddenly decided to be ultra patient but I'm surprised at the total faith you have.

To be clear, I never want us to lose a game. And if I was in the stadium I'd be cheering us on, not turning round and going "but we want Ange sacked!'. On here isn't a 'support' thing for me, it's an express your opinion thing. I don't feel the need to cheer on the team on TFC because I hope to fucking god not a single one of the team comes near this place.

I do think its likely he sees the season out so it isn't like I'm waiting on his sacking. I also think that if he'd lost that Southampton game he'd be a follow up loss to Utd in the league cup away from the sack. Levy would see top 6 up in flames and only one source of a trophy left and would panic.
Exactly. I 100% want Ange to succeed. At some point the club (well, Levy) has to decide whether he is the best manager to take the club forward. In my view Frank (for example) would be better. I've seen enough problems with Ange to believe he will not lead us to perform consistently towards the maximum extent of our ENIC-limited potential - as Poch did. If Ange wins the next few games I'll likely be Ange in again, as there will be reasons for those wins that outweigh, perhaps negate any issues I have.

Surely we all change our views as the results come in. No one is "Ange in" or "Ange out" irrespective of results
 
We’ve done that to every single team we’ve played at least once and I can’t remember a time where they turned us over and scored.

Not saying it never happened but I can’t remember it.
Fair enough but I think, don't ask me to name the games, we have created chances for the opposition a fair few times when trying to play out from the back, Vicario being the main culprit?
 
I think selling Harry Kane was a big turning point. The instant win now at all costs pressure was lifted. For the first time since Poch, the model became a rebuild project where bringing down the wages, age of squad, and going back to an attacking style were the initial goals for year 1. I think there will be an expectation to be competitive again this year but I don't think there is an expectation to win yet. That'll come once we invest properly in the team or when young players develop into top players. Just like how it did under Poch.

Thats why I think Ange is getting the season. Its not the same intense pressure that Jose and Conte had to win something with Harry Kane
You might be right.

You could interpret the desire for a minority investor as:

- Levy knows £105m pa players' wages will never get us near the league title/CL win
- He knows that number needs to be £50m-£80m higher
- He knows success is far from guaranteed and it would be easy to move to that spend, and only get marginally better - and therein lies the risk to the value of his investment. But there is also potential upside. The club could be commercially quite a bit more successful if it actually got CL regularly and won stuff
- By part-cashing out now, but keeping control he de-risks but keeps some exposure to upside.
 
Are you basing that view on results ?

If it’s tactical, specifically which tactics do you not believe in?

I’m asking because I haven’t seen an anti Angeball tactic that works against us more often than not. I’ve seen us have rough results and some shoddy performances but when we’ve played well, I’m not sure there’s a tactic that “works “. Different tactics have been a challenge on different days but that’s different. IMO at least
Its driven by performance for sure, but of course its results that triggers my brain to think what went wrong.

I dont like our buildup. With full back inverting that much and so high we put enourmous pressure on our CBs, they can either play to each other safely. Deepest midfielder is usually covered so even if you play perfect ball to him he can be in trouble with opponent on his back. Playing to the side to either FB or winger means they are also under pressure immediately when they receive ball, because they are already up on the pitch, there is no enough width in our own 3rd during that phase. So as opponent you just let our CBs have a ball and press everyone else. Think Bmouth did that very well. We have to play risky passes to progress on our own half. We could sometimes try something different to keep control.

I dont like that our FBs never overlap and always underlaps. We barely send crosses into penalty box. Only those low balls for tap-ins. Arteta was just making his penalty box very crowded, because he knew single full back can cover our winger in wide arena because our FB never plays 1-2 with winger in wide area.

We are bad at both defending and attacking set pieces in my opinion. We lack game management, almost every match our GKs need to produce great saves. Our in-game management if things are not going well is another story... Subs and tactical adjustements against i.e. CP and Bmouth were abysmall (put 2 strikers, but no wingers WHO can cross,.no legs to cover outnumbered midfield) and resulted in being weaker than before adjustements were made. Based on that i doubt Anges sense if Plan A does not work.

How to counter Ange then? Dont press our CBs , sit in mid press and focus on sitting on our deep lying midfielder and fullbacks/wingers. Pack the box and let our wingers have the ball in wide areas if your press is beaten. Dont play too much from the back - since we scored most goals by either counter attacking or when we retrieve ball high on the pitch (i.e. see Brentford match when they played into our hands, or Fulham home last season). Wait for set pieces. Arteta gave exact blueprint this season at our place.
 
Exactly. I 100% want Ange to succeed. At some point the club (well, Levy) has to decide whether he is the best manager to take the club forward. In my view Frank (for example) would be better. I've seen enough problems with Ange to believe he will not lead us to perform consistently towards the maximum extent of our ENIC-limited potential - as Poch did. If Ange wins the next few games I'll likely be Ange in again, as there will be reasons for those wins that outweigh, perhaps negate any issues I have.

Surely we all change our views as the results come in. No one is "Ange in" or "Ange out" irrespective of results
To a degree everyone is Ange in our out dependant on results but the speed that people flip flop around must be exhausting
 

Team plays out of the back.
Happy clappers:

Standing Ovation Clap GIF
 
Its driven by performance for sure, but of course its results that triggers my brain to think what went wrong.

I dont like our buildup. With full back inverting that much and so high we put enourmous pressure on our CBs, they can either play to each other safely. Deepest midfielder is usually covered so even if you play perfect ball to him he can be in trouble with opponent on his back. Playing to the side to either FB or winger means they are also under pressure immediately when they receive ball, because they are already up on the pitch, there is no enough width in our own 3rd during that phase. So as opponent you just let our CBs have a ball and press everyone else. Think Bmouth did that very well. We have to play risky passes to progress on our own half. We could sometimes try something different to keep control.

I dont like that our FBs never overlap and always underlaps. We barely send crosses into penalty box. Only those low balls for tap-ins. Arteta was just making his penalty box very crowded, because he knew single full back can cover our winger in wide arena because our FB never plays 1-2 with winger in wide area.

We are bad at both defending and attacking set pieces in my opinion. We lack game management, almost every match our GKs need to produce great saves. Our in-game management if things are not going well is another story... Subs and tactical adjustements against i.e. CP and Bmouth were abysmall (put 2 strikers, but no wingers WHO can cross,.no legs to cover outnumbered midfield) and resulted in being weaker than before adjustements were made. Based on that i doubt Anges sense if Plan A does not work.

How to counter Ange then? Dont press our CBs , sit in mid press and focus on sitting on our deep lying midfielder and fullbacks/wingers. Pack the box and let our wingers have the ball in wide areas if your press is beaten. Dont play too much from the back - since we scored most goals by either counter attacking or when we retrieve ball high on the pitch (i.e. see Brentford match when they played into our hands, or Fulham home last season). Wait for set pieces. Arteta gave exact blueprint this season at our place.
See to me, a lot of that is very similar to what Villa tried to do to us twice last year and once this year. Same for Newcastle twice last year and so far once this year.

The outcome is pretty much even across those 6 games and in every single one of those we created the most chances. It was just about us killing teams off. The narrative from a negative outcome tends to take much deeper roots than positive outcomes.

Saying that, we didn’t shouldn’t be splitting games with those teams and this system
Is high risk, high reward. It comes down to your ideological preference. Do you want to force other teams to adapt to you, or focus on adapting to them.

Even then, there will be adjustments that coaches make which we don’t see because we Aren’t pro coaches.
 
See to me, a lot of that is very similar to what Villa tried to do to us twice last year and once this year. Same for Newcastle twice last year and so far once this year.

The outcome is pretty much even across those 6 games and in every single one of those we created the most chances. It was just about us killing teams off. The narrative from a negative outcome tends to take much deeper roots than positive outcomes.

Saying that, we didn’t shouldn’t be splitting games with those teams and this system
Is high risk, high reward. It comes down to your ideological preference. Do you want to force other teams to adapt to you, or focus on adapting to them.

Even then, there will be adjustments that coaches make which we don’t see because we Aren’t pro coaches.
Why select only Villa and Newcastle matches? :) only this season: Ipswich did this. Woolwich did this. Fulham, Bournemouth as well. You could count Leicester. CP was different though - they ate us with their press and physicality. And with Brighton we just had bad half.

And lets play differently - who played their game no matter what against us? Brentford (and comical ball movement on their half while playing from the back). City, United, Soton yesterday - even on this clip pasted recently you saw how deep we lured them and created spaces behind, because they pressed our defenders.

Villa game and Everton were pleasant surprises to me. West Ham as well.

I agree we should have our own style and we have it. We just need to be more efficient in tweaks when opponent plays in the way that does not suit us. Because im sure mid and low table clubs will play like Woolwich or Ipswich, not like City or Soton. And we lose league because of results with bottom 10. Wolves and Forest will be good test, waiting for that matches with bigger curiosity than for Pool game.
 
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