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Management The Ange Postecoglou always wins stuff in his second season positivity thread: evAngelists only
- Thread starter WillWilliams
- Start date
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I get what you are saying, but you wouldn’t disagree with me if I said our squad is better than Bournemouths, Brentford, Fulham, Forest, Brighton.
All above us - so we don’t have to compare him to previous managers, we can compare him to the managers of those sides and think what could Iraola do with our squad?
It really is as simple as that
His comment was funny though.
Gallows humour is very important, it stops humans mentally imploding and ending it all.
And you needed it in shovelfuls at times in the 90’s with the scum winning the league and us nearly going down.
Ange does remind me a bit of Ossie Ardiles though - which is mildly terrifying
The trajectory with Lego was upwards though.
Arteta won the FA cup which bought him extra wiggle room.
If Ange delivers a cup this season then that might be enough to get him another year - but you’d be a brave man to bet on us winning a cup.
League cup - if we get past United, there is a high chance we have to play Liverpool/Woolwich over 2 legs with a side that looks completely shagged
Europa - we’re making a pigs ear of that now. We need to avoid the extra games and hope we are in form when the big tests arrive. The Galatasaray and Roma games though suggested we will struggle when the quality steps up
FA cup - if we can get past Tamworth then maybe - but we will need to avoid a Championship side away from home midweek - absolute kryptonite for us
Also completely ignoring that Arteta bought himself time with winning the FA cup. We barely look functional in the League but in the cups we are extremely lucky.
8th in both of his first two seasons, if they'd pulled the plug then it wouldn't have been upward. The FA Cup win bought him another season, not the league form.
Agreed the FA Cup win bought him time.
Agreed the league cup isn't easy given the other teams still in it.
Won 3, lost 1 and drawn 1 is hardly making a pigs ear of it. When the quality steps up we'll hopefully be playing a better 11 if injuries calm down. It highlights our lack of depth in our squad though, this needs to improve irrespective of the manager.
IF we beat Tamworth? We will beat Tamworth.
Which isn't the dawn !!So the moment where there is still a little light before it goes completely black is actually the darkest time……...
As couple of people mentioned above, this high variance, end-to-end style of play that he encourages may work in cup competitions. We'll never finish above City, but we just knocked them out in a single game shoot-out. We're 4 games away from a cup right now. And while I still find it unlikely that he'll finish the season, if he does (let's assume so, this is the positivity thread after all) I have a gut feeling that he'll win a trophy. Normally it wouldn't be something to write home about but considering the drought we're in it would earn him significant credit.
This credit may afford him at least some leverage in transfer market because right now I don't think he has any. If his style of play is as reliant on winger play as people claim to be, then simply upgrading our wingers can make a significant difference in how we play because they're simply terrible right now. I suspect that this recurrent theme of 'fannying around on opposition's half before we eventually lose the ball and get caught in transition' is strongly related to this lack of quality. Wingers are not capable of taking their man on 1v1s, resulting in recycling possession back to the middle where central players are eventually crowded by the opposition. Result is players getting caught out of position, spending great energy desperately trying to chase back, leaving vast spaces in transition and a disorganized mess in general.
That was my best attempt at positivity, I'm not convinced in this kind of a trajectory but one can always hope I guess.
This credit may afford him at least some leverage in transfer market because right now I don't think he has any. If his style of play is as reliant on winger play as people claim to be, then simply upgrading our wingers can make a significant difference in how we play because they're simply terrible right now. I suspect that this recurrent theme of 'fannying around on opposition's half before we eventually lose the ball and get caught in transition' is strongly related to this lack of quality. Wingers are not capable of taking their man on 1v1s, resulting in recycling possession back to the middle where central players are eventually crowded by the opposition. Result is players getting caught out of position, spending great energy desperately trying to chase back, leaving vast spaces in transition and a disorganized mess in general.
That was my best attempt at positivity, I'm not convinced in this kind of a trajectory but one can always hope I guess.
Agree our forwards on both wings are killing us. Can't hold it up (apart from Kulu who has no pace), can't dribble (apart from Wilson and Moore, both injured and both teenagers), we're desperate for better in these positions.
It doesn't matter who the manager is, anyone coming in will want better. Ange has also continually highlighted the front third as our biggest area for improvement.
Is it though? And, furthermore, do people here actually think so? Not if you go around the individual player threads:
Vicario - tick. Would start for all of those teams you'd think.
Porro - good player; can't defend. Almost all our goals conceded got through him. Tick but question marks.
Romero - rash, head turned and off anyway. Plays for Argentina not Spurs.
VDV - tick. But injury prone.
Udogie - Getting absolute pelters in his thread.
Bissouma - consensus agrees not good enough consistently enough.
Bentancur - possible tick? Gets mixed reviews. But not elite. Would he start automatically in the sides above?
Sarr - Tick but elite? Maybe one day. Does he automatically start in the engine room of above clubs?
Maddison - good player when game suits him. Not the leader he needs to be. Came from a relegated team.
Kulusevski - TICK (apart from
bus-conductor
)Brennan Johnson - tap in merchant. Fanbase hates him so much they drove him off socials.
Solanke - works hard. Doesn't score enough goals. Came from Bournemouth who replaced him with Evanilson - would they want him back?
Son - past his best. Fallen off a cliff this season.
Bench: Timo; Richy; kids. Nuff said
There you go. Doesn't make for pretty reading, does it? And these aren't necessarily MY THOUGHTS but the thoughts of the most vociferous Ange Outers on this forum. So we have a situation where, actually, our squad simply doesn't stack up all that well against all those mid-table teams - even if we didn't have injuries which we do.
As this is the positivity thread here's some desperate positivity - actually Ange Postecoglou has this midtable squad punching above its weight?
Is it though? And, furthermore, do people here actually think so? Not if you go around the individual player threads:
Vicario - tick. Would start for all of those teams you'd think.
Porro - good player; can't defend. Almost all our goals conceded got through him. Tick but question marks.
Romero - rash, head turned and off anyway. Plays for Argentina not Spurs.
VDV - tick. But injury prone.
Udogie - Getting absolute pelters in his thread.
Bissouma - consensus agrees not good enough consistently enough.
Bentancur - possible tick? Gets mixed reviews. But not elite. Would he start automatically in the sides above?
Sarr - Tick but elite? Maybe one day. Does he automatically start in the engine room of above clubs?
Maddison - good player when game suits him. Not the leader he needs to be. Came from a relegated team.
Kulusevski - TICK (apart from
Brennan Johnson - tap in merchant. Fanbase hates him so much they drove him off socials.
Solanke - works hard. Doesn't score enough goals. Came from Bournemouth who replaced him with Evanilson - would they want him back?
Son - past his best. Fallen off a cliff this season.
Bench: Timo; Richy; kids. Nuff said
There you go. Doesn't make for pretty reading, does it? And these aren't necessarily MY THOUGHTS but the thoughts of the most vociferous Ange Outers on this forum. So we have a situation where, actually, our squad simply doesn't stack up all that well against all those mid-table teams - even if we didn't have injuries which we do.
As this is the positivity thread here's some desperate positivity - actually Ange Postecoglou has this midtable squad punching above its weight?
Udogie is a talented boy who has gone backwards and yeah, Bournemouth would have Solanke back. He's better than Evanilson.
The likes of Bentancur, Bissouma, Sarr etc would all be starting most weeks for these clubs. Bissouma was central for Brighton.
We have a much better squad than these clubs.
So Lego head had played more, won more, drawn more and lost less?
Right.
8th in 2 seasons, more points in the first than the 2nd. Then 5th. Then 2nd. Then 2nd again with more points than the last 2nd place.
Heck, City could even have those titles stripped. Then Arteta is a double PL champion.
He has shown nothing but upwards progress since he arrived.
We on the other hand, in case you haven't noticed whilst tripping balls on this positivity crack you're on, are going down the league.
I'll simplify it for you.
Arteta go up league and earn more time.
Ange go down league and get sack.
Get it yet?
Will we though?
Yes we probably will, but still it’s only the 3rd round, long way to go.
Roma was a bit of a pigs ear. The boffs reckon you need 16 points for top 8 - yes we’re only 2 wins from 3 off that and one of those is Elfsborg - but I have some trepidation regarding our trips to Rangers and Hoffenheim - both could easily be draws and see us missing out with 15 points
The former bolded bit does not justify the confidence of the latter
Besides, as I said this isn't necessarily my assessment of the individual players but the general assessment of the TFC brains trust.
I think it's obvious that the relative mid table strength of the Premier League has risen dramatically - as seen by Bournemouth beating City,Scum and ourselves. Fulham are a strong outfit with decent options off the bench. Even if this current Spurs squad is "better" than the above it's not by much. There is a vast difference to the elite squads of Liverpool, Chav pricks and Woolwich's (best 13 - they drop off after that imo).