Match Tottenham Vs Bournemouth - 2pm Sunday 9th March - Live on SKY

[BJK]

This looks like the culmination of a promising break for us actually. We have more than enough numbers up front to score here, and Odobert has a relatively easy delivery to make. Finding Sarr would be ideal but also difficult here because Odobert has a defender running right at him covering that passing angle, but he can also find Son as a secondary prize. That's what he does.

Son's heavy touch kills off the potential goal scoring opportunity, but pay attention to Spence suddenly arriving on the scene. I don't get it. Why would a LB bomb forward in transition unless he's reasonably certain that he'll get the ball, or impact the play in another way? This is not a set play where frontline players would actively search for overlapping fullbacks, so in transition they most likely won't notice such a run. Besides, Son here isn't in a position to make that pass even if he notices Spence's presence, which he probably doesn't.

Tavernier (#16), after disrupting Son, dribbles his way out of the danger. The reason I've higlighted Bergvall and Bentancur in addition to Sarr and Spence is to point out how we lack bodies at the back once again. All 3 midfielders plus LB are all the way up the pitch, so exactly who's providing cover for all these people on the other end? At the bottom of your screen you can already see Kluivert (#19) wide open. This'll be relevant at the end.

Tavernier gets around Bergvall, which draws Porro out of position as well. Then he passes it around Porro for a give and go with his teammate Semenyo (#24). We're in trouble if they can execute this relatively straightforward one two smoothly.

It works. Bentancur tries to get there to intercept but is one step behind, due to marking someone else higher up the pitch a few seconds earlier. Romero and Danso are the last men standing, but they can't do much from here on. We're at Bournemouth's mercy.

Spence tries to get there at the very last second but can't reach it. And Kluivert (#19), who has been wide since forever, scores easily.

This was disallowed due to Semenyo being off, but you can notice in the relevant screenshot that he doesn't gain any advantage by being off. He would have been equally as open if he was on. So I think we got away with one here.

I'm not going to flood this thread any more with these, as it should be obvious to anyone how amateurish our defending is. You can explain (away) all this by attributing collective stupidity/incompetence to players themselves, but I think a more parsimonious explanation would point the finger at coaching or lack thereof.

 

[Richard Arlison]

This looks like the culmination of a promising break for us actually. We have more than enough numbers up front to score here, and Odobert has a relatively easy delivery to make. Finding Sarr would be ideal but also difficult here because Odobert has a defender running right at him covering that passing angle, but he can also find Son as a secondary prize. That's what he does.

Son's heavy touch kills off the potential goal scoring opportunity, but pay attention to Spence suddenly arriving on the scene. I don't get it. Why would a LB bomb forward in transition unless he's reasonably certain that he'll get the ball, or impact the play in another way? This is not a set play where frontline players would actively search for overlapping fullbacks, so in transition they most likely won't notice such a run. Besides, Son here isn't in a position to make that pass even if he notices Spence's presence, which he probably doesn't.

Tavernier (#16), after disrupting Son, dribbles his way out of the danger. The reason I've higlighted Bergvall and Bentancur in addition to Sarr and Spence is to point out how we lack bodies at the back once again. All 3 midfielders plus LB are all the way up the pitch, so exactly who's providing cover for all these people on the other end? At the bottom of your screen you can already see Kluivert (#19) wide open. This'll be relevant at the end.

Tavernier gets around Bergvall, which draws Porro out of position as well. Then he passes it around Porro for a give and go with his teammate Semenyo (#24). We're in trouble if they can execute this relatively straightforward one two smoothly.

It works. Bentancur tries to get there to intercept but is one step behind, due to marking someone else higher up the pitch a few seconds earlier. Romero and Danso are the last men standing, but they can't do much from here on. We're at Bournemouth's mercy.

Spence tries to get there at the very last second but can't reach it. And Kluivert (#19), who has been wide since forever, scores easily.

This was disallowed due to Semenyo being off, but you can notice in the relevant screenshot that he doesn't gain any advantage by being off. He would have been equally as open if he was on. So I think we got away with one here.

I'm not going to flood this thread any more with these, as it should be obvious to anyone how amateurish our defending is. You can explain (away) all this by attributing collective stupidity/incompetence to players themselves, but I think a more parsimonious explanation would point the finger at coaching or lack thereof.

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This is exactly what I mean when I said we created plenty of very promising situations but couldn’t execute and also why I said Odobert was one of the few positives from the game.

I get what you are saying about Spence but maybe he was also pushing up to initiate the press as well as try and get into a scoring position?
Either way, it’s not a great position to press from.

The biggest issue is one player with the ball beating 2 defenders in Bergvall and Porro though. As for the offside, Romero knew it was off. If you watch the replay, he’d pretty much switched off because he knew nothing would come of it. If anything the Lino really had no reason not to raise his flag, it was yards offside.

 

[BJK]

That high risk low reward Spence run inside the box that I mentioned above got me thinking about the way our players are allowed, or worse encouraged, to play the game in general. For me Ange genuinely struggles with simple but interrelated concepts like economy, trade-offs, risk-reward ratios and such. He looks an awful lot like your typical teenager who believes that he can have it all if he just wants it enough. He doesn't acknowledge the fact that he has finite resources at his disposal, in the form of 11 fallible individuals.

No, you can't ask your midfielders to constantly hang around the touchlines to press opposing wide players and still have enough bodies at the centre. You can't have your fullbacks sit narrow and create overloads in the centre, keep your wingers way up the pitch in case you achieve a breakthrough, and still have people occupy the touchlines during the initial buildup from the back.You can't have your fullbacks play as pseudo attacking midfielders in the set play, not have any central midfielders cover for them by staying back, and still have enough defensive insurance at the back in case you turn it over. All of these decisions involve trade-offs, you need to be weighing pros and cons of each before taking them. I admit this sounds condescending on my part, but after over 1.5 years Ange gives the impression of a man who simply tries to sweep these trade-offs under the rug by ignoring them.

Our players routinely go for low percentage plays in the form of desperate tackles, thread-the-needle passes in extremely dangerous areas, trying to press in situations where they have no chance of forcing an error and such. Either these players worth millions of pounds are incapable of making accurate decisions as a collective, or they're just following the instructions. Something tells me that it's the latter.

 

[Maureen]

First goal was a result of Porro being caught way upfield and us not having a player covering any space on the right side of the pitch anywhere. Completely wide open free run.

The goal that VAR marked off, Spence was in Bournemouth's penalty area while his winger was near the halfway line. Incredible sprint by him to just about get back.

The issue isn't about the FBs attacking, but as you say there's no compensation.

My biggest complaint with Ange's "system" has always been that it's not a system at all. He doesn't have the tactical sophistication to develop a system - it's just a set of ideals.

Where under Poch and Conte (and other pressing managers at other clubs) there were rules for what actions/opponent positions would trigger our pressing actions, under Ange it's just press-press-press until your legs fall off.

Likewise, where under other managers when we had the ball and certain positions advanced it would trigger others to cover. Under Poch, Walker and Rose were one of the most dangerous and effective attacking fullback pairings the league has seen - because when one attacked, the other stayed home usually, and Dier became one of the standouts of the league dropping in to cover behind them. Under Ange it's just attack-attack-attack.

It's just extremely naive, and he was sussed out by every manager in the league long ago. Caught a lot of people off guard initially because no one has really ever treated defending so incredibly casually in PL history. But once everyone realized all you have to do is wait for our shape to disintegrate and then play the ball into the acres of space we leave undefended 20 times a match, we turned into one of the worst teams in the league for 18+ months.

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I’d have to argue that we don’t press press press. Certainly not like what Bmouth did to us high up. We don’t have the forwards to press anyway not the midfield may be Sarr.

 

[Maureen]

We have better individuals is why we are capable of some good moments and still score goals.

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Like I’ve said umpteen times Ange ball is not about anything other than moments. There is no structure or control in our play. Look at the way we try to pass the ball out from the back. CD passes out to Johnson as FB is not there and Johnson even plays it straight back or tries one of his flicks. We lose the ball and cycle begins again.

 

[Maureen]

He has no clue.

No clue on how to fix the fucking mess he has put our club in.

"Just sloppy with the ball"

What a cunt.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AwKr7lYnkg

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How many times has he said that!

 

[MemphisWill]

I’d have to argue that we don’t press press press. Certainly not like what Bmouth did to us high up. We don’t have the forwards to press anyway not the midfield may be Sarr.

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I don't think we have been recently because we fucked off our entire squad. But up until January or so we were way up the combined chart for pressures on opponents and high line, so it was definitely a key part of his philosophy.

 

[bk_spur]

You sir have literally summed up what I was going to say! o7

I just want to explain what, from what I've seen & have an understanding of Angeball why as these things are happening. I'm taking my knowledge directly from sources I've posted below & from my own eye test my response.

"Our pressing I think is ineffective because it's impossible to pull off as desired. Individual players seem to simply stop pressing hard"

Completely agree & yes physicality is a factor regarding tiredness but I am always hesitant to just use that narrative, I'm not dismissing it by any means but I also want to touch on something that is also a factor & that is mentality. The reason I say this is because even when we have a substantial break between games our pressing is quite frankly sub-par compared to other teams our transition to the defensive stage when we lose possession, which happened far too many times, it appeared Spurs didn't have the grit to then reclaim possession through 1-2-1 duels.

"The verticality and setup of the fullbacks- constantly, purposefully, eschewing a standard wide position which gives CBs legitimate options and stretches a press- always puts us in danger of turning it over in front of our own goal"

Personally I'm sick and tired of horse-shoe football I understand why they're doing it but not only does it provide unentertaining but they're not performing these stages with enough pace & precision to make it work. I know Ange uses inverted fullbacks which creates a very narrow defensive line which as we saw in the Bournemouth game was easily penetrated via the wings on the first goal so I completely agree with your analysis. Regarding playing out the back I have no idea why our passing was so dreadful it could be a coaching issue or it could lack of concerntration but again I just couldn't see a winning mentality.

The second goal you can see our faults as soon as soon as Bergvall was passed our players didn't start their runs back until it was too late except 2 players - Spence who realised where the ball was going to be played & Maddison who tried to intercept/tackle but by the time the ball went to Evanilson I knew it was a goal as Danso wouldn't be able to intercept & as much pace Spence has he was never going to get there in time.

The moment I knew we would concede

I think from my point of view our greatest issue is a complete lack of cohesive play both on & off the ball - what is the root cause? I could speculate but I'll probably be wrong.

'Angeball: The Definitive Biography of Ange Postecoglou'
'Revolution: Ange Postecoglou: The Man, the Methods and the Mastery'

View: https://youtu.be/ahCoFRvC_aM?si=DEMgE_wfk6E3T7EB

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Appreciate you friend. Really hoping for all our sakes we can get back to a more sound philosophy which helps us all enjoy Spurs football again.

 

[bk_spur]

This looks like the culmination of a promising break for us actually. We have more than enough numbers up front to score here, and Odobert has a relatively easy delivery to make. Finding Sarr would be ideal but also difficult here because Odobert has a defender running right at him covering that passing angle, but he can also find Son as a secondary prize. That's what he does.

Son's heavy touch kills off the potential goal scoring opportunity, but pay attention to Spence suddenly arriving on the scene. I don't get it. Why would a LB bomb forward in transition unless he's reasonably certain that he'll get the ball, or impact the play in another way? This is not a set play where frontline players would actively search for overlapping fullbacks, so in transition they most likely won't notice such a run. Besides, Son here isn't in a position to make that pass even if he notices Spence's presence, which he probably doesn't.

Tavernier (#16), after disrupting Son, dribbles his way out of the danger. The reason I've higlighted Bergvall and Bentancur in addition to Sarr and Spence is to point out how we lack bodies at the back once again. All 3 midfielders plus LB are all the way up the pitch, so exactly who's providing cover for all these people on the other end? At the bottom of your screen you can already see Kluivert (#19) wide open. This'll be relevant at the end.

Tavernier gets around Bergvall, which draws Porro out of position as well. Then he passes it around Porro for a give and go with his teammate Semenyo (#24). We're in trouble if they can execute this relatively straightforward one two smoothly.

It works. Bentancur tries to get there to intercept but is one step behind, due to marking someone else higher up the pitch a few seconds earlier. Romero and Danso are the last men standing, but they can't do much from here on. We're at Bournemouth's mercy.

Spence tries to get there at the very last second but can't reach it. And Kluivert (#19), who has been wide since forever, scores easily.

This was disallowed due to Semenyo being off, but you can notice in the relevant screenshot that he doesn't gain any advantage by being off. He would have been equally as open if he was on. So I think we got away with one here.

I'm not going to flood this thread any more with these, as it should be obvious to anyone how amateurish our defending is. You can explain (away) all this by attributing collective stupidity/incompetence to players themselves, but I think a more parsimonious explanation would point the finger at coaching or lack thereof.

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Agree. Once again, very good post.

 

[BJK]

Re: players making low percentage plays, you could even add Bentancur's forward run in parallel with Porro's before the latter's turnover eventually leads to Bournemouth's first goal. Porro, and Johnson to a lesser degree, took all the heat for that goal, but Bentancur fully abandoning his area of responsibility as the sole DM of the team was what allowed Kerkez to have all that space in front of him. Such a high risk low reward move on Bentancur's part.

What made it high risk is obvious so I'm not going to elaborate further on that, but it was also low reward in the sense that even if Porro passed it to him instead of Johnson, I'm not sure what he would have done with it. Was he planning to be on the receiving end of a Johnson low cross instead, in a way that you would usually expect a striker to be? Either way, I just can't wrap my head around Bentancur of all people leading the line in transition. It will never work, and will only put him vastly out of position on the other end.

As a general point, I guess that's how Ange's attempt at total football looks like in practice. He envisions a team where all players are almost fully interchangeable in their responsibilities and spatial distribution on the pitch. So you can end up with DMs leading the line on counters, fullbacks pressing their opposing counterparts inside their own third, CBs getting way over the halfway line to press opposing midfielders and so on.

Something tells me that this is not how it is supposed to be though, as there's a fine line between flexibility in the above sense and unadulterated chaos. You can end up with the latter despite wishing for the former.

 

[Gazzapen]

And I've been saying we should sack him for months and months and months.

He never should have been interviewed for this job, much less hired. The biggest mistake in Levy's career, and that takes some doing.

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Can I Get an Amento that.