Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[Trix]

I absolutely am not spouting any twitter knee jerk nonsense. You tell me how I am wrong in my estimation he has been figured out and we are sitting ducks to any team. Our performances since end of October have been poor. I initially taught this was to do with suspentions and injuries but as players have returned performances have still been poor. This is pre Poch Tottenham, easy to play against and easy to beat

I argued exactly the same for Conte and Jose so I'll repeat what I said for both of them.

Hiring a manager with a specific style and principles of play, means he needs specific players with specific skill sets to make that work. This is 3 managers now Levy has hired in this mould and 2 of them didn't get all those players they needed. They got a token gesture and then some others to make up the numbers.

Either hire flexible coaches, or back one sufficiently and see it through.

And before anyone starts going on about how much was spent for Conte or Jose when I say backing them sufficiently I mean with players they want and need, not players they haven't asked for(regardless of how good they are) but cost a lot of money.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

What are the positives after other teams had a month or 2 to look at our set up. He is a lovely guy but he is not cut out for the prem. I know I'll get lots of negative responses to this comment but that's how I see it anyway. Hope I'm wrong

These things ebb and flow. I’ve put in my other post the areas we need to address tactically and player recruitment wise.

You’re perfectly entitled to your opinion but we’ve had so many ‘rebuilds’ let’s not write this one off not even a full season in. Our play with the ball is good, we need some better players especially in attack, we need to defend set pieces better and better control games to stop counter attacks.

If those issues still persist this time next season I’ll be concerned, right now I still think there are positives to build on. Our play with the ball, our resilience and ability to come back from behind, some matches when it’s clicked like earlier in the season and Villa away etc we’ve looked very good.

 

[DiscoD1882]

Arsenal literally just played against our weaknesses.

Our current weaknesses. Yes.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I argued exactly the same for Conte and Jose so I'll repeat what I said for both of them.

Hiring a manager with a specific style and principles of play, means he needs specific players with specific skill sets to make that work. This is 3 managers now Levy has hired in this mould and 2 of them didn't get all those players they needed. They got a token gesture and then some others to make up the numbers.

Either hire flexible coaches, or back one sufficiently and see it through.

And before anyone starts going on about how much was spent for Conte or Jose when I say backing them sufficiently I mean with players they want and need, not players they haven't asked for(regardless of how good they are) but cost a lot of money.

Yep, this needs to happen as it has done so far with recruitment for Ange, big summer ahead and then Ange needs to work on improving what are clear weaknesses in our tactical setup right now.

Both those things happen, we’ll be better next season.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

I get where you are coming from to be honest. Great guy but the more time he has spent here the worse we have looked. Like you say teams have adapted to how we play and other than the odd half or moment ina game we look really poor.

I hope it's down to injuries and internationals and just needing to get the right players in but your concern is warranted IMO.

I don’t think that’s fair.

 

[McFlash]

Some of the comments are here are fucking pathetic. Constant fucking changes of managers does nothing. Let’s give at least one guy 2 seasons before we all lose our shit.

Today we had a penalty not given, Romero missing 2 headers he should have scored and Sonny missing a one on one. Also a ridiculously close call for an offside.

One of their goals was given to them and the other 2 poor defensive errors. Other than that they did and created nothing.

We have to stop this knee jerk bollocks every season. It’s embarrassing. We saw at the start of the season how good we can be under him and have seen it in patches for the rest of the season. We were light years ahead of Arsenal that second half. Maddison has completely downed tools for some reason and PEH never needs to start games. He is only ok when he comes on as a sub that’s it.

Let’s let Ange have another window, another pre season and see how he gets on.

Well said mate, I missed the game as I've been working today, so I'm just catching up on this thread but fuck me, some of the responses in here are crazy.

Thankfully, you've put across what I would've like to say but I've been drinking and was just about to call everyone a pathetic bunch of gutless ****s!

The same ****s no doubt who've spent the last few years taking the piss out of Arsenal fans for "trusting the process", while they've got no guts to stick with anything themselves.

Call themselves fans but shit the bed as soon as we hit a sticky patch, knee-jerk and want everything perfect instantly.
No fight in any of these wet wipes.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Our current weaknesses. Yes.

So then top teams very much do think about the opposition.

Take Madrid Vs Citeh this season.

At the Bernabau Madrid had the lions share of possession.

At the Etihad they sat deep and defended.

Ancelotti studied how Citeh played, then made sweeping tactical changes in the second leg.

Arsenal were high up the pitch pressuring Chavski in their last game. Arteta saw that we struggle with a low block and the counter, so set themselves up to take advantage of that.

Both Arsenal and Madrid overcame their opponents, because they specifically prepared for those opponents

 

[gerishep]

Really sorry but couldn’t disagree more, Arteta has had 5 years and an absolute fortune to shape his team and we were still competitive. We’ve beaten some top sides this season and lost to some too. We cannot keep having this attitude of hiring and firing a manager. It’s clear he has a unique way of playing that most agreed start of season needed a certain skill set of players and these would take more than a season to get in. Im going to give him next season and see if we are continuing to progress as we have.

£33 million more than us.

 

[McFlash]

male adjustments

I think some of the posters in here need this!

 

[keithtighe93]

Let’s talk facts and reality - we look like conceding on every opposition corner, that’s not normal.

Been like this for weeks at this stage, for him to come out with these comments, well it’s absolutely baffling and it’s kind of insulting in a way.

What the fuck is he talking about when he says ‘where we are as a team’?

Seems totally clueless or arrogant, not sure which is worse. Likes of Allardyce or Pulis would have the corner issues sorted in 2 weeks.


Secondarily as already pointed, it’s insane how often we lose possession and opponents instantly have a 1-1 with Vicario, or are 2-2 with the CB’s.

No signs these are being worked on, and clearly getting worse. It’s not a lack of effort from players either. I think we are in trouble if he doesn’t wise up

 

[NEVILLEB]

As a team we look confused about how to attack and how to defend.

 

[kitchen]

I get where you are coming from to be honest. Great guy but the more time he has spent here the worse we have looked. Like you say teams have adapted to how we play and other than the odd half or moment ina game we look really poor.

I hope it's down to injuries and internationals and just needing to get the right players in but your concern is warranted IMO.

Teams have adapted to the way we play but we have looked worse primarily because of injuries and form and because Ange hasn't got all the tools he needs yet.

It's obvious how to set up against us. Play 5 at the back. Park the bus and give us the ball. Counter attack with fast wingers and pressure Vicario on set pieces.

Ange's system isn't designed to allow this. We're supposed to break through the low block but he lacks elite dribblers that drive into the box to do it.

We're supposed to stop the counter attack at source but our press hasn't been consistent enough to do it due to poor form particularly of bissouma. Start of the season bissouma was the best 6 in the league and maddison was the best attacking midfielder. Both are significantly worse than that on current form.

We're supposed to defend set pieces but clearly haven't worked out how to protect vicario against aggressive big Teams and refs that offer him no protection. We also lack players aggressive in the air. Only really Romero, Udogie and Richarlison are like this.

Give Ange the tools he wants and needs and then if he fails we can criticise the method. I personally think his football is fantastic and he is definitely the man to deliver for us IF he is backed.

Arteta finished 8th two seasons in a row when he started. Even guardiola finished 3rd in his first season. We need to back Ange and judge him after that.

 

[ItsBoris]

Today was far less worrying than the games against Newcastle or Fulham.

If our play is good, and attitude is good, the other stuff can be fixed. Particularly set pieces. That's a lot easier than teaching a team to control a game through possession. Today we looked like we partially corrected the problems that were uncovered by Newcastle, but then new weaknesses popped up.

 

[ultimateloner]

Ange post-match interview:
1) We have bigger problems than just set-piece defending.
2) He concedes that the 2 set-piece goals were poor.
3) We are missing/not focused enough on 'small details' of the game; he didn't elaborate which ones, but gave an example: for the counter-attack for the second goal, we were unaware of the danger when we lost the ball
4) He said Romero's a World-Cup winner and wants to get more of him into the others.
5) He felt that we controlled the game.

Ange likely thinks that his players lack concentration/focus/awareness across the game, and this is our main problem.

 

[ItsBoris]

Teams have adapted to the way we play but we have looked worse primarily because of injuries and form and because Ange hasn't got all the tools he needs yet.

It's obvious how to set up against us. Play 5 at the back. Park the bus and give us the ball. Counter attack with fast wingers and pressure Vicario on set pieces.

Ange's system isn't designed to allow this. We're supposed to break through the low block but he lacks elite dribblers that drive into the box to do it.

We're supposed to stop the counter attack at source but our press hasn't been consistent enough to do it due to poor form particularly of bissouma. Start of the season bissouma was the best 6 in the league and maddison was the best attacking midfielder. Both are significantly worse than that on current form.

We're supposed to defend set pieces but clearly haven't worked out how to protect vicario against aggressive big Teams and refs that offer him no protection.

Give Ange the tools he wants and needs and then if he fails we can criticise the method. I personally think his football is fantastic and he is definitely the man to deliver for us IF he is backed.

Arteta finished 8th two seasons in a row when he started. Even guardiola finished 3rd in his first season. We need to back Ange and judge him after that.

Very sensible post. I would just add, when teams figure out how to play against your main system, which for us is basically a 2-3-5 in attack, you need to be able to counter the counter. So in my opinion we need more than one way of playing. for example, we use inverted full backs and wide wingers, but if the other team has pacy wingers, we could switch to wide fullbacks with wingers that cut inside. Porro/Udogie can do both, but we lack wide players with that kind of versatility. So that's something to address in the summer I think.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Teams have adapted to the way we play but we have looked worse primarily because of injuries and form and because Ange hasn't got all the tools he needs yet.

It's obvious how to set up against us. Play 5 at the back. Park the bus and give us the ball. Counter attack with fast wingers and pressure Vicario on set pieces.

Ange's system isn't designed to allow this. We're supposed to break through the low block but he lacks elite dribblers that drive into the box to do it.

We're supposed to stop the counter attack at source but our press hasn't been consistent enough to do it due to poor form particularly of bissouma. Start of the season bissouma was the best 6 in the league and maddison was the best attacking midfielder. Both are significantly worse than that on current form.

We're supposed to defend set pieces but clearly haven't worked out how to protect vicario against aggressive big Teams and refs that offer him no protection.

Give Ange the tools he wants and needs and then if he fails we can criticise the method. I personally think his football is fantastic and he is definitely the man to deliver for us IF he is backed.

Arteta finished 8th two seasons in a row when he started. Even guardiola finished 3rd in his first season. We need to back Ange and judge him after that.

100%. Rome wasn't built in a day. We need to stick by him and give him time to work. You only have to look at that lot as a perfect example. Backing a coach long term is the right way.

Ange is a class act as a person and in interviews and he's here to win, not collect a paycheck or a top 4 bonus. Even better, his preferred style suits us as a club too.

We played the title contenders (ugh) today and were the better side throughout, set pieces killing us again, something that we should be able to fix by next season.

We finished last season as an utter shambles and then sold our all time top goalscorer. We've made some serious strides this season already.

We just need to keep the faith.

 

[DiscoD1882]

So then top teams very much do think about the opposition.

Take Madrid Vs Citeh this season.

At the Bernabau Madrid had the lions share of possession.

At the Etihad they sat deep and defended.

Ancelotti studied how Citeh played, then made sweeping tactical changes in the second leg.

Arsenal were high up the pitch pressuring Chavski in their last game. Arteta saw that we struggle with a low block and the counter, so set themselves up to take advantage of that.

Both Arsenal and Madrid overcame their opponents, because they specifically prepared for those opponents

There are tweaks. Yes. Bit general game play is at the managers discretion.

 

[ItsBoris]

So then top teams very much do think about the opposition.

Take Madrid Vs Citeh this season.

At the Bernabau Madrid had the lions share of possession.

At the Etihad they sat deep and defended.

Ancelotti studied how Citeh played, then made sweeping tactical changes in the second leg.

Arsenal were high up the pitch pressuring Chavski in their last game. Arteta saw that we struggle with a low block and the counter, so set themselves up to take advantage of that.

Both Arsenal and Madrid overcame their opponents, because they specifically prepared for those opponents

Nope, City had 62% possession in that game. The counter example to what you're saying is that City don't really change their game, although they do make adjustments depending on the opponent. I've never seen City sitting back and playing a low block though. They don't make that kind of compromise and that's partly why they've dominated the league these last few years.

Real Madrid is basically a team custom made to kill teams like City that play a high line. Even then they were lucky to get through the CL tie. And they aren't a team that racks up points week after week in the league with the same efficient that Man City does.

 

[Gilzeanking]

Today was far less worrying than the games against Newcastle or Fulham.

Problem with this view for me is that this game was our no 1 home match of the season, fans made that clear. The players put in an unusually large effort.

They don't play at this intensity normally unfortunately.

 

[Impspur1]

Don’t be sorry, you’re spot on — and not spouting the usual knee-jerk Twitter BS.

Thank you, sometimes a little perspective is needed