Manager Watch: Ange Postecoglou

[nedley]

I suppose a target man type striker and Rodri like CDM who can both head the ball away at set pieces would be good.

Yep.

Richy will be gone this summer imo.

After training all week and he comes on 65 mins.

He's not the one for Ange evidently

 

[mil1lion]

I think it's become more apparent as times gone on. The better the better the opposition the easier it is to exploit. In the prem every team has great delivery and tactical awareness.

There is black and white. Find my a pundit or an analyst that thinks zonal marking in this day and age a good idea. Find Me another top level club that still marks with a full zonal system.

You won't be able to because it's an outdated system that has failed over and over. Why we do it I have no idea but it's costing us week in week out now that teams have the blue print on how to exploit ours. That's the problem with zonal marking every team does it slightly different but once it's been worked out it's easy for everyone to copy.

I'm sure there are teams who still do it. I only really follow what we do but I'm sure we're not alone. I'm not disagreeing it has it's flaws. I just don't think the players are devoid of blame either. Hojbjerg for example picks up a natural position that most teams do. It was the same position Kane would defend. In fact a lot of teams still use some element of zonal marking. Usually you have a few players with set positions and the rest man mark. You still need the players to defend their position better than they have been.

 

[HildoSpur]

Yep.

Richy will be gone this summer imo.

After training all week and he comes on 65 mins.

He's not the one for Ange evidently

I'll be stunned if we sell Richy to be honest. It would take a fortune to replace him and we need strengthening in other areas.

 

[Impspur1]

Hoijberg earned his place did he?

Not his biggest fan but he’s

Yep..

He's losing fans big time.

is he really? Feeling i get is frustration but patience and acceptance that we are a work in progress and very much on the right track…. Admittedly not in here

 

[TOLBINY]

Don't worry -we will have fixed our defensive issues by the City game - you can bet your bottom dollar we keep a clean sheet!

 

[DiscoD1882]

I think it's become more apparent as times gone on. The better the better the opposition the easier it is to exploit. In the prem every team has great delivery and tactical awareness.

There is black and white. Find my a pundit or an analyst that thinks zonal marking in this day and age a good idea. Find Me another top level club that still marks with a full zonal system.

You won't be able to because it's an outdated system that has failed over and over. Why we do it I have no idea but it's costing us week in week out now that teams have the blue print on how to exploit ours. That's the problem with zonal marking every team does it slightly different but once it's been worked out it's easy for everyone to copy.

Liverpool still do zonal marking to be fair.

 

[Impspur1]

I'll be stunned if we sell Richy to be honest. It would take a fortune to replace him and we need strengthening in other areas.

I think he’s a sellable asset that still pulls in decent money for us to upgrade

 

[NEVILLEB]

The problem is that either he doesn’t have the right players to fit his system

Or

His system doesn’t work

Both are concerns

 

[mattstev2000]

Naff performance from Ange all round today. Not entirely convinced he has the tactical acumen to succeed in the Premier League.

Hope I'm wrong because the first 10 games were great and definitely a massive step up from what we've been served up for the past three years or so, since then however the whole season has been mediocre at best and the squad isn't performing to it's potential.

 

[Typical Spurs]

So this is my view:

- If he doesn't think defending set pieces are an issue we're fucked. It's so glaringly obvious. Away at Newcastle Brennan Johnson was dealing with Dan Burn. I mean, how ridiculous is that? Dan Burn just held him off like he wasn't there.

- it's incredibly concerning that we can be in possession anywhere on the pitch and within 2-3 passes the opposition are 1 on 1 with Vicario or at the very least have a great chance. We are so gaping it's untrue and it's naïve in my view.

- we seem to really lack a cohesive approach to attacking play. It always feels more hopeful than anything trained - other than the low cross and first time finish which teams seemed to have worked out.

Whilst in essence I do like the sentiment 'we'll play our way regardless of opposition', when 'our way' has some glaring issues, that's very problematic. I also think it smacks of an arrogance that we as Spurs can't afford to have. We've won the square root of fuck all for so long.

By all means always try and have an identity but to play so open and to seemingly not fix the issues we're having, has me concerned.

Not defending set pieces properly is not anything to do with where the team is and I completely disagree with Ange there. We have international footballers all over the pitch and clearly we have an issue game after game in dealing with them.

 

[T-Bone]

Gone by October, his tactics have been sussed out and he has no other plan

 

[nedley]

I'll be stunned if we sell Richy to be honest. It would take a fortune to replace him and we need strengthening in other areas.

We need a number 9.

If this season hasn't shown us that I don't know what will.

 

[nedley]

Not his biggest fan but he’s

is he really? Feeling i get is frustration but patience and acceptance that we are a work in progress and very much on the right track…. Admittedly not in here

I'm with you.

I'm willing to give him time.

But if I'm still seeing this shit in September I'll want his head on a stick.

 

[T-Bone]

Where has he said that?

I thought Mason was set piece coach or Mason & Jedinak?

You’re absolutely right it needs addressing and I’d be astonished if it’s not something we worked on this summer pre season.

This season was never going to be perfect but there are a heck of a lot of positives to work with, iron out the negatives and sign a good 5 players and we will make another step forwards next season, I have no doubt about that.

Richy coming on to me showed just how much we need to sign a top class striker who ideally is better than Richy so we have both to pick from and Son can go back out to LW, that front 3 with Johnson on the right caused them all sorts of problems.

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

 

[dontcallme]

Gone by October, his tactics have been sussed out and he has no other plan

It's way too early to call.

He has a way of playing and he's trying to drill that into the players. We certainly need to get several players upping their game after a bright start. We also need to have another good transfer window and improve the squad.

My only real concern at the moment is defensive set-pieces. He says he doesn't want a specialist coach but if we concede in such a way on a regular basis the quality of our play will hardly matter.

 

[spurs mental]

The problem is that either he doesn’t have the right players to fit his system

Or

His system doesn’t work

Both are concerns

We've made good strides this season and we started the season absolutely flying. Injuries obviously scuppered things a bit and the depth of the squad just isn't there, still.

From where we were to where we are now I think we can say we have improved in some respects, but not so much in others.

Last season we conceded 63 goals for the whole season. 1.66 goals per game. Currently we've conceded 52 with 5 games to go. 1.57 goals per game. I wouldn't say that's really an improvement overall. With better defenders and a better keeper that's quite disappointing and if it wasn't for Vicario that number could be a lot worse, but he's very good at his job, for the most part, stopping shots which is what he's there for.

Goals scored we are currently at a rate of 2.03 per game, last season we scored at a rate of 1.85 per game, so a slight improvement, and I think thats good because we lost the greatest goalscorer we've ever seen.

But it doesn't feel like we are creating as many scoring opportunities or working the opposition GKs as much as we should be through our dominance on the ball, either because of being profligate in front of goal or a lack of creativity and urgency in the final third. And actually I think it's a bit of both, along with the fact we don't seem to shoot when we get into good areas. We work the ball wide, we work it back and wide again, usually when there is space for a cross or shot we don't take it. I'm not sure if that's down to instructions or players not being brave enough.

I think it's a mix of both really, on reflection. The system needs tweaking, but we need better players.

 

[Ray Ray]

Bissouma has been crap for months. He was right to drop him.

Dropping Bissouma was the right call, but Maddison also needs some time on the bench.

It's way too early to call.

He has a way of playing and he's trying to drill that into the players. We certainly need to get several players upping their game after a bright start. We also need to have another good transfer window and improve the squad.

My only real concern at the moment is defensive set-pieces. He says he doesn't want a specialist coach but if we concede in such a way on a regular basis the quality of our will hardly matter.

Completely agree with this apart from the fact we don't need a "specialist" set piece coach. We just need the ones that are there currently to rewatch the last 10-15 games, realise it isn't working and try something new.

Liverpool used to be a fully zonal team, then klopp tweaked it so that they are now a mix of man to man and zonal. Put your best headers defensively on their best headers from an attacking sense.

It's not rocket science, but last week we had Pedro fucking Porro up against Dan Burn and we done sweet fuck all to change it.

 

[jurgen11]

The lads were proper up for it for large parts of the game today, the first break we had would’ve been a goal had Kulu released the cross quicker and not held onto the ball.

We fought every second ball too, I was honestly impressed to see that level of desire again. It’s been missing for weeks.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

We love to do comparisons and a lot of people seem convinced that we look similar to early klopp/Arteta/Pep.

In reality it all looks very 'Arry Redknapp to me.

 

[Wadec]

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

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.