Ange Postecoglou has a plan to ‘break through’ boring, stop-start Premier League football

Ange Postecoglou has a plan to break through the stop-start modern nature of Premier League football, and Tottenham may have missed out.

In an era where there is an increasing homogeneity regarding tactics and systems, where teams often prioritise limiting mistakes rather than taking risks, Postecoglou sticks out like a sore thumb.

As the Australian showed during his time at Tottenham, he is very much a believer in giving his players the freedom to express rather than cutting their wings with too much tactical instruction.

The jury is still out on whether his approach can be successful in the Premier League, but the former Spurs boss has now made a confident assertion.

Former Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has a plan to counter negative Premier League tactics

Postecoglou has now admitted that he is not a fan of the direction the Premier League is headed, with teams becoming increasingly more structured and looking to disrupt the opposition’s momentum.

However, he is confident that coaches will come up with plans to break the mould, revealing that he himself has an idea to do just that.

Postecoglou said (via The Times): “The Premier League now is going through a cycle where it is very hard to gain momentum and fluency in a game, because of stoppages. Some natural, some artificial, whether it’s technology or set pieces.

“We enjoy all different cuisines; when we go out to a restaurant, we don’t just eat Japanese every night, because you’d get sick of it. That’s what each manager can bring. You can bring your own football, or vision.

“The Premier League has been coming over the past couple of years, gradually, to a space where it is very, very structured and hard to gain momentum. The sort of rock’n’roll or heavy metal football of Jürgen [Klopp] today is almost impossible to do because of how many stoppages there are in the game. But somebody clever enough will come along and say, ‘I’ll show you how to break through.’ 

“I love football that’s fast-paced, that creates chances and scores goals and is played a certain way. If I fail to deliver that, then that’s on me, not on the other teams to allow me to do that. [So] yeah, I think there’s ways to break through that.

“I’ve always felt whenever you approach a new role, you take a look at what the competition is doing. If you’re going to make an impact and inroads, there’s no point doing what everyone else is doing, because they’re already 50 miles down the track. You’ve got to try to create your own path and say, ‘How can we take advantage of what they do through the way we want to play?’

“There are ways you can minimise the disruption in games when you have control of the game, ways you can maintain momentum while the opposition are trying to suck it out. It’s not a fully formed plan yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing how it works out.”

Postecoglou rues the lack of patience in football

The 60-year-old confessed that managers need time to embed their ideas into a playing ground, and he suggested that the opportunity to do that is now limited, given the trigger-happy nature of the industry.

Ange Postecoglou pointed to the fact that he himself was sacked despite winning a trophy in his penultimate game in charge of Tottenham.

The former Spurs boss added: “There’s less propensity for people to be patient and build. But I still think, the real successfuls, they’ll only come if you’re prepared to be really strong in your principles and try to embed them from day one.

“The reality is, none of us know how much time we have at any club. I think I did 101 games with Spurs, and I still got sacked, and we won a trophy in my 100th game. [But] if you worry about the uncertainty of it, I don’t think the right time ever comes.

“The right time is always, for me, at the beginning; that’s where you’ve got to embed your principles. Ignore whatever the timeline may or may not be, because ultimately that’s what you believe in.

“As I said to the coaches, and I constantly say — people need to see in you a conviction about something, for them to follow what you want them to do, and that can only happen if you’re true to yourself on the first day.”

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