Ange Finds Life Comes At You Fast
Life comes at you fast at Spurs. Four games in and Postecoglou has already gone full circle, experiencing every result and emotion. A decent away draw to begin with, the good alongside the indifferent. Then came the highs of a fine victory together with a pulsating, joyous atmosphere with him at the centre of it all. After a good win away, the team is gelling then the comedown after last night’s defeat. Some treat him like a saviour but last night he showed frailty that is all too human.
He is very much his own man, a real strength that appeals to me enormously. It has taken him a long while to get a top job and he is clearly determined to do things his way. But Ange’s team selection against Fulham was a mistake in my view. Rotation was the wrong option. I understand the need to give playing time to as many members of the squad as possible. However, this was outweighed by other priorities. Against a PL team away from home when we’re not under undue fixture pressure because there’s no European football, we should put out a strong side. There’s no need to rest fit players. The manager was quoted this week as saying how much he always wants to win, at anything. I’m not a huge fan of the League Cup but for a team who has won nothing since 2008, freed of European distraction, this was a big game for us and we should have gone big with team selection.
Also, Spurs are in the middle of rebuilding the team in a league that doesn’t allow the luxury of the time and space to do so, therefore the opportunity to develop teamwork and partnerships was more important in my eyes than seeing what players with, Solomon apart, known strengths and weaknesses can do. Ange said he wanted to learn more about his squad and he will rightly be highly disappointed in their reaction. He gave them a chance, they didn’t take it. Some of our passing was frankly appalling, basic stuff that we failed to do.
Wholesale changes simply don’t work for us. They never have (I still shudder at the memory of the Sheffield United cup-tie last season), and last night’s selection created unnecessary disruption. Skipp, LoCelso, Emerson and Hojbjerg were poor, but without making excuses for them, our whole system was out of kilter. And this undermined the very thing that has been his real achievement so far, creating cohesion from chaos in a very short space of time thanks to his coaching and motivational skills.
Ange strikes me as a coach who puts his faith in his players. He’s learned a painful lesson. At least we have a clear idea of the core of the side. If you want to win a game, I’m never keen on playing the back-up keeper – more painful memories of Vorm chucking a couple in his own net. Forster is a decent back-up, although his penalty-saving technique of sitting down just before the kick needs work, but play Vicario behind VDV and Romero, Bissouma proving his value in his absence, Maddison the difference-maker with Son and Kulu wide, Kulu adding a bit more to the middle as required. To know this after four matches, we’ve have come a long way in a short time, and so we move forward.
Life at Spurs brings other pressures for managers. Postecoglou has to carry the unwanted burden of the recent past at Spurs, things that are not his responsibility but which are tangible and he cannot avoid. Some of this he sees as an opportunity. He relishes playing attacking football and bringing through younger players, and this overcomes the energy-sapping legacy of the dull, unadventurous football of his predecessor. However, last night he failed to confront the lack of trophies, as big a mistake as his team selection.
He may be his own man, but it is hard to avoid another defining element of the past, the way the board runs the club. They have consistently prioritised a top four finish as opposed to going full out to win a nice shiny bauble. Have they set targets? Fans want a cup but above all want to see the team having a proper go, and if we fail, so be it but at least we gave it everything. And then there’s recruitment. Ange may have learned a lot about his players but there’s precious little time left in the window to do something about it.
Ange is good for us. He will build a team, motivate them and there are good times ahead. I’m fully aboard the Ange train, full steam ahead, senior railcard in hand. But there’s disappointment and anger around the fanbase today. 6000 fans plus many more in the home sections came to the Cottage to celebrate the new Spurs and felt let down.
He’s a good manager, right for us, but he’s not the messianic Greek god some make him out to be and we would do well to remember that. Already legends and myths have grown up around him, a creation of fans desperate for change. We are mythmaking because we need a hero who is a force for good, able to exorcise the evil spirits of stupefying, mind-numbing football from the Lane armed only with a couple of inverted fullbacks and a winning way in press conferences. Some hang on every word and divine meaning from each sentence. Not enough for fans to sing his praises, he has his own song and the seal of approval from Robbie Williams.
Folklore and legends may be fantastical but they serve to give meaning to what we do and who we are. Let’s follow Ange from the darkness of Conteball into the light, but he’s just a hardworking manager learning about the Premier League. Don’t make him into something he isn’t and should not be.
And that revolting strip looks like a red sock got left in the high temperature white wash.