Tottenham have finally found themselves a manager who is ready to take over the reins. After sacking Conte in March 2023, Daniel Levy appointed Cristian Stellini as interim manager, only to sack him two games later.
Ryan Mason was given the task of the next caretaker role until the end of the 2022/23 season. He did not have much of an impact as the North-London lost out in the race for European places in the league.
Fast forward to 3 months later, Spurs have finally been able to have breakthrough talks with manager Ange Postecoglou. The Australian manager who is the head coach of Scottish champions Celtic FC has had a remarkable two years at Celtic Park.
The attacking brand of football that he has instilled in The Hoops’s squad has caught the attention of Europe and Spurs have made the first move here. That brings the question, how good a fit will Postecoglou be at Spurs?
Is Postecoglou a good manager?
When Steven Gerrard’s Rangers won the Scottish Premier League in the 2020/21 season, they broke several records along the way. Gerrard’s men became the most decorated team in Europe and Scotland after their league win that season.
This prompted the then-former champions to make a move that would help them regain their league and domestic dominance. Ange Postecoglou was their first-choice target to replace Brendan Rodgers who had departed to Leicester City.
The Australian tactician was a lesser-known commodity in Europe, mainly due to the fact that he was the manager of Australia and Yokohama Marinos. Celtic took the gamble on him and haven’t regretted it a single bit since then.
In fact, they are now in a fight to keep hold of him after Spurs have agreed personal terms with the former Australian national team manager. He still has two years remaining on his current Celtic contract and Daniel Levy will have to pay a huge sum to lure him to North London.
Wish you could make a trio with these 3 but no! Comment 👇😤#Haaland #Kane #Mbappe pic.twitter.com/934z1k7pfq
— FootTheBall FC (@FootTheBallFC) June 3, 2023
All that said and done, Postecoglou is worth the risk and money that would be invested by Levy, unlike his past appointments. The Australian manager is good enough to get the best out of this Spurs squad and is also known to promote younger players to the senior squad.
His track record speaks for itself and if Spurs are successful in hiring the Australian manager, the fanbase is in for an adventurous time at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
Postecoglou playing style
To keep it short, Ange Postecoglou heavily depends on his wide forwards. Now when you analyse Postecoglou’s teams playing style in depth, it can be seen that overloads are a big part of his playing style.
To start with, Postecoglou primarily prefers a 4-2-3-1 formation. He always has a Plan B which usually is the 3-4-2-1 formation. In both these formations, the wide forwards hug the touchline in order to create space for the full-backs and the marauding central midfielders.
This also allows one or two of the centre-backs to perform an overlapping role and create overloads on either flank. During his days in the Australian national team as a head coach, Postecoglou commanded his players to take on the opponent players without fear.
By creating space in the inside channels, the wingers that hug the touchline now have acres of space to run into or even make a diagonal run inside the box (much like Manchester City during their early Pep Guardiola days).
When one side of the pitch has been overloaded, the opposite flan full-back drops into midfield. What this does is that it allows both counter-pressing and avoiding counterattacks from the opposition as well.
All in all, Postecoglou’s fluid passing with short and crisp passing is a joy to watch. Spurs fans would no doubt be on cloud nine after news broke out that he has agreed personal terms. Whether or not he gets the best out of the Spurs squad is something only time will tell but on paper, this looks like a match mad in heaven.