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Maddison and Postecoglou

Maddison and Postecoglou


James Maddison



James Maddison's pre-game interview once again showed that fans on social media have a very limited vision and don't look at context or the bigger picture.

He revealed that there were several options for him but once he had spoken with Ange Postecoglou, his vision, his mentality, his mindset, matched Maddison's own winning mentality and thus the decision was made.

Once a player has made a decision on his future, his agent communicates that to all other parties, if they inqire or pursue interest. Thus there is no point bidding when you are not in the race and purely as a PR exercise you then, as a club, announce that you have pulled out of the race to sign a player.

Why?

Because it tells your fans you are in control, you are informing them that you are the ones who decided the player was not right for you, as opposed to the player rejecting your club.

Fans lap that sort of stuff up and back their club.

Suggesting Maddison only had one option because Newcastle pulled out is absolute nonsense and, quite frankly, lacks the common sense that this website is remown for.

In a recent article I talked about the high-risk football (opens in a new window) that Ange Postecoglou plays and he isn't a guy to change his principles, which have a far better grounding than most realize.

You will have heard a reference to Pep Guardiola in a press conference and Postecoglou saying he had only met him for 15 minutes I think it was. But it goes deeper than that and it adds a cause for optimism too.

Postecoglou Fact: He was recruited by the City Group to manage in Japan. This enabled him to learn the principles of Pep Guardiola which are prevalent throughout their teams. It seems to me that this has been completely overlooked.

City Group


As a member of this group clubs share all of City Football Group's clubs extensive databases of Manchester City's (Pep Guardiola's) tactics and coaching methods, enabling them all to follow the group directive to use the same style of football.

You have seen what Mikel Arteta has done at Arsenal, with no management experience, just as a number 2 to Guardiola so every fan has to be optimistic that Ange Postecoglou can do a similar thing at Spurs.

That clearly is why he has been hired, together with his development of youth and ability to rebuild clubs. I don't think the media or the fans realize what Daniel Levy has done here, this potentially, could turn out to be a huge appointment.

There is far more behind the appointment of Postecoglou than at first appeared which will be lost by most, it has been by every journalist so far.

The signing of Postecoglou demonstrates there is a clear vision from the top of the club, expressed in simple terms that, as I say, are lost on the rank and file public.

It is going to be a fascinating development process.

Inverting full-backs, positional rotations, intricate passing moves and intense pressing sequences with a squad he will make fitter, technically stronger and a far more cohensive unit than the divided one that ended last season.

Postecoglou system you'll see interchanged during games are 4-3-3, 2-3-5,  2-3-2-3, 3-2-2-3, 2-1-2-5 when attacking the opposition area or a 2-2-1-5.

If you think of two wide men and a centre-forward, add to midfielder running into the channels on either side of Harry Kane. Maddison and Bissouma could excel in those roles and from the first game it looks as if Skipp is being asked to add that to his game too..

Fast passing, constantly looking to move the ball forward, he'll start yelling at the players during a game if they play it back to much, plenty of passing through the lines and defence-splitting passes too. 

All of those require intelligent moving off the ball and importantly, a lot of it from different runners to create a maze of problems, something Tottenham, even under Mauricio Pochettino, have not always been good at when faced with a block defence.

The left-sided full-back gas inverted more than the right-sided full-back generally, which arguably allows more opportunity for the right-sided attacking winger to invert.

Lose the ball and Spurs will be looking to be like Pep's Barcelona side, who were the best at it in LaLiga, a hard-working counter-press side making it difficult for sides to play out.

Putting teams under pressure puts individual players in anxious situations and it's how they can emotionally handle anxiety that determines whether they will panic, make a rash pass to pass the buck or make a mistake.

Football is in the brain, it's 95% mental, 5% skill. Your brain determines your actions, your body movements and emotion determines your decisions.

You can see the importance of mentality training and football is just playing on the opposition's collective and individual mentality.

Constantly putting a team under pressure and they will crack, unless they are mentally totally confident in what they do. As we saw under Conte, our players could only take that pressure for so long and then it fell to pieces.

When Conte said the Tottenham players couldn't play under pressure, that is exactly what he was talking about. For his vision to have worked, the players needed regular sessions with a sports psychologist, which they didn't have.

Yes, this is the acid test, but if the players grasp his system quickly, Tottenham will become a formidable attacking threat.

Spurs will not become Manchester City overnight, but much of Pep Guardiola is going to be instilled in the club.

Why have Tottenham identified Micky Van de Ven?

Tottenham have been looking for a left-sided and therefore left-footed centre-back, so why Micky Van de Ven or Edmund Tapsoba?

Postecoglou needed someone comfortable playing possession=based football, capable of playing in a high line system, who could back up a high press and be able to defend in high and wide spaces. 

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