Home » How Ange Postecoglou’s Tactical Revolution is Shaping Spurs’ Future

How Ange Postecoglou’s Tactical Revolution is Shaping Spurs’ Future

Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Introduction

When Ange Postecoglou first arrived at Spurs in 2023, he was their fourth permanent manager in as many years. Yet few of these managers had been able to hit the ground running quite like the Australian did. In his first nine games he amassed a Premier League record for a new manager of 23 points and scooped up the Premier League Manager Of The Month Award in his first three months.

It’s a different atmosphere at the Spurs stadium now, with the team floundering in the bottom half of the table. Despite this, Ange’s tactics and hardcore backers of his style are determined to allow him to see his Spurs experiment through to completion.

Spurs fans keen to keep Ange on will feel vindicated if he can bring the Carabao Cup back to North London in March. Sportsbooks have them ranked as outsiders, behind Liverpool and Newcastle, at odds of around 6/1. Expert sports betting review site and analysts, AskGamblers break down some of the rationale behind the odds. Spurs are still ranked outsiders with the sports betting companies, despite being one of only four teams left in the competition and going into the second leg with a goal advantage.

The Foundation For Reshaping Spurs Destiny

If Ange could lift the Carabao cup, it would be Spurs’ first trophy since 2008. It would buy the Australian time to continue making the tactical changes needed to turn Spurs into viable contenders for the top four places. It would also be a great starting point to encourage key players to stay. There has been plenty of speculation about Son Heung-min’s future at the club, but now that Spurs have exercised an extension clause in his contract, he should still be at Tottenham for at least another 12 months.

Angeball might be a great tagline and capture people’s imagination on social media, but the system is ineffective without Ange utilising players who can execute his tactical approach. The electric form of James Maddison means that Son isn’t the only attacking player on which Ange can pin his hopes. Like any major rebuild or a significant shift in tactics and mentality, it must be enacted throughout several seasons. This will require a lot of toil, trial and tribulations.

Postecoglu drew comparisons with LFC icon Jurgen Klopp during his first few months as Spurs boss. Klopp, just like Ange, inherited a team with a disjointed style and no real identity. Both managers have been labelled as frontrunners in the Premier League’s new era of charisma (whatever that means). But now Klopp has moved on from Anfield, and Ange’s honeymoon period has finished, well and is truly finished. Now, fans are wondering what parts of his tactical revolution could change the course and trajectory of Spurs future?

The Angeball Philosophy: Postecoglou relies heavily on 3 distinct principles:

Inverted full-backs.

Emphasis on stamina and covering distance, not giving the opposition time to breathe.

Triggering the opponent’s high press.

Ange’s philosophy is relenting, and while some Spurs fans have been concerned about how the team’s fortunes are shaping up domestically, there’s no denying that injuries to key men have crippled them. The Australian has also been left with players like Lo Celso, who is, quite simply, not up for the challenge and will likely be shown the exit door in the not-too-distant future.

Spurs went into the recent cup tie with Liverpool with 10 men on the missing list. It doesn’t matter how good you are as a manager, with this many options unavailable, it is difficult to implement your tactics and philosophy effectively.

It’s not just the implementation of the tactics causing the revolution, it’s the fact that Ange sticks to his guns despite not always having the rub of the green in the league. By fully committing to this tactical approach, for better or worse, Spurs players have the Ange ethos engrained into their footballing psyche. If it can pay off, the more optimistic Spurs fans out there (yes, we do exist) believe that the future looks bright – but it is a big if!

The Fork In The Road

Despite the board’s enthusiasm for Ange’s tactical revolution, their actions over recent years show that the board has little patience once things start going south.

Admittedly, Tottenham’s cup form seems to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting to compensate for and offset their fairly dire league form. If they crash out of the cup, then more significant questions may be asked. Ange is coming up to 18 months in his job so the next few months will be crucial. Ultimately, they will dictate the course of Angeball and whether his philosophy will have a permanent place at Spurs. Alternatively, the board may opt to move in another direction with a fresh manager and ethos.

Final Thoughts

In September 2023, the mere suggestion that Angeball could shape Spurs’ future appeared to be a foregone conclusion. Postecoglu’s football revolution enamoured fans all over the footballing world. Now that it’s proven to be trophyless, and with the club falling short of domestic objectives, the tactical revolution could end up detrimentally shaping Spurs’ future. 

Football can be a cruel sport, especially in the modern era, owners want quick results. No greater example of this exists than in the Tottenham executive board. Granted, they’ve given Ange a lot more time than some other managers, but if they crash out of the cup competitions and fail to climb into the top half of the table, questions will be asked.

Tottenham already let one manager go too soon, a manager who currently sits at second place in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest. A team that could make a realistic push for the title if results go their way. It’s a far cry from where Spurs are now. Still, with Ange looking to play the long game and continuing to move forward with his philosophy some big moments could be arriving in the coming months that will define his Spurs tenure.

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