Ange Postecoglou

We never stop defending would be my mantra in Europe.HH

 

Interview about yet @Notorious? Or anyone?

 

Nah, don't agree with that at all.

 

Agree with this entirely.all managers want to do well in europe.ange can grow us domestically.but if he wants to go to an EPL side you can't blame him.its just how many more losses in Europe before he says I've done what I can with the team now I need to move on.you can't blame him.HH

 

Just shows how much we miss CCV the rock in defence.HH

 

Thought he made a decent point in his interview, we were going back to Hart far too often tonight. Welsh in particular is guilty of it.

 

Only seen whats on livescore but the fact we didn't change it up sooner is mental.
75mins bring 2 Wingers on 82 mins bring on the striker who should have been on at least 15 mins before.

To such a strong start to the season he needs to think of something quick to get these guys back on track.

 

He needs to kick the forwards' arses. They're missing a * ridiculous amount of chances now.

 

Not quite clicking for Kyogo in the UCL at the moment. Was hoping he would tear it up. Granted got an assist tonight but will be looking to find the net on a couple of occasions before the group ends. Home games vs Leipzig and Shakhtar represent big opportunities for him if Giakoumakis doesn't get a shout.

 

Need to be much, much savvier in Europe imo.

Going toe to toe with these sides away from home might make for entertaining viewing for the neutral, but it’s no good for us.

 

Doesn't have the players at this level to make his system work, always one slack pass away from the opposition cutting right through the entire team, and we give it away constantly. That being said he's not helped at all with the amount of missed chances.

 

Honest enough.

It's fine margins, but when your backline is as basic as we have had it for a few weeks now, it's gonna show at this level.

Needs to address this for the weekend and next week's game though.
Can't just keep doing the same mistakes now, if these players are routinely doing mistakes, switch them out.

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After 0-3 with Real a lot of people here said that they prefer to lose but with a spirit than to hold on for life to get something out of the game. Now most say that the way we play is wrong in Europe.

 

The trade-off with the type of football we play is that we're going to leave gaps and be exploited on the break at times, but the flipside to that is that we can also create a lot of opportunities against strong opposition, which we saw against Real and Shakhtar. We haven't taken those chances which is a huge problem, but we have still created them.

You can sit back in Europe, defend for 90 minutes against superior opposition and maybe nick a result (or, more likely, still lose 3-1) but our squad isn't built to play that way. We're not a big side, not particularly physical or athletic and not great in the air. Also, nicking a result here or there isn't the way to establish yourself as consistent Champion's League side, which Ange is trying to do.

People are referencing the Huns win against Leipzig last season as some sort of a blueprint, but how has their "solid" approach worked out for them this year? 3 pumpings and not a single goal scored. They were lucky to lose against this lot 1-0 away last season as well, and that was a Leipzig side under their previous manager, playing in a less than optimal way (i.e. sitting back way too much when they should have pressed)

I don't think the setup was the major issue tonight, but rather the mentality, which Ange pointed to in his interview. Passing the ball back to Hart repeatedly under minimal pressure for example. McGregor and CCV (and maybe Starfelt) were a massive miss in that respect.

 

Here's why I disagree. Several times in the game, Leipzig had the ball, and we bunched up, forcing them to cross. This made it possible for us to bat crosses away, and defend well. Of course, since we aren't drilled to turtle up, we weren't doing this all the time, and it cost us.

 

"Several times in the game" is a pretty small sample size. Although to be fair, this is how we defended away to Rangers last season in the second half of the 2-1 win and we did it well enough (although we barely created a chance of our own that half, so there was probably an element of riding our luck)

At any rate, that bunching up is an element of Angeball. When they have the ball we defend in numbers fairly deep and narrow. And for the most part, we look OK in those phases. Likewise, we're creating opportunities to score at the other end, if not taking them. It's all the in-between stages of play we seem to need to improve: playing out under pressure, not giving the ball away cheaply and getting back quick enough when the opponent breaks.

 

Yes! This is what I wanted us to learn, from that specific game. I remember us playing an immense half of clearing crosses (Rangers' specialty). Someone needs to replay that game to players every day, until they memorize their roles.

 

When you play teams with 20 million centre backs and £30 million strikers of course you are going to find it tough just wish the manager would tweak it and not play so open like we are playing Kilmarnock.