Rousseau

Another wee dig at Pedro...

Good read, though... apart from that sentence.

Think I'll whip up the Winter Transfer Window - Rumours and Deals thread, so we get some sort of distraction ...

Or Turkish going by his name. There's a big Greek population in Australia though.

 

Aren't Australia one of the strongest nations in Asian football? Has he really done remarkable things? Japan, S. Korea and Australia are the perennial qualifiers from Asia, no? Since Oz joined the Asian FA they've not failed to qualify for the World Cup.

 

I'd never heard of the guy before today.

Born in Greece.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay...

Seriously--I've been aware of him for a few years but I can't recall how or why. It was his tactical approach that drew me in, along with his record of success -- I'm not sure how appropriate his A-League success is as it's not the greatest of quality; but winning several league titles has to count for something. I think it was the way they played in the 2014 World Cup, rather than their results -- defeats against Spain, Chile and Netherlands in a tough group.

C'mon, Stevie Clark played for St Mirren and Scotland is actually Scottish, Tommy Wright was an assistant at St Johnstone before getting the job, likewise Steve Robinson was assistant manager at Motherwell under Baraclough. Rodgers I'll give you.

Fair enough, but I took it as managerial experience in the Scottish game.

My point still stands.

I'm assuming he's from Greek heritage?

 

I think the board will go for someone who knows the Scottish game. MW & PC didn't and look what happened there. Whether that's a good thing or not remains to be seen.

Yes.

I don't think it's a prerequisite to success. Rodgers had no experience of the 'Scottish game', and neither did Tommy Wright, Steve Clarke or Steve Robinson.

An early article on his Australian 'revolution' from the Guardian:

Ange Postecoglou's revolution got under way against Costa Rica but it was a familiar source that gave Australia the winner – corner, Cahill, goal. It was a match which showed clear signs of improvement and a move towards a "Postecoglou" way of playing, but there is still much improvement required and many questions to be answered

Penetration

The early stages resulted in a few half-chances, and one glorious chance for Mathew Leckie, as Australia played very vertically in attack. In midfield, Mark Bresciano, Mark Milligan and Mile Jedinak looked to play passes through or over the top of the Costa Rican defence and attack the spaces in behind.

The second-half introductions of Tim Cahill and Josh Kennedy made it more difficult for Australia to play penetrating passes, as both players rarely moved in behind the defence. Kennedy looked to receive passes to feet, whilst Cahill, as he so often does, received with his back to goal and moved into deeper areas with the ball before returning to the shoulder of the last defender but rarely running in behind.

Neither were terrifically successful but showed glimpses of promise, and Australia were much less reliant on long balls and crosses from deeper areas. The direction Postecoglou wants to go will ultimately determine which style Australia plays – will there be a focus on controlled build up play, with perhaps a Cahill or a Kennedy playing in front of the opposition defence as a focal point of the attack, or will Australia look to draw opponents forward and exploit the spaces in behind with players such as Leckie, Robbie Kruse and James Troisi? This is of course a question that will be answered when Postecoglou has more opportunities to work with the squad.

Playing out

Australia were unsurprisingly much more willing to play out from the back, something which was never high on Holger Osieck's list of priorities.

Postecoglou preferred Mat Ryan at goalkeeper and one of his key attributes is his distribution. Seeing him warm up prior to the match, practising his long passing with both his left and right foot, was a joy to watch (and on four consecutive occasions Ryan, with his weaker left foot, played a 50 metre lofted pass to within a metre of Oli Bozanic, his target). Ryan was solid with the ball at his feet and constantly played out. Even when under pressure, Ryan was calm and would look for a short option to feet or would chip a lofted pass past the pressure and almost always find a team-mate. This is an element that Australia would have lacked had Mark Schwarzer, who was less confident with the ball, continued (don't forget Schwarzer played his entire junior career, and two years of his professional career at a time when goalkeepers could pick up back passes).

Even when Costa Rica tried to prevent Australia from playing out from goal kicks, there was a willingness to play short that was almost non-existent under Osieck. Neill and Williams on a few occasions pushed up the field, faking to go long from the goal kick, only for Ivan Franjic to dart back and receive a short pass – a ploy he would be familiar with, having played at right-back under Postecoglou for Brisbane Roar. Even on the occasions where Franjic was forced straight back to his goalkeeper, the intent to play out from the back never wavered.

Pressing

Postecoglou commended his side's defensive performance, and there was a clear intent to press whenever possible.

"Throughout the whole game, I thought our defensive pressure was brilliant. Even when we were making mistakes with our football, [the errors] weren't causing us any problems because we just worked really hard to get it back and then we could start again" said Postecoglou post game to Fox Sports.

Especially in the early parts of the match, Australia pressed with a 4-2-1-3, with both wingers – Kruse and Dario Vidosic – remaining high up the park, positioned between Costa Rica's outside centre-backs and the wing-backs.

One of the difficulties with pressing in a new system is fully understanding the cues of when to press and doing so as a cohesive unit. For much of the match this was the case, however there were some occasions where there was room for improvement needed in that regard.

This example was one such occasion. In the 38th minute, Australia had a good structure from which to press and Costa Rica were forced backwards. Leckie, however, was drawn to the first pass (black line) and did not pressure Giancarlo Gonzalez (red line). By the time Gonzalez received the ball, Kruse had already anticipated a cue to press and moved in field to pick up the central player, leaving Bryan Oviedo free. Gonzalez under no pressure was able to pick out Oviedo with a switch and Costa Rica attacked.

As the game wore on, and Costa Rica's wing-backs became more influential, Australia's wingers dropped slightly deeper to protect their full-backs and prevent potential 2 v 1 scenarios. But both worked extremely hard, but intelligently to nullify Costa Rica's wide play as much as possible.

Patience

There were plenty of errors in the first half in possession and Postecoglou even admitted as much, but the pressing as a whole prevented Australia from getting punished. Whether those errors were due to an unfamiliarity with the system and the team-mates around them, or they were due to players trying to force passes is unclear, but better patience in possession in required. Better teams will punish such cheap turnovers in dangerous areas, as Australia found out against Brazil with the second goal.

After Cahill's goal, Australia looked to take the sting out of the match (although there was relatively little to begin with). There were a few spells of long possession at the back, even under pressure, where Ryan, the back four and the two holding midfielders patiently kept the ball until there was an opportunity to find substitute Tom Rogic – who looked wonderful in the attacking midfield role. If ever Australia finds themselves ahead at the World Cup, this kind of "death by football" patience with the ball, maintaining possession and moving their opponents around, will be key.

I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss Postecoglu. He's done remarkable things for Australia. I've read a few articles of his tactical nous which really excited me, especially for a side like Australia who perhaps don't have the calibre of player we see in Europe. He's certainly able to craft a side that plays a modern pressing game. Australia's 3-4-2-1 was wonderful to watch at times.

The modern style is great, but I'm more impressed by his ability to instil it in an average side like Australia. We need someone like that; someone that can rebuild us. Frank DeBoer is a 'big' name but I'm not sure he knows how to rebuild a team from the ground up -- at Ajax he had the foundations, that doesn't change; he certainly couldn't do it at Inter or Crystal Palace.

Nope....The "rise" of Tories in Scotland is due to the complete collapse of Labour.

 

Until recently, Scotland (as a country) was a solid Labour strong hold - no other party got a look in. This is mainly due to our working/industrial background - mining, ship building, steel works to name a few. The Labour party represented those people. Then the Tories started closing down the industry, and Labour's numbers started declining (but in small numbers). Then Labour just went into complete melt down & no longer represented the needs of the workers. As a result, voters looked else where.

That depends how far you go back. Before the Labour predominance there was a Conservative predominance. You could say we are getting back to normal...

It's now been contradicted in another 'article'. I'm surprised so many believed it! What a joke of a paper.

This sums it up:

[tweet]932930813586534400[/tweet]

Sad news indeed.

He was a good participant in the PL.

Brace yourselves, Sheilas:

 

McLeish is now favourite for the job.

McInnes 2nd favourite, and no longer odds on.

 

All according to Oddschecker, this am.

Pena will be off, soon I suspect. He was here because of his relationship with PC.

He's quite a good second-striker, but nothing else.

Alves was injured.

 

However, the decision to include Kranjcar ahead of Pena is difficult to understand. Pena hasn't been great but he's a £2.5m asset whilst Niko (ice guy that he is) is done and leaving soon.

 

Why on earth does Murty think it best to select Niko? Worse, why does the DoF agree with it?

The DoF doesn't pick the teams!

I don't think Hamilton deserved to win, but neither did we.

Murty is not good enough -- I've thought that since his spell last season. He can maybe motivate the players, but that's not enough. We were clueless today. We were better under PC...

PC was right to drop Miller; absolutely useless. We need to stop putting so much faith in 'old heads': they only know what it was like in a winning squad; it doesn't mean they know what it takes to create it, IMO.

You don't just appoint from the first few names that are available, like West Ham. We've got a DoF, we have a process, and we have to do our due diligence.

"We'll only be 3 points behind the scum tomorrow night."

--Gonzo79, 17 November, 2017

That's it published, Coop!

Good read.

(I did a wee bit of copy and pasting to put your preview in the first post -- I hope you don't mind.)

My statement above was perfectly true. If you remember right the first thing that Pedro did put O'Halloran at right back and made a complete wobbly defence. So as I said from his first game he was doing things that were a bit dubious. I am not really bothered that he tried O'Halloran at RB because I would still like to see him tried there,

'Dubious' implies he had a choice; he did not. There were 3 defenders -- and those that started weren't even first-choice, because of injuries -- that had to go off at half-time, and we only had Senderos on the bench, who wasn't even fit never mind good enough. The fact that he got us back in the game with a "wobbly" defence is credit to him.

Ultimately, PC was not good enough, but you're just taking every decision, every situation as proof he was a 'dud'. A wee bit of balance, please. Your arguments should not have to be so contrived; it was PC, FFS.

If it came down to a choice between Wright and McInness I'm not sure which one I'd choose. I really admire what Wright has done at St Johnstone on a considerably smaller budget than McInness has. It's a big step up to Rangers though.

He [Wright] has done an admirable job, but for me, there is no question McInnes is better.

And way way worse at motivating players.

 

Knows less about scottish football and working within a budget.

 

He had to spend about a hundred million just to win 2 titles and do worse in europe than eck.

 

Id rather have tommy wright

Surely, surely, we've been shown that Tommy Wright is not... 'wright' for Rangers -- St Johnstone are plummeting!! The stats have actually been saying so for a while; they weren't scoring, conceding far too many shots etc.

I have it on good authority that he'll be 7-10 days...

HSBC have 19 genders/sexes/whatever they're called this week listed at present, John, which kind of rubbishes your first point.

 

Rousseau (the philosopher, not the poster) said something about the best societies expanding with procreation. The issue for me isn't homosexuality itself, it's the promotion of it. There is a difference between tolerance and approval.

 

My son wasn't traumatised by the bloke's arse (thankfully, he was looking in another direction). But thanks for your kind words.

Have we ever been seen in the same room, though...

Coleman has something about him, including experience in Cyprus and Spain, but his record is not great -- albeit, it's been mostly outwith his control, i.e. financial troubles. I'm not sure.

To be fair to him, he has always set up his teams to punch well above their weight. From memory, he got Shamrock Rovers into the Europa league proper. He has done exceptionally well with NI (qualified for the Euros, knock out stages of the World Cup) but imo that is where he should remain. Would probably do well with Scotland or a smaller international team but for all his considerable attributes, I would hope that we would not consider him for the Rangers manager's position.

He's done very well with NI. However, looking at Shamrock, they went straight into the play-off game, won it tightly after-extra-time, then proceeded to lose every game in the group stage. It seemed like a fluke. I've not even checked out their opponents, Partizan. He did win two league titles with Shamrock, but had a win-rate of 53%, something most were keen to criticise PC for.

He's done well with NI, but I agree, he's not for us.