“Postecoglou’s Master Plan: Transforming Timo Werner and Answering Hojbjerg’s Plea for More Game Time”
Ange Postecoglou has explained how he can improve Timo Werner and why Tottenham’s ability to come from behind is a classic pillar of his teams.
Tottenham came from a goal down to beat Luton Town on Saturday and it is far from the first time that has happened this season, with the north London side showing a constant ability to rescue matches with improved second half performances and last-gasp winning goals.
Postecoglou explained that it is the system he builds within all of his sides that negates the need for panic or scrambling to react, even in those final minutes of matches when frustrations and desperation might set in among those off the pitch.
“I think it is something that’s been consistent throughout my coaching career. If you go back right to the very start, all of my teams had that trademark of being able to turn around results or winning games late,” he said. “Part of that is the actual game model itself, as simple as it sounds, when you’re so committed to playing a certain way the score almost becomes irrelevant. With a lot of teams when they fall behind they have to either change their approach or find a different approach or when they’re winning they maybe change their approach.
“With us whether we’re winning or losing we won’t change our approach. Like at the weekend, when we conceded it’s not like the team are going ‘what do we do now?’. When we conceded we just kept going and when there is that sort of clarity of purpose it makes it easier for the players to look for the solutions in the way we play rather than looking for something that is not a constant in our game plan.
“I think that helps them because there is always a sense of a little anxiety or desperation particularly when it’s getting late in games and you feel it in the stadium and the supporters because they all want to win and you think how do you navigate that? I’ve always felt the best way to navigate that is the clarity of how we’re going to go about it and I’ve seen it with this group of players – there isn’t that desperation when we’re chasing a result. It’s about just keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
Postecoglou believes that the confidence in the system and seeing results often go their way, even after a setback, only increases the belief in what the players are working towards and that includes scoring late goals while already ahead.
“That becomes part of the process. You can get affected, invariably they’ll look at the scoreboard and see 86, 87 minutes and it can get really anxious but we try to instil in them not to worry about that,” he said.
“Sometimes it gets dismissed when, we’ve scored a lot of late goals where we’re already ahead and people dismiss that but that’s part of that process as well. We just keep going irrespective of the result.
“Even if you’re winning comfortably, try to score another goal rather than shore up the game. It’s a by-product of everything else I try and install in the team in terms of the way we play. It’s been a constant in my career.”
One player who has quickly bought into the Postecoglou way and been important in recent late moments is Timo Werner. The German was involved in both of Spurs’ goals against Luton, forcing an own goal with his movement for the first and then racing down the left before getting a ball in to Brennan Johnson who prodded it to Son Heung-min to score the winner.
Postecoglou believes he can continue to improve the 27-year-old, currently on loan from RB Leipzig with an option to buy him this summer for around £15m.
“We probably play a little bit differently [to what he’s used to]. He’s always played, certainly at Leipzig and earlier in his career in teams that are fairly aggressive anyway and he’s played in those wide areas,” said the Australian.
“There are some more distinct things we do with our wide players, but also him getting used to the intensity of the way we train and with which we play. Probably from a physical perspective that’s been his biggest adjustment.
“Like all the other players who sign, it takes them a little while apart from the guys that come in at the start of pre-season. Like for someone like Brennan, it’s taken him a little while to get to that physical standpoint where in training they feel like they’re getting stronger and it transfers to games. It’s a small window but I don’t look at it as a six-month deal. I treat them like everyone else and look at improvement over a longer period.”
Postecoglou has plenty of key indicators he looks for from his attacking players during matches, beyond just the obvious ones of goals and assists.
“It’s no secret in our team, part of our big strength is our ability to really be aggressive in the way we press other teams and that starts with our attacking players and that’s where Sonny has been unbelievable for us this year,” he said.
“Even at the weekend he kept harassing and chasing and we’ve scored a lot of goals this year from our front three really having an appetite to be our first form of defence. We’ve won a lot of balls in our front third from which invariably they are the beneficiaries of because they get their goals and assists but that’s a big part of it.
“Apart from goals and assists you need someone in a defensive sense who will be an instigator in that for us and then there is some other stuff around structural stuff that takes a bit of getting used to whether you play as a wide player, central player.
“There are some finer details in there where it can help us as a team in how you contribute to our build-up and also in a defensive sense so all those things. But there is no doubt, if you’re playing in the final third, you’ve got to score goals and make goals as well. That’s still a big measure for me but you need all these other things as well.”
One person you will not see ranting and raving on the touchline during a match is Postecoglou himself. There might be the odd word to a player when he wants something different from them, but mostly he stands and observes, choosing his words carefully.
When it was suggested that the late goals Spurs score have given him that calmness on the touchline, the Australian made it clear that his demeanour stretches back long before his tenure at Tottenham began.
“Well, no, not just this season. It’s 26 years of it. If I want the players to be clear-headed in that moment, it won’t help if I am jumping around and screaming my head off,” he said. “It’s not me anyway. It doesn’t mean I don’t internally feel the anxiety and all those kind of things, but I’ve learnt that over the course of my career and in those moments, I still may be needed in those moments.
“[On Saturday] we scored and made a substitution straight away and put Pierre on. If I am running down the touchline just thinking we’ve scored and won, I’m not helping the team, but that doesn’t mean internally I’m not running. It would probably help me if I did it physically as well!
“I think again of my role in that time and it’s just me. It’s not I think this is the way it should be, it’s just me as a person this is the best way I can deal with what is happening. I think my role in that moment is to try and help the players.”
