sport news Ange Postecoglou is the lunatic the Premier League has been waiting for, writes ... trends now
If you’ll indulge a short trip down a sideroad, I did some reading before and after Tottenham’s defeat at Chelsea about men of faith whose beliefs align with an appetite for risk. Eventually, that journey slithered its way to an American preacher named Jamie Coots.
Snakes were his thing. Yes, he was one of those guys. He’d stand at the front of his church in Kentucky and no matter how often the rattlers got him, he kept making it back to the stage to deliver his message, ever more convinced he had it right.
Which was all well and good until the ninth time he was bitten - he’s been gone 10 years now. If there’s a point here, it might be the value of balancing devotion with self-preservation. Of knowing the correct moment to tweak your approach in service to an ideology.
So what do we make of Ange Postecoglou in the dafter business of football?
Since he came into our orbit, he’s been the preacher standing over the Premier League’s vivarium - you can’t spell evangelical without Ange. He has his guiding principles on how this silly game should be played, his ‘religion’ as he puts it, and he’s not for turning.
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has stuck to his 'faith' through the good times and the bad
He stuck to it when Tottenham were flying, he stuck to it when they had nine men against Chelsea in November, and he stuck to it when it all went wrong against the same team on Thursday. He will stick with it at Liverpool on Sunday even if it means a fourth loss in a row. And he will stick with it what was once top spot after 11 games withers to sixth after 38.
He will keep to his theory that everything, including those many goals conceded to set-pieces, is of lesser importance, of lower priority, than getting his players to buy into his vision of attacking football. Pass backwards? Ask Cristian Romero and Pape Sarr what their manager thinks about that. Ask him about free-kicks again and he might pass you the rattlesnake.
And isn’t that a bit weird and wonderful? Such lack of flexibility can be flawed and self-defeating in his line of work, and usually is, but it is fabulous in less conventional ways.
I loved an interview he gave to Mail Sport on this subject back in the happier days of November. That was when Spurs’s opening run of eight wins and two draws ended with a cavalier defeat against Chelsea and a limper one at Wolves. Folk had just started to query, rather sensibly, if there was something to be said for holding back a little more, but he wasn’t having it.
'I don't know any other way,' he told Ian Ladyman and Chris Sutton. 'In the broad church of football philosophies, I have stayed really strict to one religion. I went into a library of football books and got stuck on one section that was about attacking football. It's the only space I feel comfortable in.’
He’s had that vibe since he got here and it might even be the most consistent aspect about Tottenham’s season. By last Wednesday, so a day before the worst half of their campaign against Chelsea, Postecoglou had built on his theme, first when he spoke of the need within his squad for ‘true believers’ in his teachings, and then in the context of their woeful set-piece record.
The latter was taking on some urgency because Spurs had conceded 14 through such means and he was asked if it was a concern. ‘Not in the least,’ he said, before reaching once more into the box of snakes. ‘To quote Billy Joel, “You may be right, I may be crazy, but it’s maybe a lunatic you’re looking for”.
‘There is an underlying reason for that which I’m very comfortable with. Eventually I will create a
