Southampton boss Russell Martin has mounted a passionate defence of Ange Postecoglou before their sides lock horns on Sunday, with the Saint boss blasting the Australian’s critics.
Postecoglou has had to deal with critics of his hyper-attacking and aggressive style of play right from the start of his Tottenham rein and those criticisms have only grown louder of late.
Pundits continue to suggest that the Australian will not be in his job for too long if he does not adapt his tactics based on certain opposition or the state of the game.
However, we know by now that the 59-year-old is not one to change his ways, with the Spurs boss making it clear right from the start that he will double down on his approach when there are any doubts.
Martin has now pointed out that it is always managers who play an attacking brand of football that garner criticism for their approach, drawing parallels between Graham Potter at Chelsea and Postecoglou.
When asked about the criticism aimed at the Spurs boss, the Saints head coach said (via Fox Sports): “I think it’s really interesting because every manager that sits behind a team has some form of beliefs and some form of value system and what they deem as acceptable or what they want to see, what they want compromised on, what the non-negotiables are.
“But the ones who are only criticised are the ones that are a little bit different from the norm. So if we all believed the same thing I think it’d be pretty boring but it’d be less open to criticism. I think his team is brave. It’s aggressive, they’ve been really unfortunate with injuries, it’s so similar to Graham Potter when he was at Chelsea.
“Everything he got praise for and credit for at Brighton, he then got criticised for at Chelsea. So, he went from being calm, studious, really brave in his approach at Brighton to managing a team with different expectations and then all of a sudden he didn’t show enough passion on the sideline and was too emotionally consistent and all this nonsense. It’s exactly the same with Ange.”
Martin further insisted that Postecoglou would be ‘crazy’ to suddenly abandon the principles of play which have brought him success across his career.
He continued: “They (Celtic under Postecoglou) were brilliant. There was so much praise for being so aggressive, so brave, relentless restarts, energy… he did a great job, won lots of trophies, got to the Champions League, goes to Spurs and starts so well.
“So, when results are good no one questions the style or his conviction or belief system and the minute it starts faltering it’s always down to that… and I’ll get criticised for the same thing about being stubborn and all that stuff.
“But if you believe in something and it’s taken you a certain way in life and on a certain pathway and journey, to deviate too far from that I think is crazy. I can’t speak for him but we are adapting.
“We adapt shape, we adapt approach, we adapt personnel but with the same consistency in what’s really important, with the same concept of the game so we can’t deviate too far from that otherwise we become nothing really… I have a lot of respect for him.”
The general criticism of the Spurs head coach has been that he does not have a Plan B when things are not going the way of his side.
However, Martin pointed out that if Plan B is very different to Plan A, that suggests that a manager does not really have much belief in Plan A in the first place.
He added: “This is the concept we all get completely mixed up. Plan A is to play this way, Plan B doesn’t have to be a million miles over here because then it would be crazy, so then you don’t really believe in the Plan A.
“When you have Plan A, of course, you need to be able to move on certain things but you start with a vision and a version of the game that you want as the coach … they’re all very different.
“I have respect for every single person that does the job because it’s incredibly tough. There’s no right or wrong. But this is where we all get mixed up.
“People watch the game and if it’s not their version of the game they’re really quick to criticise. If it’s their version of the game and how they played it or how they see it, they don’t criticise it nowhere near as much. This is the problem.
“Plan A and Plan B don’t need to be hugely different. Plan B is mix it up in certain bits. Maybe change the way you press, maybe change the way you build up, maybe you change the shape, maybe you change the position of the players without losing the concept of Plan A otherwise what is the point of having a Plan A?”
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