100% Angeball, or adapt during the game? Which are you?

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What's your preferred style of play?

  • Total voters
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We won fuck all playing Joseball and Conteball while suffering from dreadful football.

If we ain’t winning Jack shit as the club isn’t yet ready to get the squad to compete with the likes of City we might as well play to our traditions of being the team with the biggest balls in the league going back to Hoddle, Bill Nic and even before.
 
Tomo said:
We won fuck all playing Joseball and Conteball while suffering from dreadful football.

If we ain’t winning Jack shit as the club isn’t yet ready to get the squad to compete with the likes of City we might as well play to our traditions of being the team with the biggest balls in the league going back to Hoddle, Bill Nic and even before.
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I'm in Tomo's camp 100%.

But really it's more nuanced than this. Let's not lose sight on how we've played this season by seeing the game out well. Ange too has made some great defensive subs, PEH, Emerson and Skipp have been brought on to great effect to help us see out the games (last 4 games).

We aren't a batshit crazy gun-ho team Ossie Ardilles team, we've been very measured. So there is a chance that some kind of false narrative gets generated about us because of playing with a high-line with 9 men.

I've never ever seen a team do what we did last night and I fucking loved it, which is why I'm agreeing with Tomo's comments. But it's rare that a team goes down to 9 men (first time Spurs have at home in their entire history apparently!!) and when you do the default is sit deep, the result tends to be the same though as we saw with Liverpool.

I also think that because Ange is only 12 games into his time at Spurs, he used this game to instil his philosophy and I genuinely think it worked. The proof of it working was the fans staying in their seats, cheering their team on, fully invested in what they saw, fully believing they could get something from the game (whilst also fully aware that Chavs could score at any moment with a ball over the top). The players have never been cheered off having lost a game 1-4 (I've never cheered my team off after losing 1-4) but we know what these lads are made of and the players now know how they get treated by the fans if they give us something to get behind.
 
Ange already adjusts during the game. Many times already he has taken off forwards and put midfielders or defensive players on to close out the game.

Last night he (correctly) thought that Chelsea were so shit that we could still beat them with 9 men. If Bentancur and Son scored at the end then we would have.
 
Ange ball = Pride
Ange ball = Excitement
Even with 9 men we give them a game,unfortunately we ran out of legs but I am immensely proud of the fact they stuck to it, with 11 we are a match for most teams.
 
I think the biggest issue with our attack and defence is the forward line. They don’t retain the ball well enough, pass and move through the opposition nor press well enough to prevent counters.

I remember peak Liverpool with Mane, Firmino and Salah (when he was at his best) the way they could play a crazy high line and simply overwhelm the opposition due to the players and system fitting perfectly.

If I am brutally honest to get to the level we need to be to play this system we probably need two more elite attackers. A very defined system needs a very defined set of players and we are probably short 2 elites in the forward area and at least 1 more elite player in the central mid.
 
Just go for it, every game

We might fall short and be called 'naive' and a more pragmatic approach might be what gets you over the line

But tbh the last decade watching Spurs has taught me it's far far better to just be competitive and trying to win gets you a lot of the way towards that
 
I think the poll needs other options. It’s not either Angeball or defensive.

There is a middle ground that most top teams are in. It used to be called game intelligence, I’m sure there is a modern term for it.
 
Brisbane ange-ball = good to watch
Yokohama ange-ball = pulsating
Celtic Ange-ball = fast & direct; nice

Spurs Ange-ball = something has gone wrong

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If you’d told me a few months ago that a 1-4 defeat to Chelsea would unite this forum (as much as it can be united), I’d have carted you off to the nearest institution. But that is where we are.

Fair, a few posters have maybe went a bit off message due to their disappointment, but it’s gratifying to not see pages of Levy Out follow last nights result. And I feel this is due to how we are almost all feeling about how the team reacted last night. Ran themselves ragged and stuck to the boss’s plan, in the face of some pretty shit luck.

If Ange can get these players onside as quickly as this and unite the fucking lunatics that post on here, I’m all for whatever he wants to do. And that’s a complete 180 from my post at half time last night saying we should defend ten yards further back. I was wrong. We died on our shields last night, throwing big fucking swords around. Loved it.
 
Ange plays exactly how I believe football should be played. On the front foot and chasing goals. When you're on the ball, the point of the possession is to put it on the other net, every single time. It's not to hold on to the ball passing forever.

There's always times you need to manage during the game and be pragmatic, but momentum is the number 1 thing that wins football matches.

He has shut up shop a couple of times when we were ahead this year it's not just attacking for the sake of it, but when you're behind in a match, the more chances you have the more likely you are to score.
 
1882 said:
Don't know.... (You asked for that!)

Of COURSE I'd rather adapt to a situation during a game, same as I'd expect/want us to set up differently depending on what opposition/tactics we're playing against (ie: ultra defensive, low block bollocks, or all out attack!)

There's sticking to principles, and there's cutting off your nose to spite your face...

...and then there's losing 4-1 at home to arguably the worst Chelsea team in a generation, managed by arguably the best Spurs manager in decades (before Ange)!! ..so yes, there's that!
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I've added a DON'T KNOW option, specially for you LibDems.

:mourcheeks:
 
Last night was the most insane game of football I have ever witnessed.
And that includes an afternoon watching Dave from the Pig and Whistle play on ecstacy and I think LSD.

Ange ball for ever. What’s football if not fun and release.

The noise from the fans last night shows it’s the way to play.
 
Lost it when Dier scored.

Almost lost it when Son managed to get in the box and have a shot.

Hands on head when Bentancur missed the back post header.

Without Ange's system I wouldn't have even had those moments. It would have been worth turning off at 9 men.

COYS
 
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