Ange Postecoglou BRILLIANT Tactic

High intensity, player movement, the free man concept. Some of the Ange Postecoglu tactical principles.

His teams use the half spaces very well and employ a swift passing game to by-pass the opposition’s pressing.

But before we explore his tactic…who is Ange Postecoglu?

He started managing at South Melbourne Hellas in 1996, winning the National Soccer League twice and the OFC Champions League in 1999. He then led the Australian national under-17 and under-20 teams.

One of his most known televised interviews shed a dim light on his reputation (interview with Craig Foster linked here)…But he bounced back and won the A-League Premiership and Championship in 2011 and 2012.

He was the Australia’s men's senior national team manager from 2013 to 2017, winning the AFC Asian Cup in 2015 and going to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

He then managed Yokohama F. Marinos and won the J1 League in 2019. Followed by winning five trophies (including two league titles) in two seasons with Celtic.

And since the 2023-2024 season, he has been the manager of Tottenham Hotspur.

With that much silverware under his belt, the Tottenham supporters would hope that he could bring them some trophies in their otherwise very “full” trophy cabinet 😊.

But how is planning to do that?

Compared to his former clubs, the Tottenham players adopted his tactical principles very fast and applied them almost to perfection at the start of this season.

However, you must consider the level of your team, league and nation before you discard this tactic in the long run. Remember that it took an almost relegation for Ange Postecoglou at Yokohama F. Marinos before his tactics brought results.

A 4-3-3 formation to start with. A very good formation to form 3 man pass combinations. With this, his team can find the free man almost every time, thus evading the opposition’s pressing quite well.

A sweeper keeper on attack duty to start with. And in front of him a back 4 formed by 2 Inverted full backs and 2 central defenders.

The inverted full backs are employed for the possession game. In real life, Tottenham form a box having Yves Bissouma in the center, him being the pivot distributing passes around until the attacking players take their positions.

You need full backs capable of passing the ball and being composed when faced with pressing.

Moving up the field, we have a defensive midfielder on defend duty. Defend because his focus in screening the defence. We don’t want this player to worry too much about building up play. He must relay the ball to the creative midfield players as soon as he has the chance.

His only duty in the build-up is to become a passing option, a pivot, for his defensive teammates.

Of course, the player used in this role must be able to pass the ball and be composed. Yves Bissouma is a very good option for this role.

In front of him, 2 central midfielders make up the midfield trio. A box-to-box midfielder and a central midfielder on attack duty.

I have tried a Mezzala on attack instead of the central midfielder, but while he performs his role very well, he doesn’t have the same decisive gameplay as James Maddison has in real life.

The central midfielder player you choose to use should be as close as possible to James Maddison’s attributes. For the moment, he is the best description I have of this role.

The box-to-box is meant to be the link between the defensive midfielder and the rest of the build-up, arriving late in the opposition’s box. If you want to make sure that he goes up the pitch when attacking, you could add the get further forward instruction. Personally, I did not feel the need to do so.

The attacking trio is made-up of 2 wingers and one stricker. A Winger on attack on the right side. This is the Dejan Kulusevski role. What is new and very much welcomed in FM 24 is the fact that you can tell your winger to cut inside, through the player instructions.

To best use this role, I would make sure that the player has cuts inside from the right wing and hugs the line or runs with ball down right as player traits. They combine well with the cut inside player instruction and ensure that the player becomes much more dangerous for the opposition.

On the left side, we have an inside forward on attack. And in case you have Heung Min Son in your team, good for you!

To best help you understand what kind of player you should use here, Heung Min Son, Kaoru Mitoma or Cristiano Ronaldo in his prime are the best examples I can think of.

And to complete the tactic and create the movement that we need up top, a complete forward on support duty. A complete forward is chosen here, as he will come deep to get the ball, enable his teammates for attacks and push-up when needed.

And with this, we have about 6 visible passing triangles. In the match engine, when executed correctly, this tactic can be a nightmare for the opposition.

But this very much depends on the level of the team you manage, the league and the players you can use.

As mentality, I went with Positive as we should be better than 80% of the Premier League. If your team is not better than let’s say 60% of the league, start with Balanced and adjust accordingly every match.

In possession, fairly wide as attacking width. You cannot go too wide here as the inverted full backs will always come narrow when in possession. If you feel that your back line is being pressed too much, change the full backs to normal full backs or wing backs, tell them to stay wider and take the width up a notch for that passage of play or match.

Pass into space as you draw the opposition onto you with the build-up so you should employ your fast attackers to evade the press and counter the opposition.

Play out of defence, shorter passing directness and slightly higher tempo. You could change the passing directness to more direct if you feel the need to do so.

Work the ball into the box as it would focus your attacking players into the final third. Since you would always end up with 5 attacking players, you should employ them to their full potential.

And play for set-pieces is more of a personal favourite, but it helps when the game is too closed.

In transition, Ange Postecoglou’s teams counter-press. Of course, if you are one of the best team’s in the league, do so. If not, tick this off. You wouldn’t want to be overrun by your opposition.

Counter, as the players will be told to use the counterattack when possible.

Distribute quickly, to the defence and roll it out.

Out of possession, higher line of engagement, standard defensive line and trigger press more often.

The defensive line is set as standard as Tottenham has Micky Van de Ven who has 19 pace so he is able to track back the opposing attackers.

But, if you have slow defenders, it would be best to use the drop off more option.

I wouldn’t go lower than standard defensive line, as you give an unnecessary high amount of space to the opposition to create into.

Press more often is triggered as the team I am using can cope with it, but if you feel you leave too much space behind, take it down a notch.

Ange Postecoglou’s career was never a smooth one. And his tactics developed over time. So give yourself and the tactic time to work and tweak whenever you think is needed.

Remember that Ange Postecoglou almost got relegated with Yokohama F. Marinos before he won the league title.

The tactic can be downloaded from the Downloads section or from here.

The tactic video can be watched here.