James Maddison has revealed Ange Postecoglou told his Spurs players to put a “foot on the throat” of their opposition
in his half-time team talk during their 5-1 pre-season victory over Shakhtar Donetsk on Sunday. The Aussie is known for playing ruthless attacking football and is expected to implement his trademark high pressing 4-3-3 set-up in his new role as Tottenham manager
Shakhtar went into the break tied 1-1 with Tottenham but were torn apart in the second half as Harry Kane bagged three more to go along with the penalty he converted in the first stanza while Dane Scarlett bagged a fifth in added time. Tottenham’s adversaries were left waiting on the pitch for an extended period of time before Postecoglou’s men emerged from the tunnel and now James Maddison has revealed what was said in the dressing room.
He told club media: “He’s relentless with the messages the gaffer. At half-time, he wants us to do it more and doesn’t want us to score and almost take our foot off the gas. He had a few words to say at half-time about putting a foot on the throat almost, don’t be happy just to get 1-0 up, go for two, go for three.
“That’s why [the second half] why we came out so hot and so fiery in front of goal. It’s still such a learning period for us as players with the new manager but we’ll keep trying to nail that.
Postecoglou looks to dominate the wide areas through passing combinations between the full-back, No 8 and winger in order to break down his opponent’s backline. His system is based on possession football and demands constant pressure to regain the ball.
Last season, during his time at Celtic, 43.3% of his side’s possession regains in the opposition’s half came within eight seconds of losing the ball, which goes to show the intensity at which Postecoglou plays. “There are some core beliefs that had been there from day one of my coaching (career) and are still there today,” he told Hudl’s High-Performance Insights in 2020.
“For me, it starts with the ball, everything that we coach and preach in terms of the way we want to play starts with the ball. There are certain things that are non-negotiable, and the first one is (that) I want my teams to have the ball. So, our attacking philosophy, our defensive philosophy is all sort of measured around that.”
He added: “The end goal is (that) we just want to score more goals than everyone else. Me winning 4-3 is more exciting than winning 1-0.”
