That was definitely the case in the Chelsea game last season, where the constant stop-starts the dickhead ref insisted on was the root cause of Mickey Van's hamstring going twang
@PowerSpurs Just to further add to this point and show the similarities with us, here’s an extract from an article in 2021: “Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou refuses to consider possible alterations in the club’s training or playing style after Kyogo Furuhashi became the latest member of his squad to suffer a hamstring strain. The loss of the Japanese striker during the 3-2 victory over Real Betis on Thursday means that no fewer than six players have suffered such muscle problems in the past two months.” Notice how at one point we had about 6 players out simultaneously with hamstring injuries earlier this season?
Fine, but you need to show that six is unusual and I don't think it is based on the high prevalence of hamstring injuries.
But I am arguing that the cause of the performance is the injuries. The average number of hamstring injuries is 5 per season. Ours is above that but not by much.
I’d say it’s unusual when it’s also combined with multiple other muscle related injuries. Especially when you consider they were quite clustered together. I think at one point we had 12 or 13 players injured all at once. I’m pretty sure that at one stage last season we had about 7. When you add these on top of the clustered injuries Ange had at Celtic, I think you simply have to deduce that this isn’t just bad luck, it’s an issue related to how we’re coached and played. Even if we just analyse through a purely logical perspective - if you’re planning to play the most demanding style in the most physically demanding league in world football, you surely have to expect an increase in injuries, no?
Yes, of course you would. But that doesn’t mean that accounts for the entire increase. You are calling for someone to be sacked. Most organisations require solid evidence before doing that. The evidence presented so far is circumstantial at best.
It's also worth noticing that so-called "Ange ball" has disappeared from view for months now. Unless there's a game I'm forgetting, the last time we saw it in full force for pretty much the entire game was Liverpool at home (3-6). That was back in December. Since then, our football has largely been a turgid, slow mess with occasional flashes of so-called "Ange ball" here and there. Which means either the players, manager or both recognise that it just isn't worth the risks and have all but binned it.
Entire? Maybe not. Majority? I’d say so. I don’t know if there’s injury data/ stats that exists for his time at Yokohama but using his now almost four seasons at Celtic and Spurs and noticing both clubs have suffered an above average level of hamstring/ muscle related injuries, it then causes a bit of a grey area to say that “we’re only bad because of injuries” knowing that it’s likely we’ll never be injury-free for long enough to ever truly know how good we can be. I’m saying he should be sacked because of all the managers we’ve had in the last 15 or so years, he seems the worst. Even taking out the injuries that I believe are largely caused by him. His in-game management and tactics often strike me as someone well out of their depth. I’ve said it many times but there is a very amateurish vibe about his management. The cynic in me says it’s now apparent as to why no team in Europe’s top five leagues had ever touched him prior to us.
You can stretch it as far back to last season too. We lost 5 of our last 7 and then seemingly continued the form into this. We haven’t really had a sustained level of good form since his first ten league games. His record in big games, especially derbies is also horrific. I’d be interested to know just how many Spurs managers have a worse record than him against our big three rivals.
Which evaporates if the injuries are to blame. Unless they themselves are down to Ange's methods which you've agreed to disagree on.
I don't disagree. I'm looking at it from the point of view of watching games and, regardless of the score, you can sit there at FT with an idea of what we're trying to do, and what the system or plan is meant to look like. We last did this against Liverpool with 8-9 players injured, which is how we conceded 6 but also how we scored 3. We tried to implement the plan. That has totally evaporated since.
Ange has also as much as said they were down to his methods. So you're now defending Ange against himself. A noble endeavour.
He hasn't really said that though. He said something subtly different. Obviously if we play with less intensity or bin off one of the cups then we are likely to have fewer injuries. I think he is regretting going so hard in the cups. I think most fans would prefer him to do as he did as League Cup and Europa League were our best chance of a trophy. I don't care much about trophies but going for the Europa was and is our best chance of getting into CL with the accompanying benefits.
Go hard in the cups? FA Cup we needed extra time to beat mighty Tamworth before losing to Villa. Carabao we scraped past Coventry, played superbly against City, almost imploded against United before being thrashed by Liverpool. Europa we've played maybe two good games out of ten. If that's going hard, I'd shudder to see us flaccid.
Going for all four competitions was a fool's endeavour anyway A large part of Liverpool fading last season was because Norbert went all guns blazing for all four competitions and they started to splutter out in March before faceplanting from April onwards, and given their squad last season was better rounded than ours is this it's abundantly clear we should have prioritised league and Europa and kept the FA Cup in our back pocket
