From his humble beginnings in South Melbourne to leading Yokahama F Marinos to the Japanese championship, Ange Postecoglou’s football philosophy has captivated players and fans alike.
Just like football in general, the former Socceroos manager’s attacking ethos has evolved throughout his 20-year managerial career and this Yokahama team was the culmination of many harsh defeats.
What made this job even more difficult was the fact that the 54-year-old was in a new country with a completely different view not only towards football, but life in general. He had to ensure his messages transcended languages for players that hailed from Brazil and Serbia as well as Japan.
So how did Postecoglou add the J1 League title to his CV? Here is just three of his key tactics with Yokohama.
Verticality in transition
Although Postecouglou’s side hold possession for a majority of the game – averaging 63 per cent, by far the highest in the league – they are at their most dangerous in the few seconds after winning the ball.
The Japanese champions’ transition is a thing of beauty. They turn defence into attack at rapid speed. The opposition, still hung up on their own missed opportunity, end up chasing shadows as Marinos players sprint past in numbers.
In the clip above, Marinos create this situation perfectly and reach their opponent’s box from their own in around 12 seconds. The forward missed his opportunity this time around, but the quick counter-attack caught the whole team sleeping and exemplifies the Postecoglou approach.
Where some teams looking to attain control of the game might slow down the pace as their team regains their structure, Yokahama look to attack immediately via passes aimed at getting the ball into the attacking third as quickly as possible.
Crucially, this does not mean that players hoof the ball forward aimlessly, but that they work themselves up the pitch quickly through direct, vertical passes. Forwards come deeper to receive possession, pulling away the opposition defenders and then lay it off for the runs of midfielders who are charging their way into the newly created space.
Defending from the front
Pressing has become part of the modern game, especially for teams that prefer to attack rather than those happier sitting deep and looking to counter-attack. This usually involves the forwards charging at in-possession defenders rather than allowing them space to progress it up field.
As Johan Cruyff one said: “In my teams, the goalkeeper is the first attacker and the striker is the first defender.”
Postecoglou carried those principles with his forwards – MVP Teruhito Nakagawa and Brazilians Erik and Mateus – pressuring opponents from the front while the midfield pushed on to block easy passing lanes.
If the forwards are to press high, the rest of the team must move up field as well, meaning that the defensive line pushes up in a high block. This makes the field smaller for the opposition as they look for an option to pass to, with the only risk-averse pass being the long ball that should result in Marinos winning back possession anyway.
If that long pass ends up beating the defence, it is up to Marinos goalkeeper Park Iru-gyu to act as a sweeper keeper like Bayern Munich’s Manuel Neuer. It is a high-risk game, though, as we saw when Park was sent off in the final 20 minutes in the Tokyo FC match, after coming out of his box and failing to win the ball.
Pressing in this type of aggressive structure requires every player to know their role and have the energy to push forward. Postecoglou has clearly done an outstanding job in explaining to his whole squad when and where they need to be with and without the ball.
Lateral domination
What’s fascinating about this Marinos side is how they both compress and lengthen the field at the same time. While aggressively pressing and restricting space to the opposition, they are also stretching out opponents when in possession.
A lot of this happens through Marinos’ primary playmaker Marcos Junior, who nominally plays in between the striker and the midfield, but shuttles across the field laterally to create overloads in wide spaces within the final third.
Junior is an expert at finding and creating space, and so during those overloads he likes to pick out the runs of his striker who usually shift into the channel to make a run behind the defence.
When it comes to the fullbacks, Thai international Theerathon Bunmathan on the left flank is the one that likes to storm up the pitch more often while the right back Ken Matsubara is a bit more cautious and keeps the team safe from counter-attacks.
With teams that do want to sit deep and try to withstand the relentless pressure of Marinos, taking advantage of width is key and Postecoglou has found a system to ensure that they have enough presence in the final third without making them vulnerable in transition.
Winnie the Pooh (Emperor of China)
Guest
Good on Ang. Fact is he barely beat a few teams, like Thailand that we should have beatend 10 nil. At the highest levels he was exposed.
Hopper
Roar Rookie
Watching the teams warm up it became apparent we were in for a tough night. Our outfield players could not hit the side of a barn while the Japanese were bang on. We lost that game through technique alone.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
What could go wrong then? I'll be watching - it should be good.
Nemesis
Guest
An intriguing encounter awaits. Ange Postecoglou's Yokohama F Marinos has been drawn in Group H with Sydney FC in the 2020 Asian Champions League. Ange doesn't have a good record in ACL. Neither does Yokohama F Marinos. Neither does Sydney Fc.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Roar were a back and around team that made up for their lack of technical ability except when they were playing out from the goal keeper, when they got targeted in the ACl by a Japanese team they went to pieces. Yokohoma are already playing in Japan so they have overcome that challenge. The problem Japanese teams have in the ACL is the J-league is already exhausting enough with every match being tough and the bottom teams are not that far from the top. The second aspect is traditionally they have prioritised the J-league over the ACL, I assume Ange will want to win both. The Socceroos they played like Verbeek when the opposition parked the bus, and when they other side pressed they lost the ball. They did have the use of special jets with physio tables for their play off matches. How Ange was supposedly building to something after four years and it was about to all click. Ange had Cahill around too long, and Bresciano as well. The use of Kruse as a wing back was ridiculous. MV at least they had a style at least, though even that was about catering to Archie being on the last shoulder.
TooRight
Guest
“ Apparently Ange was going great guns before FFA sabotaged him, though no evidnce has been offered” You’ve got it all wrong. Apparently he was rubbish but somehow won us the Asian Cup and World Cup qualification with, by far, our worst squad in over 20 years.
Fadida
Roar Rookie
Agree totally
Fadida
Roar Rookie
I agree it was both. And who chose both?
Griffo
Roar Guru
Club vs country. Technical level of the players available to you, and who you can chose... There are a lot of differences, and early days with Socceroos were promising but the results were closer later on than they appeared, or what was comfortable with fans. I hope Ange does well with ACL but as is often the case, it is even tougher to win/do well in both domestic league and ACL. But I don't think there is any doubt that he can coach and manage a side. From an Aussie perspective I want him to do well to raise the profile of Aussie coaches so that greater (and higher level) opportunities become available.
Nick Symonds
Guest
"Was it the personnel chosen, or the tactics?" - Both. I guess you could speculate about whether he could do better with some of the current players coming through, but a back 3 is risky in a knockout competition. The defenders in a back 3 have to be top quality and if any are lost to injury or suspension then you need to have depth to cover for them, which I don't think we have. I think the ideal coach would be someone with the attacking attitude of Postecoglou combined with the defensive structure of Bert van Marwijk. Best of both worlds. Oddly enough, BVM has just been sacked by UAE so it might be possible to bring both of them back with Postecoglou as main coach and Marwijk as a defensive/assistant coach.
Nemesis
Guest
"And qualified. We can’t rewrite that fact, either." That's not the Ange philosophy. That's probably the Arnie philisophy. Ange has always preached: "whilst he understands he's in a results industry, he wants to play the game a certain way". I fully want Ange to play the game a certain way. I've seen what it looks like & it's wonderful to watch. The fact is: During the World cup qualifiers, Australia never played anything like we saw Brisbane & Yokohama play. We're not talking about knockout matches. We played around 20 matches during the qualifiers we stodgy, were disorganised & had limited creative invention, other than crossing the ball into the box. We did play the Ange way during World Cup 2014 against Chile & Netherlands. Lost both matches, but I didn't care. It was sumptuous football to watch against the highest quality opposition. So, don't bang on about results. We're talking about Ange Postecoglou. A coach who wants to play football a certain way. But, his Australian team never managed to do this during qualification for WC2018.
Fadida
Roar Rookie
Could not agree more Nemesis. Kanga has joined the re-writing of history too. Apparently Ange was going great guns before FFA sabotaged him, though no evidnce has been offered
Fadida
Roar Rookie
The coach is criticised for coming 3rd in a 2 horse race. Yes the players struggled technically, but Ange didn't adjust tactics to take that into account. Should he have? Of course. The player pool was fixed. He couldn't recruit 3 Brazilian attackers.
Fadida
Roar Rookie
Yep, possession without a purpose. I'd suggest anyone with rose tinted glasses re-watch the Japan home game. Here we moved the ball slowly into a narrow midfield, Japan allowing jedinak to receive the ball, the ball going in a bowl shaped pattern again and again, before going back to repeat. Unfortunately Ange chose Juric and Giannou, 2 immobile strikers. The only width came from Smith and Ryan McGowan. Japan simply sat back and picked off ant vertical pass Jedinak made. After this we changed to the unsuccessful 3 at the back. Was it the personnel chosen, or the tactics?
TooRight
Guest
"Doesn’t mean we can rewrite the facts that Australia played around 20 qualifiers in Asia" And qualified. We can't rewrite that fact, either. He could do it at Brisbane because the opposition were equally "technical" (which is to say, not technical at all). The curious thing about the Australian football public is that they assume we're still one of the big guns in Asia. We're not. We're good enough to get a decent result here and there, but we've been slipping for a while now while our rivals are investing heavily in their development. Blaming our coach (which we almost always do) in the face of overwhelming evidence that our players are technically inferior ... it's the Aussie way.
Nemesis
Guest
No doubting those are extremely impressive coaching credits. Doesn't mean we can rewrite the facts that Australia played around 20 qualifiers in Asia and I don't recall any of those matches which even remotely looked like the football played by Ange's Brisbane teams. And, I only saw Yokohama a few times, but Australia never played football like that during the Qualifiers. Mourinho has a terrific coaching record - at Porto, Inter, Real Madrid, Chelsea. Doesn't mean we have to accept he did the same at Manchester United.
Kanggas2
Roar Rookie
3 Nsl titles with South Melbourne 2 with Brisbane roar Asian cup W c qualification success J league title
Redondo
Roar Rookie
The embargo on critical comments is strange - it's more like he died than that he won the J-League. One fantastic achievement doesn't erase the past.
Nemesis
Guest
I agree, Shabab. Which is why I find it frustrating to read the revised narrativesi in the past few weeks about Ange's departure from the coaching job of the men's team. Ange left because he wanted to leave. I was overjoyed when he was chosen to be the coach of Australia, even though it came at huge cost to my club in the A-League. But, I was also content when Ange announced he was leaving. I'd seen enough during the World Cup Qualifiers to know Ange was not implementing the style that we saw at Brisbane, and the style we see at Yokohama. I'm delighted Ange succeeded in Japan. But, let's not pretend we were all delighted with the way Australia played during the World Cup Qualifiers. No one was delighted. I'm amused to see Punter & Franko rewrite their narratives about Ange leading the National Team.
Shabab Hossain
Expert
I think it's worth remembering that national team and clubs are very different. Ange's philosophy is something that took a year to implement and that was with daily training sessions. You don't get that luxury on the international stage and he would have had to change his methods for the multiple obstacles.