‘Least effective ever’: Brutal Ange fallout as Poms feast on Aussie demise — UK View

It was the shortest tenure of a permanent manager in Premier League history.

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Ange Postecoglou, who typically needs patience and time to implement his new system, got just 39 days before being relieved of his duties at Nottingham Forest.

Postecoglou went winless in eight games in charge at City Ground, becoming the latest in a long list of managers to be axed by Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis.

A statement was released on social media confirming his departure just 19 minutes after Sunday’s 3-0 loss to Chelsea.

Micah Richards called it “ridiculous” given Postecoglou had such little time to work with the team.

It was ruthless, but not all that shocking.

In fact, the general consensus from the UK media was that from the very moment Postecoglou was hired, it always seemed like this would only end with one outcome.

It was really a matter of when, not if.

“It was a match that never felt like the perfect fit,” wrote The Times’ Charlotte Duncker, while The Athletic’s Paul Taylor called it an appointment that “felt doomed from the start”.

“The task was never going to be simple for Postecoglou,” added Duncker.

“Forest hadn’t started the season well, hence Nuno’s sacking, and Postecoglou was expected to bring in instant results all while changing the playing style so drastically in a short period of time. In hindsight, without time it was never going to work.”

Andrew Tillett, The Australian Financial Review’s correspondent for Europe, echoed a similar sentiment as he wrote that Postecoglou was potentially “too eager to get back into the big time too soon”.

“And in hindsight doomed to fail,” Tillett added.

“He inherited a roster he had no role in assembling, and no pre-season to induct the squad into his ‘Angeball’ style of play that emphasises attack.”

MORE: Why Ange was never the true villain in Forest’s demise

In an attempt to get the squad used to that playing style, Taylor reported that Postecoglou conducted training sessions which were “significantly more intense” than under Nuno.

Taylor wrote that the demands were “high” and that Postecoglou personally briefed all of his players on what was required and for the most part, they were receptive to the new voice.

“But it was never really the physical demands of such change that were the issue, more so the mental ones,” Taylor added.

Which again, is not to suggest that the playing group had turned on Postecoglou. On the contrary, Taylor reported that there was “little anti-Ange sentiment in the dressing room” and that “those outside the playing staff forged a positive opinion of him”.

“His main problem, in numerous different senses,” Taylor wrote, “was that he was not Nuno”.

It is part of the reason why the Guardian’s Barney Ronay was particularly scathing of Postecoglou in his assessment of the Forest saga, writing that the Australian was “always a terrible appointment”.

“Mainly because it involved getting rid of a successful, popular and settled predecessor, bookended now by a sacking at the end of an international break,” Ronay added.

The point Ronay made about Nuno’s popularity is particularly important and one that was mentioned by a number of writers covering the team, including Taylor of the Athletic, who described the players as “hugely pro-Nuno” and added there was “widespread dismay” over his departure.

The BBC’s Nick Mashiter reported that Postecoglou “gave the players space to digest Nuno’s departure in the first week at the club, wanting to respect the bond his new squad had with their former manager”.

“Their closeness and fondness for Nuno is not something which should be used against Postecoglou,” Mashiter wrote, adding that the players “did not turn” on Postecoglou, understanding it would take time to get used to his system.

But for a team searching for immediate results, the time was never there and Mashiter reported that even if the playing group was largely on board, “there were doubts”.

The Times’ Duncker heard similar, writing that the “official word” out of the Forest dressing room was that the players believed they could find success in Postecoglou’s system if “given time”.

“However,” she later added, “in reality, there were doubts from the players and too many of them weren’t sold with what they were being asked to do”.

The BBC’s Mashiter wrote that some players “struggled” with the change from Nuno’s “pragmatic counter-attack” to Postecoglou’s “high-pressing, flowing game”.

“It was too much too soon,” Mashiter added, before pointing to the way the system “suited some better than others”.

“Elliot Anderson thrived, while centre-backs Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo were nervous and sometimes exposed,” Mashiter wrote.

“Results, naturally, eroded belief, but the unity in the squad which was the foundation of last season’s seventh-place finish – as Forest reached Europe for the first time since 1995-96 – had also taken a hit.

“Those close to Postecoglou describe him as honest, a good man and unapologetic about how he wants to play.

“But his decision to switch to a more pragmatic five at the back for his last few games belied his principles early and doubts had crept into the squad.

“Granted, that pragmatism helped Tottenham win the Europa League – especially in the semi-final second leg win at Bodo/Glimt in May as Spurs navigated a tricky tie well – but it was not what he was brought to the City Ground for.”

That goes to the broader point that many other pundits in the UK made. Sure, in some ways Postecoglou was set up to fail but he also needed to be more pragmatic and alert to the fact that he needed to take a different approach to implementing his system at Forest.

“Not all mistakes have to be fatal,” Ronay wrote.

“Postecoglou made this one into a disaster by never at any stage seeming to understand the assignment.

“There was always something odd about the suggestion he kicked things off by saying, in effect: ‘Give me time and we can rebuild this project.’

“Forest were coming off a brilliant season. The current one had already started. Why make the job into a rebuild?

“Naivety, perhaps. The fatal inflexibility of the systems man. Or just not being very good at the job, paddling out of your depth at this most brutally unforgiving level.”

Ronay went as far as to write Postecoglou “has a fair claim, at least in those final 50 games, on the title of least effective Premier League manager ever”.

“Yes, there have been worse win ratios than his 26%… but not in charge of players of this quality,” Ronay added.

“It is even incorrect to say Ange went down firing shots, that he never abandoned his principles. He often tried to play differently. It didn’t work.

“His teams became not just unsuccessful, but run-of-the-mill unsuccessful. By the end, the most entertaining element was his own apparently unshakeable conviction that this was all somehow someone else’s fault, that he, Ange, stood alone on the heath surrounded by fools.”

Taylor, meanwhile, wrote that even if there may be some truth to the argument that Postecoglou deserved more time, “fans never felt that he properly embraced the club or the city in the same way his predecessors had”.

Taylor also pointed to Postecoglou’s constant changes to the starting line-up and failure to get the best out of what was on paper a talented roster as other contributing factors to his demise.

“At the start of the season, Forest believed their £200million ($A413m) recruitment drive, which saw them sign 13 players last summer, had given them a squad that could push to improve on last season’s seventh-placed finish — and challenge to win the Europa League,” Taylor wrote.

“Their sense of ambition was fuelled by the fact that they felt they had assembled the best squad the club had ever had. Numerous coaches, managers and executives at other clubs had congratulated them on the work they had done.

“Yet only two of those new additions were in Postecoglou’s final starting XI, Douglas Luiz and Oleksandr Zinchenko. Around £120million worth of those new signings — Dilane Bakwa, Omari Hutchinson, James McAtee and Arnaud Kalimuendo — were sitting in the stands.

“Postecoglou never made fewer than three changes to his starting line-up in his eight games in charge. There were five against Chelsea.

“It was impossible to predict his team selection or his formation. The decision to start Taiwo Awoniyi — a player the club had been open to selling in the summer and who had not played a single minute of football since — felt like something of a Hail Mary. Awoniyi played well against Chelsea but was substituted at half-time after he ran out of gas.”

But ultimately, regardless of whether Postecoglou made the right changes or not, one thing is clear: he didn’t make the right decision to jump at the Forest job.

Marinakis, meanwhile, was also foolish to think Postecoglou was the right hire considering the way he usually goes about coaching his teams.

The Forest owner will now go about finding another manager to replace Postecoglou, with Sean Dyche at the top of the list while Roberto Mancini and Marco Silva are also in the frame.

As for Postecoglou, Australian football great Mark Bosnich said on SEN Radio that this may be the perfect time for the former Forest and Tottenham manager to “sit back” and carefully consider his next move.

“Right now, the EPL is not the place for him,” Bosnich said on SEN Radio.

“I expected him to have a sabbatical after Spurs and maybe make a return in January. I think he takes a break now and then looks for opportunities in January or the start of next season.

“Other options will arise around Europe. The fact he won the Europa League will always count in his favour.”

Tillett of The Australian Financial Review had similar recommendations for Postecoglou, writing that a return to “one of the glamour European competitions is unlikely in the short term”.

“If he wants to stay in Europe, it will have to be through one of the lower profile leagues,” Tillett added.

“But there is also the possibility of a return to Japan, the influx of Saudi money in pro soccer makes that an option, and Postecoglou’s emphasis on an attacking game would make a good fit in the US’ Major League Soccer.”