Southampton manager leaps to the defence of under-fire Ange Postecoglou

Pressure is already building on Ange Postecoglou ahead of Tottenham’s clash against Southampton on Monday morning, and you can expect the outside noise to only intensify with any result but a win against the Premier League’s bottom side.

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But even as Russell Martin contends with his team’s own poor form, having claimed just five points from their last 15 games, the Southampton manager has come to Postecoglou’s defence.

In fact, Martin dedicated nearly four minutes from his press conference ahead of Southampton’s game against Tottenham to throw his support behind Postecoglou, declaring he has “a lot of respect” for the Australian.

Martin, who has himself come under scrutiny for being too stubborn tactically, was asked about the criticism of Postecoglou and had plenty to say, comparing the Australian’s experience to that Graham Potter went through after switching from Brighton to Chelsea.

“I think it’s really interesting because every manager that sits behind a team has some form of beliefs and some form of value system and what they deem as acceptable or what they want to see, what they want compromised on, what the non-negotiables are,” Martin said.

“But the ones who are only criticised are the ones that are a little bit different from the norm. So if we all believed the same thing I think it’d be pretty boring but it’d be less open to criticism.

“I think his team is brave. It’s aggressive, they’ve been really unfortunate with injuries, it’s so similar to Graham Potter when he was at Chelsea.

“Everything he got praise for and credit for at Brighton, he then got criticised for at Chelsea. So, he went from being calm, studious, really brave in his approach at Brighton to managing a team with different expectations and then all of a sudden he didn’t show enough passion on the sideline and was too emotionally consistent and all this nonsense.

“It’s exactly the same with Ange.”

To prove his point, Martin explained that he had “watched a lot” of Celtic while they were coached by Postecoglou, where he was praised for “doing it his own way”.

“Kudos and credit to him for that. It’s called leadership,” The Celtic Way’s Tony Haggerty, for example, wrote after Postecoglou coached Celtic to glory in the Scottish League Cup final.

“They (Celtic under Postecoglou) were brilliant,” said Martin.

“There was so much praise for being so aggressive, so brave, relentless restarts, energy… he did a great job, won lots of trophies, got to the Champions League, goes to Spurs and starts so well.

“So, when results are good no one questions the style or his conviction or belief system and the minute it starts faltering it’s always down to that… and I’ll get criticised for the same thing about being stubborn and all that stuff.

“But if you believe in something and it’s taken you a certain way in life and on a certain pathway and journey, to deviate too far from that I think is crazy.

“I can’t speak for him but we are adapting. We adapt shape, we adapt approach, we adapt personnel but with the same consistency in what’s really important, with the same concept of the game so we can’t deviate too far from that otherwise we become nothing really… I have a lot of respect for him.”

While Postecoglou’s Tottenham made a strong start to go up 2-0 early against Chelsea, Spurs were unable to maintain the intensity, falling behind 4-2 before scoring a late consolation goal to make the final score look more respectable.

Speaking after that game, which only further put the spotlight on Postecoglou’s tactics, Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher questioned whether the Australian was too hesitant to adapt.

But still defending Postecoglou, Martin was emphatic that Plan A and Plan B “don’t need to be miles apart”.

“This is the concept we all get completely mixed up,” he said.

“Plan A is to play this way, Plan B doesn’t have to be a million miles over here because then it would be crazy, so then you don’t really believe in the Plan A.

“When you have Plan A, of course you need to be able to move on certain things but you start with a vision and a version of the game that you want as the coach … they’re all very different.

“I have respect for every single person that does the job because it’s incredibly tough. There’s no right or wrong. But this is where we all get mixed up.

“People watch the game and if it’s not their version of the game they’re really quick to criticise. If it’s their version of the game and how they played it or how they see it, they don’t criticise it nowhere near as much. This is the problem.

“Plan A and Plan B don’t need to be hugely different. Plan B is mix it up in certain bits. Maybe change the way you press, maybe change the way you build up, maybe you change the shape, maybe you change the position of the players without losing the concept of Plan A otherwise what is the point of having a Plan A?”

For a man who himself is under pressure, Martin was very happy to go out of his way to defend a rival manager that he clearly can relate to.

Southampton play Tottenham on Monday morning at 6am.