Ange Postecoglou would still be Nottingham Forest manager if his players could defend corners.
That’s the opinion of former Premier League manager Gary O’Neil, while pointing to several impressive statistical achievements during Postecoglou’s tumultuous 39-day reign.
Postecoglou was fired immediately after Forest’s 3-0 home loss to Chelsea at the weekend, which left the Australian without a win in eight games in charge.
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Nottingham Forest concede from a corner. Stan
Forest conceded 11 times from set-pieces (corners and free kicks) under Postecoglou, more than twice as many as any other Premier League team during that time.
But despite taking on the job with the hectic season already underway, and inheriting players drilled into a completely different style of play, there was inarguable proof that Ange-ball was working.
During his tenure, Forest were top of the league for total forward passes (1279), second for passes in the opposition’s half (2215) and third for passes in the final third (1171), passes into the opposition’s box (274) and movements of 10 or more passes (119).
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Nottingham Forest concede from a corner. Stan
“If Forest defend corners perfectly, Ange has probably won four games now, and he’s sat in a job,” ex-Wolves and Bournemouth manager O’Neil told Sky Sports.
“That is how important set-pieces can be, because these are top stats. To go into a new club and to put this in place that quickly shows that there was some stuff going on there that the players were buying into and was working.
“But if every time you give a corner away, it ends up in your goal, and you’re now 1-0 down, and the fans are starting to turn, it’s very, very difficult.”
Nottingham Forest concede from a corner. Stan
A whopping 61 per cent of Forest’s goals under Postecoglou came from set-pieces.
The Premier League average is around 25 per cent.
Postecoglou’s set-piece coach at Forest was Axl Rice, who he inherited from the Nuno Espirito Santo regime.
Conceding set-piece goals also plagued Postecoglou’s tenure at Tottenham Hotspur.
He delegated that aspect of the game to his assistants and got prickly when asked about it.
“If I thought fixing defensive set-pieces was the answer to us bridging the gap, then I’d put all of my time and effort into that. But that’s not where we’re at,” he said after a Spurs loss to Arsenal.
Ange Postecoglou at the City Ground in Nottingham. NurPhoto via Getty Images
“I know, I know, for some reason people think I don’t care about set pieces and it’s a narrative that you can keep going on for ages and ages. I understand that. Like I said, we work on them all the time like we do for every other team.”
But his teams kept copping goals.
“Set pieces are so, so important,” O’Neil continued.
“You have to be able to keep the ball out of your goal, otherwise all of this just becomes a sort of nice bit that you can add onto it.
“People will say, ‘oh, yeah, the style was nice, but we’re still 2-0 down, and we’ve still got no points from the first five (games)’.”
Liverpool legend Michael Owen said Postecoglou was on the back foot as soon as he took on the job.
“Despite winning a trophy at Tottenham, one of his first press conferences (with Forest), he’s almost fighting fires, he’s almost justifying his existence, justifying being the manager,” Owen said on the Weekend Wrap on Stan Sport.
“Maybe the fans weren’t that convinced about his appointment and it didn’t get any better from there. I don’t think it was a huge surprise that he was let go.”
Owen also argued that Postecoglou’s crowning achievement at Spurs – winning the Europa League – was not as impressive as it might seem.
“The standard of that competition that year was really poor,” Owen said.
“I mean, it was probably the worst final I’ve ever seen. Against a fellow team in the Premier League, they were 16th and 17th in the league, the two teams.
“And it was who was the least worst… this very much is a board appointment that they’ve not got right and they are going to have to fix that mess.”
Ryan Yates of Nottingham Forest is challenged by Cameron Burgess of Swansea City. Getty
Forest captain Ryan Yates said the players must also take the blame for their dismal run.
“Everybody has to take responsibility. I think it would be unfair to pin it on anybody,” Yates told the BBC.
“We have to look ourselves in the mirror and dust ourselves down and go again because things in football can change really quickly. That’s what we are going to be thinking about…
“Partly we are to blame (for Postecoglou’s sacking) because we are the guys going out on the pitch and trying to get results.
“Things in football can change very quickly.”
Former Burnley and Everton boss Sean Dyche is expected to come in and try to steady the ship.