Fraser Forster has revealed that one of the first things Ange Postecoglou stressed when he took over at Tottenham in the summer was the importance of creating a family feel at the club.
Watching the body language of the Tottenham players for much of last season, it does not take a genius to figure out that the players appeared quite disjointed.
There seemed to be a lot of finger-pointing on the pitch and one can argue that it came from the top, with Antonio Conte himself not being afraid to take a pop at the players during his interviews and press conferences.
That has completely changed under Postecoglou, who continues to back his players publicly even when they make mistakes, with the removal of the fear of failure seemingly being central to the Australian’s philosophy in order to help the players express themselves on the pitch.
Family spirit is important to Postecoglou at Spurs
From the outside looking in, it does appear as if there is more of a togetherness among the players, and Forster has revealed that it is by no means a fluke, with that being a central tenet of Postecoglou’s philosophy.
When asked about what the new Tottenham boss has changed, the goalkeeper said on That Peter Crouch Podcast: “I think the big thing when he first came in was you need to be a family.
“You need to think of each other as family. So say in a game, something happens to him, he’s a family member. Whereas if you’re strangers, ‘he can sort it out’. He wants everyone to be so close and so together.
“He keeps coming back to that, like that’s the standard. If you’re going to press, you’ll press together. So basically he brought everyone into a little group and everyone’s brought into it. That’s been the big thing.”
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Given Postecoglou’s intention to build a family feel in the dressing room, it is not surprising that the Australian puts a lot of focus on the personality of any potential new signings rather than just their talent, with the 58-year-old evidently not wanting to bring in the sort of characters who would affect the family dynamic.
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