What is Ange-ball?

Ange-ball is the football-playing philosophy used by new Nottingham Forest manager Ange Postecoglou.

This style was implemented during Postecoglou's time as Celtic and Tottenham boss.

The attacking and high-intensity football style relies on the creativity of players to dominate on the ball and relentless pressing to win it back.

Postecoglou is known for his use of inverted full-backs, high line approach, quick passes, and building play from the back.

The manager's football style aims to be entertaining, by showing ambition, excitement and bravery.

Postecoglou has rarely backed down from his principles, mostly focusing on attacking play to win games.

An example of this was in November 2023, when he did not drop his attacking philosophy despite Tottenham going down to nine men in a 4-1 loss to Chelsea.

He defended his decisions: "It's just who we are, mate. As long as I'm here, that's what we're going to do."

However, he did abandon so-called Ange-ball for Tottenham's 2025 Europa League final.

Postecoglou instead implemented a more defensive style to his side, earning them their first trophy in 17 years.

Now at Forest, Postecoglou said the change to his football style will be "a gradual process".

"It's just a matter of making it as smooth as possible," Postecoglou said in his first news conference as Forest manager.

Across his past three jobs, Postecoglou's sides have played in a 4-3-3 or 4-4-1-1 shape that aimed to dominate the ball, playing quickly with it, and pressing incredibly aggressively without it.

The high intensity of his style in all phases has become a hallmark of his system, with positives and negatives.

From build-up, Postecoglou involves his goalkeeper and uses the back four and defensive midfielder in an interesting way.

Build-up is focused heavily down the centre of the pitch, with six players playing in a compact way.

Both full-backs are seen inverting into midfield so need to have strong technical quality. The rationale here is that you are likely to outnumber the opposition in build-up, making it easier to move up the pitch.

If opposition players mark your players in build-up, Postecoglou's use of positional rotations is a tool to get players free in order to receive the ball.

Postecoglou likes to use rotations very frequently, with two or three players often seen swapping between rigid positions in order to move defences around to find the free man. It looks fluid but it is often calculated.

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