4 Jul 2023
On Tottenham
On Ange Postecoglou’s difficult second season
I actually think Ange’s done well with the media stuff in the recent weeks. It's not easy to go out there with people asking you these questions to see you squirm, which by and large is what the press want to do to a manager.
They want to see you squirm so there's a headline. They want to see you react so there's a headline. Matter of fact, it's the only business in the world where someone can get away with poking somebody who's mental health might not be the best at that moment in time, but we're allowed to poke them and make it worse.
‘Look, he's struggling, fans are shouting for his head, I'm going to make it worse. Yeah, let's give him a dig. Let's make it worse for these managers.’
I think he's done all right with his press dealings, he's stuck to what’s right.
The press asked this question about injuries, and he answered them. When you actually answer a question, for example why you might not be playing so well. And then you answer it. Amazingly, it's turned into excuses. But he's right. Tottenham have had a lot of injuries to deal with this season.
You know, if Man City can keep on going on about Rodri, who's one player, then I think Ange has a right to talk about injuries if he wants to.
We all know that the way Ange works, there's absolutely no doubt about it, he's quite prepared to leave two for two at the back, one for one at the back. We like that because he’s sending all the players forward for attacks. We get great games of football, we get goals, we get excitement. It goes to the last minute, it goes to the first minute, it doesn't matter. So whatever happens, there's always something going on. But unless you've got players that can go one for one, two for two at the back, then you've got a problem.
And however good Archie Gray is, and Danso is, if your unit breaks down and you're left one for one or two for two, that's where they've been going wrong. You’re in trouble.
Van der Ven and Romero could deal with that. You could go one for one, two for two, whatever you want. And you'd probably say, ‘Why isn't he keeping one more at the back?’ That's the way it is. I would probably leave another one at the back, but I'm not Ange.Whatever happens with Ange - how many managers have been through the Premier League that you forget about? Hundreds. You'll never forget Ange.
Can Spurs with the Europa?
They're more than capable of winning the Europa League. Especially if you get the two centre-backs back. I just feel like it's been one of those seasons where,maybe you haven't had the rub of the green and it snowballs a little bit, doesn't it? And sometimes that can happen.
I also think that, in many ways, Ange isn't really public enemy number one at TottenhamIt's all about the owner. I don't know too much about them. I just know that the football last year was terrific. They've got an incredible stadium. There's teams that you go, right, I'll watch that. There's some teams you go; I can't be bothered. There's always something happening.
On Leeds
Is this now Leeds’ title to lose?
No, I mean, look at Burnley. Saying that, that Leeds game versus Burnley was...that was dull, wasn't it? That was torture.
But Leeds are, if you ask me, the team who I like to watch most, obviously I'm a Leeds fan, but they're the ones to watch in The Championship. They sold three or four good players in the summer and still produce. I've seen many teams that have to sell all the players because of financial reasons and then plummet. They've done well to keep doing what they're doing.For Farke and his playing staff to get the players to do what they're doing; they deserve great credit. They still have this ability to steamroll teams, especially at home. They look like they're scoring every time they go up the pitch.Yeah, they've lost in the cup to Millwall, but you can probably put that in the bin. They've got a great set-up there.
Is Daniel Farke the Championship manager of the season so far?
Daniel Farke never seemed to change. His attitude never seemed to change, and he's got this big commitment to playing from the back, trying his best to play from the back. They make a lot of chances too, and I see a lot of teams playing from the back making no chances. So, he's managed to merge both, and it's not easy to do that. Even Man City are finding it hard to do that now.
I like a team that can vary their play. That's why I like Newcastle a lot. There's a lot of variation in their play. You never know which way they're coming at you. Bayern Munich, they were the same years ago. They could play any game they wanted to play. It wasn't like, we play this way. It was, whatever your weakness is, we're coming for it.And I think Leeds are like that.
I also think they've got this momentum with them, especially at home. In the league games, teams just buckle. It's non-stop, you don't get a breather. think we'll be seeing Leeds in the Premier League next season, and it'd be great for the Premier League for them to be back in there because they're just one of the teams that add to the league, that's for sure.
On Man United
You were part of the Manchester United team that started to turn around their fortunes under Alex Ferguson, what advice would you give them to pull off their own resurgence?
It was 40 years ago. It was a different time. Different time altogether. No, obviously they didn't turn around until I left. It's a long story, because the culture at the club needed to be changed. But you could change it quicker then, you could get rid of people like me or Norman Whiteside.Whiteside, McGrath, Strachan, for example, are all moving on. They were all terrific players, but it was their time to move on. Alex did it the right way, but I don’t think he would have been able to move players out that easily in this day and age and that is the problem that Amorim has.
But what Alex did have is a new generation and the next group coming through. He had this group of young lads coming through and Cantona to supplement that. Alex was clever. He knew he needed to add to what he had by getting Cantona, getting Keane, people like Ince, players like that come in and change the culture to this winning mentality. With professionalism. You cannot say that McGrath, Whiteside, Robson, didn't have this winning mentality, but they didn't have the professionalism that Sir Alex demanded.
I could go on about the lack of professionalism, but it's history now. Great lads, but not great professionals. That's where it changed over that period of time. He also had that group of young boys who he could scare into winning.But we're in a different world now. I do know that to win a match of football, you do need these people. You need the standard-bearers. You need to have players that build the foundation or architecture of how you win, and how you spread this winning mentality around the club. I don't think that's been at Manchester United for a long time.
There's no players spreading a winning mentality. They've been spreading Instagram.I know what they're doing, I know what clothes they're wearing, I know what clubs they're at. I can see what boat they're on. But I don't see any Premier League or Champions League medals.
Over the last six years in particular, that winning culture has been eroded. United probably have a few people, good ones like Fernandes, who's not the perfect captain but a good player, and he's surrounded by this waste. For so many of them, it’s just been good enough to be a Man United player. That has to change.
Where do you find these players and people? I really don't know. Because there are probably a lot of people in that dressing room who are desperate to be led just now. Because everybody can't be a leader. But they're looking for people to show them how to become a real professional and win at all costs. If you can talk a 24-year-old Bryan Robson, a Keane, a Steve Bruce and just drop them in for a year, you'd be fine.Amorim and whoever is in charge of recruitment has to find the new ones. The club has always had win-at-all-costs players, Stam and Vidic, Rooney, Ronaldo it's all about winning.I don't think it's all about winning at that club just now. It's a culture that needs to change.
Strachan on Mission 21
Mission 21, right? I mean it's just a load of old nonsense isn't it, this kind of stuff. There's too many tangibles that can go wrong.I mean, it’s about winning football matches now, immediately. We all know that things have to change at the club, but statements coming out of the club like this are just mumbo jumbo. It’s marketing speak.
Football fans, United fans, want to see a group of players that give everything for the badge, that want can compete on the pitch.
Mission statements should be left in the boardroom. Let’s see it on the grass. These statements are meaningless.
Does Amorim have to change things?
It's not the same, but when I went to Middlesbrough, I tried to play the very same system that I did at Celtic. I didn't have the players for that. I kept persevering. Which didn't help and doesn't help the confidence in the club.So, I can see similarities in that. And he keeps playing this system. But you might not have players who are suited for that. That was the thing I would say. If I was giving any advice, it would be, are you sure about this? He's put his hat on it now.
It's like stubbornness. We are stubborn, managers. There's no doubt about that, but you might need a rethink. It's funny, when I went to Coventry, I thought, ‘Yeah, I've got this. I can do this.’ After five games, I was like, ‘I'm rotten at this.’
Then my coaches said, ‘Listen, why don't we change it to three at the back and put Dion Dublin right in the middle,’ and we won four games on the trot.I was a young man at the time, 40 years old. There's times when you might be able to take a bit of advice, that's for sure. Most of the time you have to stick to your guns, but there may be times when you have to be clever enough that you might have to just do this for a while, see how we get on, individually change it.
Is there a way back for Rashford at Manchester United or are bridges burned for good?
I was speaking to someone the other day about owning your own responsibility for something.
We sat and chatted, and he said, ‘I'm getting blamed for this, I'm getting blamed for that.’ I said, ‘Okay, well, there are bits that you shouldn’t get blamed for and there are bits that you should take responsibility for yourself.’ It’s about knowing to define which is which. And then life's easier. Seriously, life's easier when you go, ‘That's my responsibility, I fail at that. I need to work at that.’ If you don't own the responsibility of what you've done before, then it's going to be the same at the other club. There has to be a point where you own your own responsibility for whatever you're doing. So, I think if Rashford gets that and has a good look at himself and takes this opportunity with a manager who believes them because he's signed him for a lot of money.
Rashford needs to think, ‘I must be good. Emery believes in me. I can do this, this and this, but I've not been doing this, this and this. A lot of this is on me and I need to fix it.’
Once Rashford owns that and decides that he's got to change that, then you'll have a good player again. I never at any time thought, ‘He's going to be a Man United player that's got to change their history.’Somebody told me once, ‘If you're the highest paid player, you have to be the best trainer, best professional and best player that you can... the best man you can have at the club, setting standards.’ That's it. That's what you do.
Then he's got to ask himself, did I do that? I think if he's very honest with himself, if he looked himself in the mirror, he would say that he hasn’t been those things.
What I heard before, I heard it again over the weekend, the coach (Amorim) doesn't like me. Oh, here we go again! Honestly, I've never left out a player because for some reason I didn't like him.Everybody used to talk about me and Sir Alex arguing at Aberdeen. He never let me out once. Actually, he left me out because I said something in the paper, but it was only the once!You want your best players who are going to win your match. I's not about you as a manager, you've got to win the match for the Man United supporters.How stupid would that be? Leaving a player out and then annoying 76,000 people just because you fell out with some geezer.
On Coventry
Is Frank Lampard the right man to make Coventry promotion contenders?
Mark did such a brilliant job and people would say, ‘Why did he go or why did they make him go or whatever?’ I think even with Mark, when Adi Viveash left, his right-hand man, it was huge, because that was one of the best partnerships in football.
It kind of meant, what's going on there? It might be one of those things where the dynamic shifted a wee bit. I think after getting to the FA Cup semi-final, nearly getting promotion, you can't do any more than that. That was phenomenal, the performances. I have had that feeling before as a manager. You think, that's as much as I can do.It just felt it was inevitable when Viveash left. They got beat in the playoffs the year before, they got beat in the semi-finals. That is magnificent for Coventry.I've got to say, I think he's probably the best manager, apart from maybe Jimmy Hill, that Coventry have ever had. People will say Jimmy won the cup, but you only need to win five games to do that. I’m not denying that, but to keep doing it, going from playing at Northampton and Birmingham and nobody being there, the training ground might get sold, the players will get sold... To take them where they did, what an achievement.I mean, Lampard, he is a big name. There's no denying that. Whether or not he's the right name? I don't know.I think Frank's got past the stage of his name now. His name will help him for a game, maybe two. But after that, your name means nothing. There is a wee bit of gravitas there, but it's not the same as it was when you first started.
It's now gone. This is it. This is crunch time. So, as Coventry fans, we hope that Frank does a great job. And the only thing he can do better than Mark Robbins is get them to the Premier League.
Can Coventry get promotion?
Absolutely. Teams can definitely win five games in a row, four games in a row.They can definitely do that. It's just timing it right. You need help with injuries and things like that, but they can do it. And the crowds are good there just now.There's 28,000, 29,000 fans which is fantastic. With the Robbins effect, the club is looking up. I honestly hope that Frank does really well because I think he's been a great ambassador to football, he's a great fella and he wants the players to do well.
On Celtic
Kieran Tierney is heading back to Celtic this summer? Is it the right move for both parties?
I think Tierney’s got experience as a world footballer with Arsenal and then Real Sociedad on loan. He's had a good look at football, he's joined a great club when he signed for Arsenal. When he first got there, he was a big star. Injuries unfortunately held him back.There's a lot of things that happen in life and you have to deal with them and find a different path to go down. He feels like he wants to go back. In England, the Premier League, it is a powerful league. A physically powerful league. He's got that power that will help Celtic.He can play in different positions.He can play on the left, centre-back, left in a three. I feel that Greg Taylor's been magnificent over the years because of the number of left backs he's seen off.
There should be a dressing room full of left backs who just sit there, who have come along and totally failed to move this lad. There should be some sort of psychiatric room at Celtic's training ground for the left backs that come in and have been seen off. They'll just sit there and go, ‘Why did I bother?’It might be different for Kieran, but he keeps seeing people off. Greg Taylor, he gets on with his job, he can score, he makes goals, he gets into great midfield positions.What's happened is when he was brought in, they had him move into these midfield positions, but he was a midfield player when he was a kid so he can adapt to that.Whether Kieran can adapt as well as that to go into these midfield positions that we'd like them to do, it's a different sort of thing. It's a different position where Taylor goes into.
Is signing Jota enough to address the goals lost from selling Kyogo?
Kyogo’s goals were great, but what he did invariably was take most defences back another five to ten yards because he's always threatening to go in behind. The centre-halves never saw him.
It's a wee bit different with Idah and maybe that's why I think Maeda might play as well, because he's always threatening to go in behind, always threatening, so you might, it might be Jota , Maeda, and Kuhn might be front three against Bayern on Wednesday night and going forward. Sometimes, later on in the game, you want that target man and you need that option to hold the ball up, go direct, have a target for set pieces. Celtic don’t have a player that can do both, run in behind and hold it up, there's not many players that can do that.Going back to Jota, the Celtic system suits Jota. You just have to stay wide and you're going to get loads of the ball.I think that suits Jota. I'm not saying he's one of these guys that will stay up the park and doesn't work hard enough off the ball. I think most of his energy is spent taking people on but he will also have to get back and defend. If you're at a club that has to work back a lot, track back a lot, then a lot of the energy is taken with that. Then when you get the ball, you've not got that burst of energy that you've had before.
So far it looks great. They've scored a lot of goals since Kyogo left. They're not being tested yet, so we don’t know how much we will miss him. Even at Aston Villa they've scored two goals as well, so they're still threatening teams, that's for sure.
Will Celtic consider it a failure if they do not win a domestic treble?
No it wouldn’t be a failure if Celtic didn’t win a domestic treble, but the problem is because of the standard of Celtic, it seems to be expected. That's the thing.
Brendan's done this before and I know from experience that it's hard to play in every tournament and go through it without having a defeat, or something ridiculous happens, or somebody gets sent off, or two people get sent off. And they've been disciplined, Celtic, to make sure none of that madness happens.
You know, it's like even Rangers against Queens Park. When you look at it, they have 28 shots at goal to the other team’s one. But somehow, Celtic seem to manage to do it – they don’t get caught out like that. That says a lot for the players. They're serial winners.
Players like McGregor, they are architects of success, and Celtic have always had those types of players at the club.
Do you think they have a chance of beating Bayern Munich over two legs?
You’re at home against Bayern Munich. Five or six years ago, they were all conquering and all the rest there in the Bundesliga. They’re still an excellent outfit but not one to be really terrified by. Sometimes you play against big sides, it'll be a long night.
I actually think because of Bayern’s form over the last couple of years and Celtic's form over the last couple of years, I think they've grown closer together.
I don't think Celtic has got to change the mindset of people playing wide, people running without the ball, I think it's quite good. The very same thing they've done, whether they're playing Dundee, whether they're attacking from all areas, running without the ball.The one thing that Bayern might have is a bigger physical presence than Celtic are normally used to. I think the physical presence helped Aston Villa to get through. That might be a problem at times to Celtic, that physical presence, but that's about it.
I think in terms of technical ability Bayern might be a bit quicker but saying that I thought the Celtic players, Maeda and Kuhn, gave Aston Villa’s backline a bit of a problem with pace.
I just worry about the strength of Bayern Munich at times. That strength and technical ability that's helped Bayern Munich over the years is still there.
I don't think they're as strong as they were, but I still think they're more powerful than Celtic. So that means Celtic have to keep the ball moving. You have to move that ball quickly, because if you're fighting with somebody that is more powerful than you, like a boxer, you keep away from that power. You get your jab, get in, out, that type of stuff.The main striker thing might be a problem, but they've got goals all over the pitch.Hatate, Engels, McGregor, so there's a variation of players there. I think it's going to be a cracking game.
What role will the Celtic crowd play?
The funny thing about it is people used to say it was an inspiring atmosphere, it's an intimidating atmosphere. Not now, it's far from intimidating. Whether you're a home player or a player who's visiting, you've got to enjoy it.
I keep hearing people like Harry Kane saying I'm looking forward to the atmosphere and rightly he should. But I think the main thing is that it inspires the Celtic players.
I know what it’s like on a European night, I did it against Barcelona, AC Milan and Man United and I can tell you that players in those teams were too good to get spooked by a crowd.
I've seen them sitting on the bench, when the music's getting played, You'll Never Walk Alone, and they keep looking about. It’s fantastic. It doesn't scare them.
But what it does on the other side, it definitely, from somewhere, gives the Celtic players another 10%. Absolutely. I know that. I've been there as a manager, I've watched them, I've watched them since. Even for me, I used to make sure, for domestic games, to get there just before the whistle was blown. But a European night like that, I'd make sure I got down the tunnel really early so I could enjoy it. Get inspired with that.And funny enough, whatever nerves I had in the dressing room before it, as soon as I saw the crowd, the nerves went. There was an excitement about it, and you felt like, there's Ancelotti or whoever that is. It didn't bother me at that point.So if it can do that to me, then hopefully it can do that to Brendan.
What do Celtic need from the first leg?
Not to be beaten. If they’re not beaten, they've definitely got a chance. I think Celtic can take inspiration from the periods in the game they played against Aston Villa.
If you're on the park that night, you've got to be a good player to play that game. If there's any weakness at all on your mental side or physical side, then it’ll show. Mental side is a lot easier than the physical side at times. I found that as a football player, being a smaller one. The mental side, but physically now and then, there were just people who were too big and too strong.
Strachan on Celtic’s recruitment model
That's what Celtic have got to do. We're going to try and buy younger players, develop them. You can develop on the training field or that development comes on the football field where you have to deal with the pressure. There's different ways of development and I find they work with the players a lot. We work with different coaches to work with different sections of the team.
When you sign Matt O’Riley for £1.5 million and sell for £30 odd million, that's good business. You can't change your mind and say you can't go, because you actually say to these guys when they sign, that's what we want to do with you. I did that as a manager.
Fans want you to spend big. They just want to spend big to show off to other fans… look at the money we are spending.If you look at Celtic over the years, there's been guys who come in for five, six, seven million, who have disappeared from the face of the earth. Then there's guys like Kyogo, £1.5 million, Maeda the same, Jota next to nothing. All these guys have gone on and made the club a fortune.
The ones that cost five, six, seven million. They haven’t been that successful.So, it's not about what you spend. Media's made us think it's about what you spend. Social media made us think that's what counts.
We need the intelligence and understanding of what you can see and develop. The players, the ones at the lower prices, do they have that drive in them to get better as well? So, you have to take that into consideration. It’s been a success so far.
On Scotland
They have back-to-back Nations League games against Greece next month, can they win them both?
Listen, they're a tight group. They're a reasonably physical group, because I remember years ago that the physique of the side was an issue, that's not a problem now. Billy Gilmour is probably the smallest, but John McGinn, McTominay… we've got a back three now, a good height. We've got Dykes up front. There's a bit of power about Scotland now, which makes them very, very hard to beat.The system they play, Tierney can go back and play at left centre-back in a three, you've got Robertson over there, so that's nice, that's good.
The rest of them are not at the top level, but strong physically. Set plays we’re good at, no defence would do well against that sort of thing. So, we're hard to beat, we're really hard to beat. Why can’t we beat Greece in back-to-back games.
Is Scott McTominay Scotland’s best player of the last decade? What does he need to do to be considered one of the best ever?
Over the last three or four years I would imagine, yes, because he suddenly put himself in goal scoring positions. Yeah, we've got a midfield player that scores goals. They're coming from different areas, and McGinn scores goals as well, and Christie can score goals. If you look to that midfield where they've got Gilmour, that's a good midfield.That's a good midfield. And with three of them, there's goals there. Billy's obviously a wee bit further back. We have a unit that scores goals.
Callum McGregor as well. Callum can score, as you've seen, from outside the box. So you've got this group of players, this pool of players in midfield, that can score you goals.
If you went back a couple of years ago, we didn't have goals in midfield, then you'd have a problem with people up front not scoring.
What are your thoughts on Ben Doak?
He's the most exciting player from Scotland, he's the quickest player. Right, where do we fit him in?
And that's Steve's problem. If you see him midfield, you've got a back five. I actually think he's a player that you go, ‘Right, just go and get on the ball and play somewhere.’Whether it's wide, whether it's inside, whether you want to go up front, fine. You want to have a player like that. When he develops and we've got another year of development, then you can say, go and play anywhere.You might have one striker and have him floating about off the front somewhere else.There's three behind, wide full backs. It's great for Steve to have a player like that. People have been crying out for a player like that, who can make things happen.Because most of the goals are scored as a unit, rather than with individual brilliance, but now I think we've actually got a player with individual brilliance.
You can't be asking Doak to just stand on the wing because there'll be times where we'll not have enough of the ball. You have to go and find it and do something with it. So that's the conundrum I think Steve needs to resolve.
He's got this great, smashing player. How do we get him on the ball as much as we'd like?
I don't want to put pressure on him. We don't want to put pressure on the young man because he is very young, but he’s also a very exciting player.
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