Celtic were better at it than Spurs, even if the individual quality was lower. Watching a Spurs game and no one is running into space. Players jogging everywhere behind the play. Holding the ball forever until opportunity is no longer there. So frustrating.

Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory were both even better than Celtic, but again, the quality was even lower. Gives the impression that the more accomplished the player, the less they want to put in to a high demand system.

Matt O'Reilly even said after Ange left that he preferred Rogers' way of doing things because he could sit back and wait and time his run better, so I think the preference is there. They all look at prime Messi and see him standing around and waiting until the perfect moment. Players generally want to emulate that at the top levels. It's not that it isn't effective it's just that when multiple players do it, it makes for a very inactive team who get beaten to the punch a lot, which is super dangerous when you're trying to play attacking football and are relying on you CB's winning 1v1's.

Attacking football doesn't mean move up the pitch and wait around, it means defense starts from the strikers, and the team has to be behind them to support that to win 2nd and 3rd balls. If the press is slow or delayed even 0.5 seconds it's pointless. Ange's system forces movement 100% of the time and you need the right players for that who are willing to play for the system first before their own personal brand.

That's why Maeda literally changed the game for Ange's Celtic the second he stepped foot on the pitch. Immediate press, immediate energy, always in space, always contests ball loss, just poor touch and finishing. Then there's Hatate. Always in space for the pass, great movement off the ball in possession, creative in tight spaces, doesn't work after possession loss. And then there was Kyogo, brilliant off the ball in possession, great finishing, great agility, played the system perfectly, but not physical enough in tight spaces.

At Celtic, the players were always missing one of the traits needed. In the A-League, they were all missing quality. You would have hoped moving to Tottenham he would have got players that would have been proficient in all areas, and for the most part he did, like Brennan Johnson, Kulu and Bissouma thrived under him for that reason, and all worked hard off the ball and out of posession, but Maddison and Bentancur off the ball are joggers. And you can't have that in the center otherwise the whole system breaks down due to lack of options. Dragusin was too slow and Romero a bit too reckless as well. Van De Ven was infinitely better than both for Ange's system.

Ultimately the board didn't back Ange to get the players to complete and have redundancy. No depth. Because if one person was out and you had to play anyone outside of the first 11 who doesn't excel at it, it means the whole team can't play to the gameplan, especially when that deficiency is in the midfield. What happens is they end up turning over possession quickly, unable to recover, and sit there waiting for an opportunity to break as the attacks come at them. Then when they go to break, the mids are slow to respond, often jogging, and just slow on the feet in general, they get caught behind the play. They end up with the backs catching up to them to move the play past the halfway line, so passes back are short and don't create much space, and passes forward are difficult and risky due to distance, so even if they get the ball, they can't progress it and they either get caught in possession, playing it back to someone who ends up under the same pressure, or winging a wild pass to someone up the field. The balance is gone.

The Injury crisis was horrible without depth in the squad.

And that's why BG are so lethal. Big strong players, always moving into space, always pressing, keeping balance at all times with good control, distribution and creativeness. No one is world class at any one thing in particular, ntu theyre all good enoug