'He talks to me': Rival Premier League midfielder says he often speaks to Tottenham's Ange Postecoglou
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Ange Postecoglou is one of the more enigmatic managers in the Premier League at the moment.
Indeed, Postecoglou is a very difficult character to read.
One minute he's making journalists laugh and calling everyone 'mate'. The next minute Postecoglou is being called frosty and showing a different side of his personality.
The Australian certainly operates in a different way, and it's been said that Postecoglou doesn't actually speak to his own players that often.
Indeed, Tom Allnutt has previously documented that Postecoglou rarely speaks to his own players.
"He apparently doesn't talk to players one-to-one much. There is no coziness, people thought that when Postecoglou took over he was a cuddly 60-year-old Australian, but it's nothing like that," Allnutt said.
Speaking on the Optus Sport Football Podcast, Massimo Luongo has been discussing Postecoglou and how he acts with his players.
Luongo worked with Postecoglou when he was the Australia manager, and he says that the gaffer rarely spoke to him during that time.
However, Luongo says that he does often speak to the Tottenham boss now, claiming that he hears more from Postecoglou now than he did when he was playing for him.
Massimo Luongo still speaks to Ange Postecoglou
The Ipswich Town midfielder spoke about his relationship with Postecoglou and what he thinks of him as a manager.
Luongo claimed that Postecoglou barely spoke to him when he was his player, but now, they communicate more often.
"I always thought, I just thought once he gets the opportunity, and he, like, believes in his coaching and his methods so much that he could do it at any club, whether it’s Barcelona or Tottenham or League One team, you know, he’ll implement the same style and the same tactics and the same ideas and culture and everything, so yeah, I thought once he gets a chance, like a lot of us actually, once he gets a chance then I think he’ll definitely take it, and he has, everyone loves him, I think, from the outside," Luongo said.
"I think he's leaving a really good impression so far, and obviously you’ve got him in a couple of weeks as well, so you must be looking forward to coming to face him." Luongo was asked.
"Yes, yes, especially, I’ll just say to you, he doesn’t really talk to you when you’re his player, he talks to me more when I’m not his player, but yeah, that’ll be exciting, and it’s the first club that I come over," Luongo said.
What is Ange Postecoglou like?
Ange Postecoglou seems like he could be quite a distant figure with his players, but, in a lot of other ways, he's a great presence behind-the-scenes at a club.
Indeed, Bryan Gil stated last year that Postecoglou is an incredible motivator.
"I don't think I've ever had a coach who's such a good speaker or motivator before matches," said the Spaniard. "He fills us all with so much confidence before we take to the pitch.
"He's great tactically too. As I've said, I've never seen any other team play like us."
Postecoglou isn't just a great communicator and tactician either, he's also very good with his staff.
Indeed, it was reported last year that Postecoglou made an immediate effort to learn everyone at Tottenham's name, and while that is something small, those sorts of things can go a long way.
Postecoglou is seemingly someone who doesn't like to mix business and leisure, but he does deeply care about his players and his staff, hence why he's remained in contact with Luongo years after coaching him.
