Some Tottenham fans have noticed that one member of the club’s new coaching staff has been missing from the dugout during the first two Premier League games
For those wondering exactly where Tottenham’s newly-appointed assistant coach Mile Jedinak has gone during the team’s matches, an answer is at hand.
The former Crystal Palace and Aston Villa midfielder arrived this summer as part of Ange Postecoglou’s new-look coaching staff for his first first team coaching role. The 39-year-old was the Australia captain during Postecoglou’s management of the international side, and joined Spurs in June following a spell as a youth coach and loan development coach at Aston Villa.
Alongside him arrived Chris Davies as senior assistant coach with Ryan Mason and Matt Wells remaining at the club as assistant coaches and Rob Burch appointed as goalkeeping coach.
However, while the other four coaches have been seen in the dugout sat around Postecoglou, Tottenham fans have noticed that while he has been involved in the warm-ups before games and putting the players through their paces, Jedinak has not then been sat with his fellow coaches during the first two Premier League matches against Brentford and Manchester United.
The reason for that is because the Australian has been sat up in the stands with Spurs’ data analysts getting a better view of the overall picture of the game and football.london understands Jedinak then feeds information back to the rest of the coaching staff during the match to help inform Postecoglou’s decisions and for use at half-time and after the game.
It is a similar matchday role to the one previously undertaken by Gianluca Conte, who was Spurs’ technical and analytics coach while his brother Antonio was in charge. The bespectacled Conte could often be seen during Tottenham games filming portions of the action on an iPad which he would then take down at half-time to show his sibling and the rest of the coaches.
For Jedinak it is part of his coaching development and experience as he takes on his formative steps as a first team coach.
After appointing his coaching staff, bringing in new faces around him as he always does whenever he arrives at a club, Postecoglou praised the team that had been put together. “They’re really bright, talented and ambitious guys. It’s a great mix. We’ve got guys who know this football club very well in Ryan, Matt and Rob, even coming through the academy so they know the whole Spurs experience and what it means. So it’s great to have them.
“Then Chris is somebody I’ve followed from afar, an ambitious young guy and Mile I know really well obviously because he was captain of my national team and a determined bloke to bring success wherever he is. I know that success will follow him because he’s been a leader from a very young age.
“The most important thing for me in these early parts is people getting to know me. That’s staff members, players, people associated with the club, they need to get to know me, what I’m about. If they get to know me and believe in me, whatever I need to do after that is easier. That’s the first bit.
“It’s a huge organisation and, for me, to allow that to happen means I have to be present in as many areas as I can be in this early part, and that’s what I will try to do, make sure I’m present in every aspect of the football club, so people at least have some exposure to me.”
