My name’s Mike, and I’m a second-screener.
I’m not alone in this habit, doomscrolling on the small screen while half-watching the big one, and even the quadrennial men’s World Cup cannot grab my sole attention for two hours.
In particular, with reactions of a cowboy duelling at dawn, I draw my phone out any time the adverts come on, any time there is an injury, goal kick or throw-in. The new hydration breaks? Awful, but they equate to more, needless time spent looking at memes on X and wishing I was a Scot in Boston.
Yet during the Netherlands’ match with Japan the television dared to snap me out of my trance. The first half had been perhaps the dullest 45 minutes to date at this World Cup, but one man’s voice enticed me.
It was Ange Postecoglou. Sure, it was that recognisable rasp which piqued my curiosity, but beyond the gravel there was weight behind what he was saying, all with an authority that makes him the best pundit at this World Cup.
Postecoglou between Roy Keane and Gary Neville for Netherlands vs Japan (Photo: ITV)It could be down to the over familiarisation with the BBC and ITV’s other pundits.
The BBC boast Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney and Micah Richards among their regulars, and while Rooney is visibly growing more comfortable and getting more coherent in front of a camera, analysis is not Shearer or Richards’ bag – banter is. Joe Hart is at least insightful when infrequently present but always sitting up straight.
ITV’s heavyweight trio of Roy Keane, Ian Wright and Gary Neville meanwhile have decades of broadcasting experience between them. We can almost predict their input before it has been said, and we’re often glad for Wright’s energy after Keane’s infamous cynicism.
As a result, Postecoglou offers something different because he is someone different.
He is a manager who up until October 2025 was in the dugout with Nottingham Forest, while on top of England he has also coached in Australia, Greece, Japan and Scotland – also coaching Australia at the 2014 World Cup.
It is this breadth of expertise that puts others in the shade at a global tournament, while the recency in which he has experienced the sport first hand – and not from a studio or gantry – is invaluable too.
Keane last managed in 2011, Neville in 2016, while Wright’s broadcasting panache was spotted before he even retired from playing. None are bad pundits, but they have been outside the tent pissing in for years, making Postecoglou the refreshing antidote to those we have long been acquainted with. It is a reason ex-Chelsea boss Emma Hayes – currently coaching the US women’s team – makes you stand to attention as well.
"They are capable of MUCH MORE" The ITV pundits break down Japan and the Netherlands' performances after a thriller draw in Dallas pic.twitter.com/9O7wp9okkz
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) June 14, 2026Postecoglou was an ITV pundit at Euro 2024, but the neutral is now more enamoured with the Australian, who since that tournament two years ago delivered on his trophy promise at Tottenham Hotspur, was sacked, joinedForest in an equally bullish mood, and was then sacked after 39 days.
His objection to negative football is verging on comical but it also trademark because we know how wedded he is to this philosophy. That makes him Marmite. Many Tottenham and Forest fans will tell you this approach is futile in the long-term, while rival fans may bristle at this blind, verging on arrogant, faith in his own system.
I believe Postecoglou has been somewhat vindicated by Spurs and Forest’s problems not subsequently being resolved overnight. And in an industry transformed by CBS Sports’ laugh-a-minute, that’ll-be-good-for-socials coverage, I am all for the increasingly rare occasion where opinion is founded on good old-fashioned reason and not hyperbole.
Postecoglou does just that. “It’s my frustration,” he said, with an acknowledging laugh, lamenting Japan’s unwillingness to attack the Netherlands before they went a goal down, and that is a frustration the audience understands. One many share, too.
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No one else on that line-up can justifiably call Celtic and Japan’s Daizen Maeda “an absolute freak of a physical specimen” because no one else has coached him.
Add to that six Forest players at this World Cup and nine of the 11 Spurs players in North America to have played under him, and Postecoglou is ideal for a wide range of matches coming up.
It is unlikely he makes the cut when England are on ITV – against Croatia and Panama – and Lee Dixon drives many to the mute button, but Postecoglou has emerged as the go-to pundit for almost every other occasion.
More of him, and I’ll be on my phone less.
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