If you’ve heard of Ange Postecoglou, you’ve almost certainly heard of Angeball. The football philosophy has come to occupy an almost sacred presence in the imaginations of the Australian’s supporters. Aesthetically pleasing with goals guaranteed, it is Ferenc Puskas mixed with Total Football blended with tiki-taka, and a defensive line so high it will give you vertigo.

Angeball has been called many things over the years, from “brave” to “naive” and every compliment and condemnation in between. But what does it actually entail, and how has Postecoglou used it to such significant success on three different continents?

What did his A-League-winning Brisbane team do on the field to earn the nickname Roarcelona, and his Yokohama F. Marinos do to win Japan’s top-flight league, and his Celtic do to win the Scottish treble? What has he been doing this season to revolutionise a Tottenham side who just slumped to their lowest English Premier League finish in 14 years?

We take a general look at the fundamentals of Angeball since it took over north London.

For a period of time before Postecoglou was appointed, Spurs did not even use full-backs. Predecessor Antonio Conte was wedded to a 3-4-3 formation which, more often than not, looked like a defensive-minded 5-4-1. It was little surprise, however, when Postecoglou almost immediately ripped up that blueprint and implemented a tactical characteristic for which he had become known at Celtic.

In a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation, the full-backs “invert” by moving up the field and coming inside to create a numerical overload in the midfield so that, in attack, it becomes more of a 2-3-5. This numerical advantage generates passing options through the middle – in contrast to the more traditional approach of spreading the back line wide to make the pitch as big as possible.

Postecoglou’s teams are able to play out from the back via a defensive midfielder who acts as a pivot between a back line now forming a rectangle around him. For Tottenham that player is Yves Bissouma, who was rarely used by Conte but has been a revelation this season with the eighth-highest number of touches in the Premier League after 14 appearances in 16 games (third-highest when defenders are excluded).