Ange Postecoglou has denied his football philosophy is limited, adamantly declaring he can coach his teams to play more than "one way" after his official unveiling as Nottingham Forest's new manager.
Speaking at his official press conference, Postecoglou said he had nothing to prove at his new club after he was axed by Tottenham in June, days after winning the Europa League - a decision he knew was coming after the London club's 17th-placed finish in the Premier League.
Postecoglou's time at Tottenham began with plenty of plaudits due to the attacking style of play he implements in his teams. But the pleasantries wore off quickly the following year, when injuries dogged Spurs in the Premier League, leading to an undesirable finish domestically.
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Ange Postecoglou speaks during a press conference as he was unveiled as Nottingham Forest head coach. Getty
The Australian was criticised for sticking to his philosophy at Tottenham but told Stan Sport's Adam Peacock, in an exclusive interview this week (watch a clip from it at the top of the page), that he would not apologise for doing things his own way.
"People are more comfortable when they put people in certain categories of boxes and I'm in this box of - I only play one way. But, I played with three at the back with the Socceroos, the whole country almost imploded," Postecoglou said.
"People have maybe misconstrued what my beliefs and and my principles are with what I actually do.
"Yes, I do love my teams to attack, I do love my teams to play football, it's exciting. I wanna score goals, I wanna win games of football. I wouldn't be sitting here today if I hadn't been successful all along the way.
"Coming from where I have, I couldn't have a misstep along the way. That's still what I wanna do here.
"Do I want us to be exciting? Yes. Do I want us to to score goals? Yes.
"What that's gonna look like at the end, mate, I don't even know, but, if it means we're holding up a trophy, I'll take it."
Postecoglou replaced Nuno Espirito Santo after the Portuguese coach was fired despite turning Forest from a relegation battler to a team that contended for Champions League qualification.
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Postecoglou starts his jouney with Forest on Saturday night Getty
Forest secured a place in this season's Europa League — the first time it has qualified for Europe in 30 years. But Nuno was still fired after a deterioration in his relationship with billionaire Greek owner Evangelos Marinakis.
Postecoglou did not know when, or if, another chance to manage in the Premier League would arise.
He said he'd invited four friends from Australia to Greece to celebrate his 60th birthday when talks quickly turned serious with Forest.
The Australian admittedly had itchy feet to get back into the Premier League but was unsure if the deal would eventuate.
"It's kind of the first sort of offseason I I haven't been in a role, so that was unusual, but you just don't know when sort of the next opportunity will come," he said.
"It happened pretty quickly, I actually had four of my best mates fly out from Oz and, yeah, we were in Greece having a Hangover weekend, but in the midst of that, we got some inkling that something might be happening.
"We had some sort of preliminary discussions, nothing too meaningful. You never know whether these things will actually transpire into anything, but then the conversations got pretty serious pretty quickly and I had to make a quick decision, it was an easy decision to be fair.
"I made my mind up pretty quickly, it was the right move for me."
Postecoglou faces the toughest of starts with Forest at Arsenal first up on Saturday night AEST, which can be seen live on Stan Sport from 9pm.