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  • Yes

    Votes: 4 17.4%
  • A little bit

    Votes: 7 30.4%
  • No, Novak is too old and fixed in his ways

    Votes: 12 52.2%

Is Agassi capable of fundamentally changing Novak's game to a more offensive style?

3K views 41 replies 33 participants last post by  Spinn69 
#1 ·
Novak has resorted to more of a pushing/grinding style in recent years, especially in the past year or so. Can Agassi, who played a much more offensive baseline style, change Djokovic's style to win him more easier points in this late stage?
 
#2 ·
He can change his game but it will not be effective as this. It's like saying that hiring Edberg would improve/change Nadal's game.
Djokovic plays like he does and he does excellent, same is with all other top tier players. Agassi can tweak some of his shots like Ljubicic did with Federer's bh but nothing too much.
 
#3 ·
The premise of the thread is not necessarily true.

1. Agassi won slams into his 30s and that's what he will help Novak on, to find the way to be successful into his 30s.

2. It is only a short-term relationship for the FO, (although the chance of it progressing into a long-term cooperation is likely) so I believe the goal right now is to restore his game but not to change anything drastically.
 
#5 ·
I voted for "Agassi is capable of fundamentally changing Novak's game to a more offensive style a little bit."

Now seriously, this is probably more about mental approach than game imho. Agassi won't even be there most of the time, kind of like McEnroe - Raobot probably.
 
#10 ·
It depends, for what reason did Djokovic hire Agassi? Was is for motivational reasons? Talking and discussing about tennis after your 30`s, or how to handle loss of motivation(if he really has been suffering from this). Or did he hire him for adapting his game. I don't really see how he can be of help there. To similar games in my view, but I can be totally wrong. I do see how he can maybe mentally get him out of a slump, being both one the greatest tennis players. And I think Agassi is not afraid to really speak his mind to Djokovic, something he truly needs, no good now just hearing what you want.
 
#11 ·
Sure any player who wins 12 slams with his game would die to fundamentally change it. :)

As I've posted in the past, Agassi could be a great life coach to Novak, as someone who's been in a slump of all slumps and managed to come back with mindblowing flare. As for the game, I don't think the influence will be substantial for many reasons. Nor it needs to be such. There's nothing wrong with his game. His brain is the one that needs fixin'. And Pepe is the one who needs a kick in the rear.
 
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#13 ·
Djokovic will take every ball right after the bounce from now on and will win ten more slams.
 
#14 ·
Novak already plays quite offensive style of tennis.

As Federer and other tennis experts confirmed many times contrary to Nadal and Murray, Novak's game is offensive first and foremost, but also complemented with great movement and defense. That is why he is such great player who dominated the sport of tennis for so long.

So Agassi's job is not that and this thread missed mark completely, which is not a surprise considering who started it.
 
#17 ·
Novak has resorted to more of a pushing/grinding style in recent years, especially in the past year or so. Can Agassi, who played a much more offensive baseline style, change Djokovic's style to win him more easier points in this late stage?
He's always been a pusher, so nothing new, but no. As long as Imaz is around, nothing else matters.
 
#19 ·
Again :facepalm:

Imaz has nothing to do with Djokovic or his style. People are unfairly blaming him for Novack's own decline. Do you really think Djokovic is a kid who has to be guided by the likes of a guru?
 
#20 ·
Why in the world would Novak want to change his game to a more aggressive style? He won 12 Slams playing the way he does, FFS.

Novak's style is that of an aggressive baseliner already. Just watch the Thiem semifinal match again. Stepping into the court, controlling every point, pouncing on every opportunity when opponent is out of position or hits a weak ball.

If you want to see what a definition of a "defensive pusher" looks like, watch the Thiem-Nadal quarterfinal match again. Nadal was content to stay 2 meters behind the baseline and push balls back into the court no matter what Thiem did. This is not a critique of Nadal's game by any means, he won 14 Slams doing it.

Novak needs help in his head, and I hope Agassi can provide that. He doesn't need help with his tennis, and to be honest, I can't name a single potential coach who could teach him anything tennis-wise. I guess if Federer retired and coached Novak that could help ... :)
 
#39 ·
Why in the world would Novak want to change his game to a more aggressive style? He won 12 Slams playing the way he does, FFS.

Novak's style is that of an aggressive baseliner already. Just watch the Thiem semifinal match again. Stepping into the court, controlling every point, pouncing on every opportunity when opponent is out of position or hits a weak ball.

If you want to see what a definition of a "defensive pusher" looks like, watch the Thiem-Nadal quarterfinal match again. Nadal was content to stay 2 meters behind the baseline and push balls back into the court no matter what Thiem did. This is not a critique of Nadal's game by any means, he won 14 Slams doing it.

Novak needs help in his head, and I hope Agassi can provide that. He doesn't need help with his tennis, and to be honest, I can't name a single potential coach who could teach him anything tennis-wise. I guess if Federer retired and coached Novak that could help ...
Then he needs Dr Phil
Lol
In AO djoko was passive and istomin won bc of that, that match
Nole has different days vs thiem he looked quite offensive but I guess he know it was his only chance
But he builds on like Murray on a great defense
 
#21 ·
Djokovic does not need to change his game. The problem is not his game, it's his head.

To be successfull with his demanding style, you need to train hard. He did not do that after the FO - and we all know the reasons why. Add to this some fucked up diets without any scientific value whatsoever, and here we are in this mess.

I doubt Agassi can do much about it. He will not kick Pepe Imaz ass, unfortunately.
 
#33 ·
Djokovic does not need to change his game. The problem is not his game, it's his head.

To be successfull with his demanding style, you need to train hard. He did not do that after the FO - and we all know the reasons why. Add to this some fucked up diets without any scientific value whatsoever, and here we are in this mess.
I think also he's game is fine, maybe some little changes like federer did. For sure Nr. one prioritiy will be the mental aspect and in there 1. motivation and 2. confidence

But with the diets he started already in 2010 (gluten) and 2015 (vegan), right? So this should not be the problem.

Who did say that he didn't train that hard anymore?
 
#23 ·
The poll makes no sense. Agassi did not have an offensive style.

Agassi abandoned the offensive style of his youth to better control risk. The great Agassi was all about superior fitness and clean safe hitting to grind down opponents. Because Agassi was such a clean striker he could hit safely back and forth from add court to deuce court. The opponent would run from sideline to sideline while Agassi stayed center court. Andre had his opponents on a string and he jerked them around until they expired.
 
#26 ·
I would not say he was extremly lucky, in 2001, he had Sampras as QF oponnent, but he lost to Tood Martin (another very good player of then) in the Round of 16, then he had to beat Rafter in 5 sets in the semis, in the other half both Clement and Grosjean beat Moya and Kafelnikov in the Quaters and that was the semi that also stretched to 5 sets.

In 2003 it was more lucky, although not his fault that Ferrero (4) lost in the QF to Ferreira, and that was his semi, in the top half Roddick, a clear cut favorite then complicated his match against Younes to 21-19 in the fifth and he was pretty much done against Shuttler who beat Nalbandian in the QF's as well....
 
#27 ·
actully, Although that novak is not even close to by my fave i think that agassi can be very useful for novak. first of all agassi may can bring back to novak his fire(to focus only in tennis) to win more titels and break more records, and secondly i belive that maybe he can make his game more effective since after the RG he became more defensive.
i also think that novak has to strat playing less masters and save his energy to slams and prevent an injury(in this age injurys are much more common). he is not young anymore and he already has 30 masters so he doesn't have to play every masters.
 
#28 ·
Its not about Agassi, its mostly on Djokovic to try changing his game from grinding/pushing to more all court especially now that he is 30. His older body will not be able to grind out matches 24/7 like he is so used to.
 
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#30 ·
I voted a little bit but I'm honestly not sure.

The problem lies in the fact that Djokovic never has inherently played with a lot of power and aggression. He can obviously hit great shots and BE aggressive, but generally it's off of the back of tiring out opponents and outmanuevering them; i.e. getting the opponent out of position with a number of shots before finding that opening

I don't think Agassi is going to be able to magically make Djokovic hit winners off the return, and I don't think Agassi is going to magically make Djokovic turn into a shotmaker who can win points after 2 shots.

BUT tactically speaking I think Andre could have a good influence on Novak to step up more often an dictate. Early in his career Djokovic did this more often. It might come back.

so will Agassi 'fundamentally' change Novak's game? almost certainly not. But he will probably be able to tweak it a bit to be more effective for efficiency in terms of ending points quicker.

Note: In all honestly I don't think Agassi will be Djokovic's long term coach though. I don't see their mindsets or attitude's really meshing but time will tell. Agassi seems like a more natural fit to coach someone like Nadal imo (again, in terms of mindset)
 
#31 ·
Back when Wilander was a top player, Cliff Drysdale once commented that he didn't think that Mats would be playing for much longer because he feared that his defensive playing style, although successful, was too much of a drain on him. And whaddya know, after winning three majors in 1988 and getting to #1, Wilander pretty much faded away. I see a similar pattern with Djokovic. While Novak's style is more offensive than Mats's (faint praise, I know), Novak's suffocating defense takes a helluva toll on him. And much like Wilander post-1988 US Open, Novak post-2016 Roland Garros just lacks the energy to dominate the game with a defensive playing style.

I'm hoping that Agassi can at least get Novak to play as offensively as he did in 2011. If you watch Novak's matches from that magical year, he was clearly dictating points far more than he is now or at any other point in his career. That said, I have my doubts that this partnership will yield such a result. Even a full-time, seven-days-a-week, 50-weeks-a-year coach would struggle with the tall order of overhauling a veteran player's game, and Agassi can't commit to even a substantial part-time coaching arrangement, much less a full-time one.

Prior to the Agassi announcement, I said in another thread that I thought Wilander would make a great coach for Novak, but on second thought, I doubt it. If Wilander couldn't figure out how to re-capture that spark after he finally achieved everything he hoped to achieve in the sport, how can he possibly help Novak do just that?
 
#34 ·
I doubt Agassi will change much in Novak's game. He's been pushing for so long that it would be completely ingrained in him by now.
 
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#36 ·
I'm not worried about Novak's game at all. I'm worried about his focus, both on and off the court. He needs to prepare his body as he did in the past and needs to drop the stupid "No worries if I lose this game, I'm Djokovic, I can always come back" because it gives his opponents confidence and makes them feel less pressure. The 1st game serve dropping and the "today I'm GOATing, tomorrow I'm a mug" thing need to stop ASAP.

Djokovic still has the game to dismantle anyone on any given day on any surface, but it's not his game what he should be concerned about.

If he win a Slam this year we can say that it was a good year and that this collaboration was a successful one.
 
#37 ·
Mere presence of someone with considerable life experience and wisdom in that box would probably prevent failures such as stepping on a court against Zverev, thinking "I need to squash him like a bug from the very first point" and then crumbling like a cheap cookie when things start going sideways. That would be more than enough of a change, for start.
 
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