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A Case For The Defence

I'm not used to seeing us look solid at centre half. I kind of like it. Dawson and Vertonghen couldn't be more different. Dawson is almost an old fashioned no nonsense centre half whilst Vertonghen is class personified.
 
indospurs said:
Strongly think our midfield has contributed as SUIYHA wrote above. Back 5 hasn't changed much in terms of personnel
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For sure the midfield has played a massive part.

Any 2 out of Dembele, Paulinho, Capoue and Sandro has so far proved very strong, as expected. Has made us much less vulnerable to injuries/rotation. Unlike last season where the drop down in quality if Sandro or Dembele were out was like walking off a cliff we're actually now discussing if both of them are even obvious first choice players when everyone's fit.

Tremendous.
 
I swear one of these threads was made last season and we then went on to fall apart at the back for a month or so.


What have you done?
 
fishnc said:
Can he play on the left? He can't be worse than Naughton while Rose is out.
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Interesting call. By all accounts he's good going forward and his sub 6ft stature wouldn't be a problem at right back... edit - left back even.
 
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Spursalot said:
I swear one of these threads was made last season and we then went on to fall apart at the back for a month or so.


What have you done?
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The frequency of these threads is obviously a testament to the way Tottenham's defence has been playing recently.
 
Serious question: is our defence actually that good? The few times teams have really had a go and attacked us, I've felt we looked quite vulnerable. I'm thinking Arsenal and especially Tromso weirdly enough
 
glorygloryeze said:
Serious question: is our defence actually that good? The few times teams have really had a go and attacked us, I've felt we looked quite vulnerable. I'm thinking Arsenal and especially Tromso weirdly enough
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As a team we're excellent defensively. Defending from the front. If the opposition happen to get through to the back four - which isn't often - then we are fair. Walker has his pace to help us out, Verts is big and stong, Dawson has experience and reads the game well. Left back - we will see. Rose was one of the best players against Norwich making goal saving tackles. So yes, we're pretty f ucking decent.

It would be interesting to see if Vlad Chiricheș can play at left back. I like Naughton. He's a cultured player. Passes well. Has some clear ability. But will be targeted by other teams as a weak link in our defense. Two horror passes today.
 
glorygloryeze said:
Serious question: is our defence actually that good? The few times teams have really had a go and attacked us, I've felt we looked quite vulnerable. I'm thinking Arsenal and especially Tromso weirdly enough
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We have on the whole defended very well. Arsenal were just too good at unpicking our high line on the counter though, I mean for a team that was so thoroughly dominated in terms of possession, territory and shots they created some great chances and the best ones in the match. It actually reminded me of our 2-1 win over them at the Lane last year.

Apart from that we have used the high line excellently, and Cardiff again today were caught offside repeatedly.

I think its quite natural when you dominate possession/ the game so much that the opposition's chances will come chiefly on the counter and will look/be more dangerous. However, our recovery defending has been pretty good thanks to Walker and Rose especially. Now we have Eriksen we should see us creating and scoring a bit more freely and then we'll be able to retreat a bit and defend a 2- or 3-goal lead more compactly.

It will be very interesting to see how Chelsea set up next week. They clearly have the quality to get at us, and I suspect they will come out flying in search of the lead before dropping back a bit irrespective of the score. That opening period may prove the acid test for our defence this season, we can't afford to lose a goal early to a Mourinho team, and certainly can't afford the c*ck-ups on show today...
 
Pandy said:
We have on the whole defended very well. Arsenal were just too good at unpicking our high line on the counter though, I mean for a team that was so thoroughly dominated in terms of possession, territory and shots they created some great chances and the best ones in the match. It actually reminded me of our 2-1 win over them at the Lane last year.

Apart from that we have used the high line excellently, and Cardiff again today were caught offside repeatedly.

I think its quite natural when you dominate possession/ the game so much that the opposition's chances will come chiefly on the counter and will look/be more dangerous. However, our recovery defending has been pretty good thanks to Walker and Rose especially. Now we have Eriksen we should see us creating and scoring a bit more freely and then we'll be able to retreat a bit and defend a 2- or 3-goal lead more compactly.

It will be very interesting to see how Chelsea set up next week. They clearly have the quality to get at us, and I suspect they will come out flying in search of the lead before dropping back a bit irrespective of the score. That opening period may prove the acid test for our defence this season, we can't afford to lose a goal early to a Mourinho team, and certainly can't afford the c*ck-ups on show today...
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Curiously, I haven't seen that happen all that often. You may be right of course, but I think teams have cottoned on to our high line now, judging by the curious absence of balls 'over the top' and the amount of times their players have chosen to run directly at our defence, which has proven considerably difficult for the likes of Walker and Dawson to deal with (as evidenced by the number of fouls they seem to concede).

Opposing teams know we have some very quick defenders and a freakishly focused, fast goalie ready to zip out at the first sign of danger to snuff out a run on goal. So attempting a foot race to win a ball played 'over the top' isn't in their interests. Hence, they've latched on to the fact that our lads aren't the most agile (despite their speed) and are running directly at them, twisting and turning them and forcing them into errors. How we deal with that will be very interesting to observe.
 
Kingdawson said:
I don't think any of our defenders have been that great individually this season but as a team (not just the defenders) we allow for very little chances to be created against us. That's down to the system we play.
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Indeed...for me, our most impressive feat this season has been how we maul the opposition/swarm them to win the ball back when we lose it. Much more purposeful in this regard than we were last season. It's something Barca do so well...there are similarities building...don't laugh!!!
 
thfcsteff said:
Indeed...for me, our most impressive feat this season has been how we maul the opposition/swarm them to win the ball back when we lose it. Much more purposeful in this regard than we were last season. It's something Barca do so well...there are similarities building...don't laugh!!!
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I think Manu or Bayern are better comparisons, although potentially as laugh inducing ;)

Barca more or less go all the way with their style, including their pressing, almost regardless of game situation.

We change our pressing a lot more and in this regard I think we're a lot closer to Manu and Bayern than Barca. We have the ability to sit back and soak up pressure when need be, something Barcelona rarely attempt and (imo) probably aren't very good at.

Our pressing looked good at the start of last season too I thought, but faded as the season progressed I thought. Hopefully the same won't happen this season.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Curiously, I haven't seen that happen all that often. You may be right of course, but I think teams have cottoned on to our high line now, judging by the curious absence of balls 'over the top' and the amount of times their players have chosen to run directly at our defence, which has proven considerably difficult for the likes of Walker and Dawson to deal with (as evidenced by the number of fouls they seem to concede).

Opposing teams know we have some very quick defenders and a freakishly focused, fast goalie ready to zip out at the first sign of danger to snuff out a run on goal. So attempting a foot race to win a ball played 'over the top' isn't in their interests. Hence, they've latched on to the fact that our lads aren't the most agile (despite their speed) and are running directly at them, twisting and turning them and forcing them into errors. How we deal with that will be very interesting to observe.
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I agree. We've been quite fortunate not to concede more so far, tbh, but I think conceding relatively few shots yet having them most of them be high-quality ones is a natural consequence of a high press, high line system; you tend to dominate possession so much that it's rare for someone to break through, but once they do it's invariably a very good chance. Arsenal are probably the best team besides maybe Emirates Marketing Project at the fast transition (and that's an area I hope we'll really improve on as we develop some understanding) so it's not surprising that we looked especially shaky against them.

I'm really hoping that Chiriches is better than Dawson at defending against direct runners and settles in quickly. I have no idea about his positioning ability and I know he is really attack-minded, but that can also mean being really aggressive, mobile, and fast-reacting in defense, which would be great for us. Despite our good record so far, our backline is strangely enough probably our weakest area, esp in terms of depth. Caulker is pretty slow-footed so I was okay with letting him go, but I would've liked an experienced, fast CB to come in this summer as we ease Vlad in.
 
In terms of shots against, we are the best team in Europe! We have had the fewest shots conceded out of any major European side. A statistic that I picked up from whoscored.com
 
El Guepardo said:
In terms of shots against, we are the best team in Europe! We have had the fewest shots conceded out of any major European side. A statistic that I picked up from whoscored.com
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Wow. That's an amazing stat.

As others have said I think this is down to the defensive work further up the pitch rather than us suddenly having an uber defensive four. And it's not just the midfield pairing that's keeping the shot count down. The closing down all over the pitch is fantastic to see. It looks well drilled too, not just the usual one headless chicken running after the ball type approach. Kudos to the coaching staff for drilling this into the team.

Now just to sort out the corners :-k
 
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