A fine in-depth tactical analysis of Spurs - Southampton (by EPLIndex)

[braineclipse]

So you want us to stick a CM in a more advanced role?


The place that would make the difference would be the AM role. That is the position that drives the creativity, the one that connects the whole thing together.


Now we have Bale there. He is a superb footballer. However what he is not is a creative magician. He is a more direct player in my mind, he's not going to be the player to string the play together, he'll pick the ball up and drive at the opposition looking for a chance to cut across and box and get a shot off. Move him out to the right, where he will keep his ability to cut in a shoot with his left, and place a more creative passing focused CM in and i think you would see an improvement in the 'attractiveness' of our overall play almost instantly.

I think he's suggesting a switch to a more 4-3-3 looking formation. Hudd as the deepest player, Dembele and Holtby slightly ahead of him as the runners.

Our problem was (as it has often been) moving the ball from our own half into the final third with purpose. Getting a pass and move player like Holtby into central midfield could help with that quite a bit.

 

[Spursalot]

I think he's suggesting a switch to a more 4-3-3 looking formation. Hudd as the deepest player, Dembele and Holtby slightly ahead of him as the runners.

Our problem was (as it has often been) moving the ball from our own half into the final third with purpose. Getting a pass and move player like Holtby into central midfield could help with that quite a bit.

That would make sense too, I was not sure though given Holtby has been used to fill in one of the forward four positions at times in a 4-2-3-1

 

[elltrev]

So you want us to stick a CM in a more advanced role? A bit square peg round hole to me.


The place that would make the difference would be the AM role. That is the position that drives the creativity, the one that connects the whole thing together.


Now we have Bale there. He is a superb footballer. However what he is not is a creative magician. He is a more direct player in my mind, he's not going to be the player to string the play together, he'll pick the ball up and drive at the opposition looking for a chance to cut across athe box and get a shot off. Move him out to the right, where he will keep his ability to cut in a shoot with his left, and place a more creative passing focused CM in and i think you would see an improvement in the 'attractiveness' of our overall play almost instantly.

A square peg? That more advanced role is at the very least one of his natural positions (as per http://www.whoscored.com/Players/41004 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73PK27u47bU and the fact that he said so in one of his first interviews for us). Against Southampton I would have played him as part of a midfield trio in order to outnumber their two pressing CMs, with Dembele and / or Holtby both given license to get further forward once we'd outmanouvered their press.

I agree with everything else you said. In fact against Southampton I thought Bale was even more direct, often making runs beyond their defenders rather than dropping deeper to receive passes to feet.

 

[Spursalot]

A square peg? That more advanced role is at the very least one of his natural positions (as per http://www.whoscored.com/Players/41004 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73PK27u47bU and the fact that he said so in one of his first interviews for us). Against Southampton I would have played him as part of a midfield trio in order to outnumber their two pressing CMs, with Dembele and / or Holtby both given license to get further forward once we'd outmanouvered their press.

I agree with everything else you said. In fact against Southampton I thought Bale was even more direct, often making runs beyond their defenders rather than dropping deeper to receive passes to feet.

I can agree with Holtby in a 4-3-3, that makes more sense to me.