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OMT The Mighty Tottenham vs AFC Sportswash

There were some tasty challenges flying around in that game. Well reffed, as were other games this weekend, hopefully a sign for the season to come. If we play PEH and Skipp it could benefit us because those two are a brick wall in front of our CBs.
 
Trying to understand the tactics, but I'll probably need someone smarter than me to explain it to me.

Just have to point out that Nuno has courage. First game. 15 minutes in it looked like we could get crushed, but believed in his system and didn't change it (much at least). Really brave thing to often defend with three players high up the pitch. Kept doing it well after going 1-0 up too.

Why did it work? 3 forwards that set up to defend inside the centre circle, stopping City from passing through the centre. Leaving the pass to the full back easy and on, in space. When the full backs got the ball the wide midfielders (Hojbjerg or Alli) closed them down. That leaves the other two midfielders holding down the rest of midfield. Why weren't we carved open?

My suggestions:

-Full backs did extremely well. Both in those situations where the City wide men combined with Grealish (in particular) and full backs, but also when play was switched. We pushed way over often leaving the other winger available. But we trusted Tanganga and Reguilon to deal with those, and they did.

-Skipp, Hojbjerg and Alli did really well in their positioning and decision making denying space to play into and through the centre once they got advanced in wide positions.

-Leaving players up restricted City players pushing up like they normally would to create overloads.

-We got really close early when players were facing their own goal, kept them from turning, mostly giving away free kicks outside danger zones.

-We accepted that they had the ball when facing the right way, allowing them to run with it, but down alleys, rarely attempting tackles that would take our players out of the shape if unsuccessful.

Getting that intensity right, real aggression when warranted, good decisions on when to stand off and let City players take touches and run with the ball. Those decisions and the individual defensive ability of the full backs (and when called on Sanchez in particular of the centre backs) were key I think.

What did I miss?
 
A word too for how we managed the game in the last 10-15 minutes. Managed to keep possession and slow things down. Winning free kicks, causing frustration and being happy to spend time arguing with City players when play was stopped to let time pass.

Alli I thought was instrumental in this phase in a way that he wasn't for the rest of the game (he was good otherwise, but not instrumental). His composure, skill, arrogance, know how.

Great to see us manage different phases of play this well, usually something that takes time to get right.
 
braineclipse said:
Trying to understand the tactics, but I'll probably need someone smarter than me to explain it to me.

Just have to point out that Nuno has courage. First game. 15 minutes in it looked like we could get crushed, but believed in his system and didn't change it (much at least). Really brave thing to often defend with three players high up the pitch. Kept doing it well after going 1-0 up too.

Why did it work? 3 forwards that set up to defend inside the centre circle, stopping City from passing through the centre. Leaving the pass to the full back easy and on, in space. When the full backs got the ball the wide midfielders (Hojbjerg or Alli) closed them down. That leaves the other two midfielders holding down the rest of midfield. Why weren't we carved open?

My suggestions:

-Full backs did extremely well. Both in those situations where the City wide men combined with Grealish (in particular) and full backs, but also when play was switched. We pushed way over often leaving the other winger available. But we trusted Tanganga and Reguilon to deal with those, and they did.

-Skipp, Hojbjerg and Alli did really well in their positioning and decision making denying space to play into and through the centre once they got advanced in wide positions.

-Leaving players up restricted City players pushing up like they normally would to create overloads.

-We got really close early when players were facing their own goal, kept them from turning, mostly giving away free kicks outside danger zones.

-We accepted that they had the ball when facing the right way, allowing them to run with it, but down alleys, rarely attempting tackles that would take our players out of the shape if unsuccessful.

Getting that intensity right, real aggression when warranted, good decisions on when to stand off and let City players take touches and run with the ball. Those decisions and the individual defensive ability of the full backs (and when called on Sanchez in particular of the centre backs) were key I think.

What did I miss?
Click to expand...
I found that narrow front 3 when defending really interesting as well, the first couple of times they set up like that I was wondering what the hell they were doing, then after 10/15 mins or so it became clear it was a tactic. Wonder if Wolves did that v City?

it worked really well, but it was helped by some excellent individual defensive performances from the back 4 and huge work rate from the midfield 3.
 
I haven’t seen the stats, but it felt like City had a lot of touches in our box, but the defending was so, so disciplined, no diving in with a rash tackle likely to give away a pen. Amazing performance in that regard, given City have two proven divers in Sterling and Grealish.
 
DaveT316 said:
I haven’t seen the stats, but it felt like City had a lot of touches in our box, but the defending was so, so disciplined, no diving in with a rash tackle likely to give away a pen. Amazing performance in that regard, given City have two proven divers in Sterling and Grealish.
Click to expand...
Felt to me like they didn’t have touchés in our box as we defended narrow and kept them outside. Close to it but far enough away to offer no damage
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Felt to me like they didn’t have touchés in our box as we defended narrow and kept them outside. Close to it but far enough away to offer no damage
Click to expand...
You could be right. Regardless, it just felt we defended so well around the box with no rash tackles. I guess that’s because we defended with a solid shape which meant the structure was there which negated the need to make last ditch tackles.
 
DaveT316 said:
I haven’t seen the stats, but it felt like City had a lot of touches in our box, but the defending was so, so disciplined, no diving in with a rash tackle likely to give away a pen. Amazing performance in that regard, given City have two proven divers in Sterling and Grealish.
Click to expand...

City had 4 shots on target all game, first one after 70 odd minutes
 
DaveT316 said:
You could be right. Regardless, it just felt we defended so well around the box with no rash tackles. I guess that’s because we defended with a solid shape which meant the structure was there which negated the need to make last ditch tackles.
Click to expand...
Yep
As @braineclipse posted above we defended narrow in the middle forcing them wide and they had no way through
It’s choking city in their most effective space
KDB came on and hugged the byline as it was the only area he had room
That was a plan executed perfectly. Bit one player didn’t do his job at an 8/10 level. There was minor blips but they stuck at it
City looked devoid of ideas and also motivation to me. The more the game went on the less likely they looked to score
 
braineclipse said:
Trying to understand the tactics, but I'll probably need someone smarter than me to explain it to me.

Just have to point out that Nuno has courage. First game. 15 minutes in it looked like we could get crushed, but believed in his system and didn't change it (much at least). Really brave thing to often defend with three players high up the pitch. Kept doing it well after going 1-0 up too.

Why did it work? 3 forwards that set up to defend inside the centre circle, stopping City from passing through the centre. Leaving the pass to the full back easy and on, in space. When the full backs got the ball the wide midfielders (Hojbjerg or Alli) closed them down. That leaves the other two midfielders holding down the rest of midfield. Why weren't we carved open?

My suggestions:

-Full backs did extremely well. Both in those situations where the City wide men combined with Grealish (in particular) and full backs, but also when play was switched. We pushed way over often leaving the other winger available. But we trusted Tanganga and Reguilon to deal with those, and they did.

-Skipp, Hojbjerg and Alli did really well in their positioning and decision making denying space to play into and through the centre once they got advanced in wide positions.

-Leaving players up restricted City players pushing up like they normally would to create overloads.

-We got really close early when players were facing their own goal, kept them from turning, mostly giving away free kicks outside danger zones.

-We accepted that they had the ball when facing the right way, allowing them to run with it, but down alleys, rarely attempting tackles that would take our players out of the shape if unsuccessful.

Getting that intensity right, real aggression when warranted, good decisions on when to stand off and let City players take touches and run with the ball. Those decisions and the individual defensive ability of the full backs (and when called on Sanchez in particular of the centre backs) were key I think.

What did I miss?
Click to expand...

My view

- We played 4-3-3
- We stand off the ball only when the opposition has the ball in their third
- When the opposition gets to half way, we do press (just not a Poch style press)
- City tried to target Tanganga (which failed miserably)
- Grealish and Sterling kind of operate in the same area, which didn't help them

The piece City couldn't/didn't deal with is
- Once we won the ball back (Tanganga, Skipp, PEH, Lucas), we immediately countered through the middle at pace

If Fernandinho wasn't such a world class player, we would have absolutely murdered them
 
The Grealish position thing is interesting. He played on the left hand side of midfield for them, which is deeper compared to where he played for Villa

In their formation, I think he needs to be in the front 3 so that he has the freedom to play at his best, but not sure how they fit him in and that even before they have a proper CF.

This links to part of the reason why I dont think Pep wants them to spend £150m on Kane - he'd be forced to pick him every week
 
AdamB said:
The Grealish position thing is interesting. He played on the left hand side of midfield for them, which is deeper compared to where he played for Villa

In their formation, I think he needs to be in the front 3 so that he has the freedom to play at his best, but not sure how they fit him in and that even before they have a proper CF.

This links to part of the reason why I dont think Pep wants them to spend £150m on Kane - he'd be forced to pick him every week
Click to expand...

Pep isn't forced to do anything, he will opt not to play Harry in certain games (something I'm not sure Harry has thought out)

Re Grealish, I think Sterling gets sacrificed (they would sell him, but no one will buy at price/wages)
 
I'm watching the highlights and I still can't believe Bergwijn's miss. Not sure what he can do about his finishing. Maybe he can work with Harry. :p
 
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