Tottenham Should Use Europa League as a Testing Ground
By Ryan Wrenn
As has been the case for the last four seasons, the Europa League will be a chance for Tottenham to rest some legs and give chances to some of the team’s also-rans and up-and-comers. Players like Harry Kane and Nabil Bentaleb have all gotten significant minutes in Europe’s second-tier international club competition, experience that has proven itself useful as both players transitioned fully into the first team.
This season represents a fairly unique opportunity though. Tottenham’s ranks are more full than ever with young talent either recently recruited or fresh out of the academy and loan system. Mauricio Pochettino should use matches like Thursday’s visit from Azerbaijani champions Qarabağ to give significant minutes to those players, not only to aid in their development but also to see how well they would fit into the first team if need be.
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If this seems to contradict our earlier enthusiasm for Tottenham’s chances in the Europa League, it’s not. Fielding players like Alex Pritchard, Dele Alli and Kevin Wimmer isn’t the same as giving random shots to 17 and 18 year old academy students. These are players that have proven themselves at various levels and should do so again for Tottenham. Especially against second tier and lower teams like Anderlecht and Qarabağ, these players will thrive.
It might not end with the same kind of results as starting Kane or Christian Eriksen, but there’s not such a significant drop off as many might think between Tottenham’s first team and the rest of the roster. This is a young but balanced squad, deliberately built around competing on multiple fronts, including the especially unique challenge of playing Thursdays in the Europa League.
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Lineup changes for Europa League games are nothing new, for Tottenham or any other team. What might be more innovative would be experimenting with a reconfigured formation, one that might suit both bench and first team players better.
Pochettino is famously loyal to his 4-2-3-1 formation. He’s only rarely ever deviated from that shape, and for good reason. Tottenham’s abundance of attacking midfielders and relative lack of striker options has dictated for several years that such a formation be used game after game. Though there’s an opportunity to try something slightly different, especially against Qarabağ Thursday.
Given injuries to Ryan Mason, Mousa Dembélé and Nabil Bentaleb – and Pochettino’s reluctance to rush Christian Eriksen back from his own injury – it might make more sense to field a team that more closely resembles a 4-3-3.
Dele Alli, as we discussed earlier this week, should likely get more minutes in a central midfield role, even if it ends up being significantly more attacking than defensive.
Beside him in central midfield should be Tom Carroll and Harry Winks. Neither player is technically a holding midfielder, though against a Qarabağ side that will be sitting back this should not matter all that much.
The three man midfield might not be the ideal fit against Qarabağ, but the team should learn the benefits of the formation. Crowding a midfield area in which Tottenham is sometimes vulnerable – see the through balls Yann M’Vila delivered when Mason ran forward Sunday against Sunderland – is the primary motivation, but it could also serve as a capable attacking strategy.
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Sometimes thrusting more attackers forward can prove to be a weakness, however counter-intuitive that might seem. A defense that will sit deep, as likely all of Tottenham’s group mates will do over the next few months, in order to absorb that top-end pressure. Tottenham might break them down over the course of 90 minutes, but it will take work and leaves the defense exposed to counterattacks when the opposition reclaims the ball.
A three man midfield helps with both of those problems. An extra man to catch runners on the counter helps, about as much as a a more patient build up game going forward. In attack the formation acts less like a battering ram and more like a fencing foil, probing the opposition at a relative distance – thereby perhaps drawing the defense out – and then focusing efforts on one spot of weakness. A passer like Carroll teamed with a direct player like Alli and a creative type like Winks should prove to be the perfect weapons for that kind of game.
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The benefits of such a tactical experiment would extend further than these upcoming Europa League games. In seeing the 4-3-3 in action in real competitive minutes, Pochettino could learn more about what else his first team players could do. Against Sunderland, for instance, an approach that eased off the gas a bit and favored creation over blunt force might have been preferred. That in the end, the winning goal came from central midfield only adds to credence to that idea.
Pochettino will still likely go with a more tried and true method against Qarabağ and the other competition in the Europa League. In doing so however, he misses out on one of the best opportunities he’ll have to find a Plan B.