How Spurs Won: Away at Southampton

Spurs beat a beleaguered Southampton side 2-0 on Saturday, a result that sends them into the top four of the Premier League for the first time this season.

That result was never quite beyond doubt, particularly in the opening stages of the contest. The Saints came out hot and managed a sustained bit of pressure that seemed destined to earn them an early lead. This isn’t the Spurs team of old, however. Past incarnations of Tottenham’s backline would have capitulated under such an onslaught. Here, Jan Vertonghen, Hugo Lloris and Toby Alderweireld combined to pull off a series of collectively heroic efforts to keep Southampton – in particular Sadio Mané – out of Spurs’ goal.

We touched on it yesterday, but it’s worth mentioning again here precisely what was going on here in the first third of the game.

Spurs attempted to play the game they always try to play at first. They cycled the ball up the pitch from the back and attempted to break Southampton’s lines with some clever runs and key passes. Out of possession, they attempted to press well into Southampton’s half in hopes of creating chances in transition.

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Unfortunately, most of these movements ended up hitting something of a brick wall. Southampton set the tone early with some aggressive defensive pressing, regularly cutting off passing angles and stripping the ball from those Spurs plays would attempt to dribble through the center of the park. Even as Spurs won the ball back themselves, they were back under pressure once again within two or three steps.

The effect of all this was that almost all of Spurs’ early efforts were broken up and the ball was cycled back through to Southampton’s attack. The pressure on the Spurs back line did not let up.

Thankfully, Southampton didn’t derive any actual advantage in the form of a goal from this early run of good form. Spurs’ defense stood firm and, bit by bit, the offense found ways to get back into the game. But how?

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It came down to a combination of factors, each relatively simple and easy to sustain for the remainder of the game.

For one, Southampton found a tremendous amount of opportunities from wide areas early on. The most obvious solution was also the most effective: have the full-backs sit deeper. Kyle Walker and Ben Davies sat about ten yards deeper when out of possession after the first 20 minutes or so. On top of that, Eric Dier and Mousa Dembélé often came wide and deep to crowd out Southampton’s attempts to find passes or dribbles down the flanks.

Arguably more important was Spurs’ second innovation of the afternoon. Spurs’ attempts to get the ball out of their own half were frequently cut off by Southampton’s determined press. This effort on the Saints’ part was made easier by just how much time Spurs were spending on the ball, either in attempts to dribble the ball forward or simply to find the right pass.

The remedy was simple. Spurs began to pass at a quicker rate and dribble less. The ball was passed either square or forward rather than backward, and for longer distances. This at once made Spurs’ game more direct while also denying Southampton opportunities to retrieve the ball. The tactical shift simply denied Southampton the opportunity to win the ball back in advantageous positions, much as Newcastle changed their game in the second half last weekend to avoid having the ball in their own half for too long.

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None of which means Southampton didn’t still try to play their pressing game, but increasingly doing so became more and more of a disadvantage against a slightly tweaked Spurs side. Two rough tackles were broken through in the lead up to Harry Kane’s exceptional goal, and the Saints’ defense was caught out of shape from attempting to press after a quick Spurs transition inside Southampton’s own half.

In truth, Southampton’s defense is owed the loss almost as much as Spurs’ offense is owed the win. They made some simply unforgivable mistakes. Were Southampton to have gone up when they had the best chance to do so in the beginning, those mistakes might have mattered a lot less. As it stands, however, Spurs evolved to meet the situation and took full advantage of the chances afforded to them thereafter.