How Does Tottenham Overcome Dortmund?

A three goal deficit against a team like Borussia Dortmund is no easy thing to overcome for Tottenham.

If we’re being honest, even in ideal conditions – say, if Mauricio Pochettino were to give full starts to his strongest XI – this would be difficult. Dortmund are arguably one of the best teams in Europe. As you might expect, they rarely give up as substantial a lead as the one they take into Thursday’s match.

Moreover, these won’t be ideal conditions for Tottenham. Pochettino is expected to rest at least two regular starters – Christian Eriksen and Mousa Dembélé – while Harry Kane and Érik Lamela might also start from the bench. Along with the now customary rotation of the full-backs, it could be that six or seven players get rotated compared to the team that beat Aston Villa on Sunday.

So if Dortmund won’t exactly be eager to give Tottenham the space and time with which they need to operate at peak levels, and those peaks might already be shortened for lack of regular starters, how does Pochettino go about devising a strategy for overcoming Thomas Tuchel’s team?

As we explored before last week’s match, the best route might be a relatively simple one.

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Considering just how much Dortmund rely on their ability to not only control the ball but also deny the opposition’s ability to control the ball in the midfield area, the best route to goal might be the direct one. Both Bayern Munich and FC Köln found their way to victory through deft defending and the ability to get the ball forward in ways other than playing through the middle.

Tottenham, of course, rely on such play more or less exclusively. To alter their game to do differently would then be pretty dramatic, but entirely unprecedented.

Eric Dier dropped into a defensive back three for Tottenham’s 2-1 victory over Watford in December, and the same could be done here. Doing so with two deeper midfield in front of them would clog up the area in which Dortmund do much of their work, and would allow for customary centre-backs Toby Alderweireld and Kevin Wimmer to play in wider roles, thereby giving additional assistance to the full-backs. Considering how well crosses worked for Dortmund in the last match, having a formation that – in theory – both hinders the ability to pass from the center and provides additional cover from the flanks seems ideal.

Constructing attacks from the center of the pitch should be thrown out the window for this match. Not only does it free up a midfielder to concentrate on defending, it means that whoever starts behind the striker can focus on overloading Dortmund’s flanks. The narrowness with which Tuchel has Dortmund play exposes their full-backs on occasion, meaning that players like Heung-min Son and Nacer Chadli might benefit from staying wide themselves.

This would allow the full-backs – likely Ben Davies and Kieran Trippier – to press forward when in possession and send balls into Dortmund’s penalty area. Long balls from the defense or deeper midfield could also be a viable way of bypassing the midfield and cracking open the defense.

The beauty of such a system is that it simultaneously keeps Dortmund from scoring an away goal, and gives Tottenham the best chance of forcing their way through to goal themselves.

Is it likely to go as smoothly as this? No, of course not, but focusing seeing as how well Tottenham’s typical plan worked last week it might be worth a shot.