Tottenham Can't Underestimate Newcastle's Pride

Relegation might be a heavy blow, but Newcastle could recover against Tottenham for one last Premier League send off.

This is certainly not the Newcastle of 2012. That side, led by Alan Pardew and featuring the likes of Yohan Cabaye and Demba Ba, managed to finish fifth, just four points less than Tottenham.

Still, Rafa Benitez has under his command an impressive, if misused, set of players. During his short tenure at the club, he’s proven that he knows how to use them. Should he have been brought in to the club earlier than March, they might be celebrating survival this weekend.

That they’re not comes down to the failings of Steve McClaren — or, more precisely, McClaren’s inability to pull the club out of its post-Pardew dive that began last season.

All of that being said, Benitez has every incentive to finish the season strong, even if morale has likely never been lower. And they might just do it with a cue from McClaren himself.

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While the former England manager might not have had the best season overall, he pulled off a feat in December that few other Premier League clubs have managed: he beat Tottenham Hotspur.

That 2-1 result didn’t seem likely at half-time. Eric Dier had scored off a corner to give Tottenham the lead, and the way that Harry Kane and company were bossing Newcastle’s third that lead seemed likely to double or triple.

McClaren identified a vulnerability in Tottenham’s set up at half-time however. He instructed his side to push up and exploit Tom Carroll’s lack of defensive acumen. Through the hole left behind Carroll, Newcastle found routes forward and, eventually, to goal.

Carroll was only playing due to an injury sustained to Mousa Dembélé. It’s hard to imagine Newcastle finding the advantage they found in the second half had the Belgian been perched up alongside Dier instead of Carroll.

Tottenham will again be missing out on Dembélé on Sunday. While Carroll is unlikely to start, the player that will come in has similarly unimpressive defensive record.

Ryan Mason’s early stint in the starting XI this season suggested some improvement in that area, but some of those old doubts resurfaced in last week’s loss to Southampton. He was, at best, a non-presence and, at worse, a liability. He’s also Mauricio Pochettino’s best option with Nabil Bentaleb out.

There are ways that Tottenham can compensate for this weak point. Christian Eriksen often operates from deeper areas even when he’s nominally in the band of three attacking midfielders. He could drop deeper into something like a 4-5-1, thereby occupying the center of the pitch while giving Érik Lamela and Heung-min Son more space to operate on either side of Kane in transition. When in possession, the shape could hastily be readjusted to a more familiar 4-2-3-1.

Newcastle will attempt to engineer as many transitions as they can though, hoping to catch Tottenham’s midfield and defense wrong-footed. Their own attacking midfield trio is designed to excel at this, with Georgino Wijnaldum playing as something of a playmaker, Moussa Sissoko as the box-to-box runner and Andros Townsend as the pace.

Combined they will attempt to occupy any space left unfilled by Mason while also overwhelming Dier. Newcastle’s strikers have been less than prolific this season, but here whoever starts will simply be tasked with pulling apart Tottenham’s defense to make holes for the midfield to play for.

Next: Pochettino: Tottenham Must Strengthen Squad for Europe

Given what’s at stake, and Tottenham’s overall superiority even with Mason on the pitch, this shouldn’t be as shocking a result as that Newcastle win was in December. Pochettino can be confident that his side’s usual potency will decide this contest, while the defense won’t be so easily lulled.

Tottenham Can’t Underestimate Newcastle’s Pride

By Ryan Wrenn | May 14, 2016

Relegation might be a heavy blow, but Newcastle could recover against Tottenham for one last Premier League send off.

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