Tottenham’s Season in Ten Matches

Watford 1 – 2 Tottenham, December 28th

The busy holiday schedule is never easy on Premier League teams. Football — at least football at this level — is not a game designed to be played this frequently.

The key for teams is proper rotation. Tottenham’s bench got its fair share of minutes during an early season injury crisis, and so Pochettino knew who he could trust here if he needed to. That knowledge paid off as Tottenham recorded three consecutive victories to see out 2015.

The last of which pitted Tottenham against a streaking Watford team. Quique Sánchez Flores’ team had recorded four wins and one draw in their last five matches up to that point, thanks in no small part to their striking duo of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo. Together they were proving to be the most lethal such pair in the Premier League, and by the season’s end they would score a combined 28 goals.

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Pochettino might have been forced into making some rotational changes due to the tight scheduling, but he rarely ever made any dramatic adjustments to meet specific opposition. The usual 4-2-3-1 formation fit him and his players just well for about any circumstance.

The presence of Deeney and Ighalo was too big a danger to just ignore however. To contain them demanded adjustment, and Pochettino didn’t hesitate. He sent Dier deeper between Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, creating a back three. Danny Rose and — in his first Premier League start with Tottenham — Kieran Trippier operated as advanced wing-backs.

The tactical switch helped, but it wasn’t a airtight solution. Ighalo scored to level the account, and right up through the final minutes it seemed as if Tottenham would suffer yet another draw — even after Watford went down to 10 men following Nathan Aké’s red card.

Tottenham earned their winner, however, when Trippier — a menace on Aké’s flank the entire match — set up substitute Heung-min Son for a goal in the dying minutes of stoppage time. It was a thrilling match that proved the value of Tottenham’s versatility, both from the bench and from Pochettino’s tactics book,

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