Eriksen and Lloris Discuss Tottenham’s Draw with Bournemouth
Tottenham’s third consecutive draw in as many games is both a good and bad thing moving forward for Mauricio Pochettino and company.
From the first minute to the last, Tottenham were in a battle against Bournemouth. Eddie Howe got his tactics right to completely overwhelm Mauricio Pochettino’s side by high-pressing relentlessly.
By now, Spurs should be able to cope with teams who are aggressive like they are, but that isn’t the case. One reason why is due to the amount of running Tottenham players did throughout the game.
Over time, this adds up and it shows when the level of play drops because everyone is tired.
“It was a hard-fought game on every level, in every position,” Christian Eriksen said (via Spurs’ official website).
“It was a difficult game. We tried to play offensively, tried to go forward but when we lost it they looked long and looked for the counter, so we had to go all the way back and start again.”
“We had to build up again and again – you get tired at the end if you play at the level we both played.”
Running around trying to go on the offensive, losing possession and tracking back to defend, only to start it all over again, not only is it tiring, but it makes Bournemouth’s compact defense even harder to breakdown.
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For a team who plays as narrow as it does, Tottenham literally played into the Cherries trap. With too many bodies in the middle of the pitch and Danny Rose and Kyle Walker providing the only width in Spurs’ game, it was easy to sit back and absorb any pressure Tottenham presented.
“It’s always difficult. They stayed compact and didn’t let any runners between them,” Eriksen said.
“We still had our chances, the balls we played between were dangerous but not dangerous enough. You keep trying and as an offensive player, you always look for that opportunity to create something, but there wasn’t many chances to do that.”
“You have to try to find the right solutions when you are on the ball and if you are under pressure, you play it back, if not you go forward and try to create.”
Try as they might, the chances weren’t enough to score and the result saw Spurs draw for the fourth time in the Premier League, and three in as many games.
Playing a midweek game and only seeing two changes played a big part in why Bournemouth looked much fresher, but at the end of the day this is a team Tottenham have to beat and Hugo Lloris knows it.
“I always say when you cannot win, you must not lose, but it’s three draws in a row now and we needed to score,” Lloris said. “Perhaps we need to be more aggressive in the last 30 yards, in our runs, in our passes.”
“Look, it’s football and there are ups and downs. We had good control of the game apart from the first 10 or 15 minutes when they had a lot of pressure and had a good chance. It’s not enough because we have ambition, so we’re not happy with a point.”
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To pick up a clean sheet is good and keeping opponents at bay in terms of goals scored, defensively speaking, is another plus. But at the same time Tottenham’s offense has to pick things to match the work that their defense has done this year.
This was something that Hugo Lloris explained after making a save early in the game.
“It was with my left leg. You just try to react and get the ball away and it worked today. It’s not the most important thing but okay, it helped the team stay in the game,” Lloris continued.
“Defensively, we need to be positive because it’s another clean sheet and it’s not an anomaly – we are consistent defensively. I used to always repeat that it has to be our basics, so defensively it’s good, we didn’t give them many chances but we need to improve offensively and that’s the responsibility of all the players, not just one, two or three.”