Let’s Dissect Tottenham’s Tactical Switches Against Hull

Tottenham earned a crucial 3-0 win over Hull City on Wednesday thanks, in part, to two important tactical switches.

The first was obvious, though only when the first whistle blew. Judging by the lineup alone, one might be forgiven in thinking that Tottenham were — as they had over the previous handful of games — lineup in last season’s traditional 4-2-3-1.

Perhaps the parts themselves weren’t exactly right. Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama had teamed up in central midfield at the start of this season, but it wasn’t a particularly successful partnership. But it still made sense to think that Mauricio Pochettino would stick with a system that served him so well last season and, in wins over Swansea and CSKA Moscow, this term as well.

When the game began though, it became clear that Pochettino had something else in mind. For only the third time as Tottenham’s manager, he fielded a team that featured three centre-backs. Instead of slotting in at midfield alongside Wanyama, Dier moved back to the right side of the three-man backline, with Jan Vertonghen on the left and Toby Alderweireld in the center.

The advantages to this formation were clear from both a defensive and offensive standpoint. Hull City’s admittedly modest goal haul largely comes from Robert Snodgrass and, to a lesser extent, striker Adama Diomande.

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Fielding two centre-backs to pick that pair of players up while also having an extra man to deal with Hull’s threats from deeper in midfield only made sense. It was indeed precisely the reason Pochettino first used the three-man defense against Watford’s striker pair of Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo last season.

In truth, neither Snodgrass nor Diomande was a particular threat. The real advantage of a three man defense, then, was that it freed Tottenham up to push more players — specifically the wing-backs.

More or less since Pochettino joined Tottenham, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose have been the teams principle sources of both pace and width. They are one of the key components of the aforementioned 4-2-3-1 system in that they allow the top four to play especially narrow and thus occupy particularly dangerous zones.

At times this season, Rose and Walker have looked stifled in traditional full-back roles. Being apart of a back four naturally puts them about as far away as possible from the opposition’s third, and thus requires that both players cover a lot more ground. That’s not always sustainable on a week-to-week basis, and it’s telling that Pochettino favored rotation in the full-back roles more than any other position last season.

And so this three-at-the-back formation simultaneously got both Rose and Walker into more dangerous positions while also asking less  of them over the course of the 90 minutes.

Against a team like Hull, who also played in a three-at-the-back formation, this proved especially devastating. With Hull’s own wing-backs responsible for their attacking width, that meant that both Rose and Walker found plenty of space to run into. That stretched the centre-back trio as well, affording more room for Pochettino’s second innovation of the night: Christian Eriksen.

The Dane’s blossomed in recently weeks within the 4-2-3-1 system, having been freed up from more defensive duties after stalling throughout most of the season. Against Hull, Pochettino doubled down on Eriksen’s liberation, essentially giving the 24-year-old a free role between Dele Alli and Moussa Sissoko.

Paired with Tottenham’s liberated wing-backs, this all proved devastating. Eriksen scored two goals, one in each half, and owed one each to Rose and Walker. Meanwhile, on the other end, Hugo Lloris kept a cleansheet.

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That latter point wasn’t a guarantee. Compared to the 4-2-3-1, this system looks porous. Hull registered ten shots over the course of the 90, but five of them were on target. Some of the blame falls to Wanyama, who couldn’t adequately pick up Jake Livermore’s runs in the second half, but it was a concerning development all the same.

It’s that lack of defensive solidity that might prevent Pochettino from embracing the three-at-the-back system regularly going forward. Instead, expect to see it utilized pragmatically, particularly against teams who field two strikers and/or look particularly vulnerable to advanced wing-backs.