Tottenham Forced to Play Sunderland’s Game
By Ryan Wrenn
David Moyes and Sunderland performed a feat on Tuesday few other teams can claim: they brought Tottenham down to their level.
There’s an irony in this that Mauricio Pochettino and his squad will likely fail to appreciate. It is Tottenham, after all, who usually disrupt their oppositions plans and forced on them a different game than the one they expected, or wanted, to play.
Feel like hoarding possession and weaving through Tottenham’s lines? Mousa Dembélé and Victor Wanyama will lead the charge to strip the ball from your feet and set up a devastating attack in transition.
Feel overwhelmed enough to sit back and cluster in front of goal? Christian Eriksen will distribute the ball over, through and around your collected defense for Harry Kane and Dele Alli to pick off.
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Perhaps, then, you want to crowd the center of the pitch and make it difficult for both Dembélé and Eriksen to make things happen? Toby Alderweireld will be there to launch the ball over your efforts and into the path of an onrushing attacker.
The beauty of Pochettino’s system at Tottenham is that these different takes are fluid, easily transitioned between over the course of a single match.
If this system has a weakness, it’s that it rarely thrives against a team that uses broadly similar tactics. Such was the case against Sunderland.
That’s not to say that what Moyes has his team do on Tuesday was a graceful or altogether efficient imitation of Pochettino’s Spurs.
The press was there, yes, but it lacked finesse. It was utilized primarily to deny Tottenham time on the ball, not necessarily to win the ball back. If that was sometimes the result, all the better. But it was not the primary purpose of the pressure.
Tottenham, unaccustomed to such aggressive marking, stuttered even with overwhelming possession. Efforts to calmly and smoothly work the ball forward from the defense were constantly disrupted, and combined with a determined defense it made for an oddly impotent night for the visitors.
In truth, about as much blame could be laid at Tottenham’s feet as credit at Sunderland’s. Pochettino’s tactical switch back to a 4-2-3-1 — though essentially forced upon him by injury — backfired. A weekend off for much of the team, meanwhile, didn’t seem to do them all that much good.
Though Sunderland squeezed out a draw, their tactics here were the kind of risky only the league’s bottom team could justifiably pull off. The added pressure and increased fouling could very well have left the hosts a man down. By all rights, Jack Rodwell’s horror tackle on Dembélé deserved something more than the yellow card the former Manchester City man received.
Even with all eleven men on the pitch, Sunderland’s deep defending and aggressive midfield left few opportunities going forward but for the odd chipped ball to Jermain Defoe. They registered three shots in the entire game, only one of which was on Michel Vorm’s goal.
Next: Tottenham Drop Points Against Sunderland
Sunderland wanted the draw though — any chance for points against one of the hottest teams in the league — and they got it.
Tottenham, meanwhile, will once again be asking themselves how they could dish out a pressing game so much better than deal with it themselves.