Following a poor result against Sunderland, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino was disappointed to find his team fail to clinch three points.
Not surprisingly, Mauricio Pochettino was left disappointed with Tuesday’s goalless draw at the Stadium of Light. As he should be.
Sunderland is a team that Tottenham have picked up 13 points in five previous meetings dating back to Pochettino’s debut season as Spurs manager two-and-a-half years ago.
Managerial changes, players joining and leaving, team unity/chemistry and tactics have played a part in the Black Cats’ unsuccessful five-match winnless run against Spurs.
But that happens in football. Change is inevitable and inescapable.
Change, of course is what David Moyes was forced to do following a slim 1-0 loss back on September 18th when Sunderland traveled to White Hart Lane.
With Jordan Pickford and numerous players out for the game, plus one suspended and another sold, Tuesday’s final meeting with Sunderland in the Premier League this season was expected to be one of the easiest wins for Spurs.
Instead, it turned out to be anything but a win.
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Just like the previous match-up nearly four months ago, Sunderland managed to play one heck of a defensive game.
Moyes chose to deploy a 3-5-2 system for the second meeting in order to continue his side’s solid defensive showing the last time around, and not allow Tottenham to create many scoring chances.
Indeed, with 31 shots and nine on target the last time these two teams played, to cut those numbers nearly in half (14 attempts and three on goal) is a huge win for the Scotsman.
Pochettino deciding to go with a 4-2-3-1 formation because it worked the first time around isn’t necessarily a bad decision. It just wasn’t the correct decision to make.
Not when the 3-4-2-1 has excelled and easily disposed of teams in recent weeks since Mid-December minus Manchester City.
Because of Tuesday’s outcome, but more specifically the first half, Mauricio Pochettino not only expressed disappointment but that he and his staff will review what happened and hope to learn from this game in preparation for Middlesbrough come Saturday at White Hart Lane.
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“I’m a little disappointed with the performance in the first half,” Pochettino began.
“I thought we were poor and didn’t take our opportunity, only one shot on target [in the first half] is too poor to win the game.”
“In the second half we played better and created chances but it wasn’t enough to win the game. We feel bad and disappointed because it was a great chance to reduce the gap with Chelsea at the top.”
“We showed a lack of aggression in the first half and that was the problem. We can’t afford to play in that way when we’re playing for big things.”
“We need to learn about that and try to fix it and Saturday [home against Middlesbrough] is another opportunity for us to win three points.”
“In the first half against Manchester City, first half against Wycombe – with different players – and today in the first half we need to be more aggressive from the beginning. We need to analyse why.”
It’s clear that the lack of chances created could signal a return to a more offensive attack like say the 3-4-2-1 which has produced plenty of goals in a month’s worth of league games.
Whether Tottenham return to a three-back system remains to be seen, but it also depends on Danny Rose’s injury that forced him to leave after 38 minutes last night.
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It appears to be a twisted knee and not an ankle injury. Though either way, this isn’t something that can be classified as one being better than the other.
“We need to assess him tomorrow [Wednesday].” Mauricio Pochettino added. “We hope it’s not a big issue but he felt in a tackle that he twisted his knee. We’ll see tomorrow.”
If Rose can’t play on Saturday, Ben Davies will take his place. Of course this will change how Spurs play with the Welsh left-back not nearly as explosive as his English counterpart.