Tottenham’s 4-2-3-1 Does Not Work Without Érik Lamela

As Saturday’s woeful 2-0 defeat to Liverpool proves, Tottenham’s return to the 4-2-3-1 formation that served it so well last term simply no longer works.

As we suggested in our post yesterday, part of Tottenham’s misery can be traced back to Jan Vertonghen’s injury in January and Danny Rose’s trip to the sidelines weeks later.

Without those two players at wide centre-back and wing-back, respectively, Mauricio Pochettino cannot justify to himself fielding a team in a 3-4-2-1 formation. While that tactical set worked wildly well for Tottenham through December and January, Pochettino evidently isn’t confident enough to press on down two such key figures.

It certainly can be argued that, indeed, the 3-4-2-1 would not work with the likes of Kevin Wimmer and Ben Davies coming in for that injured pair. These are different classes of player who, at least in this context, don’t represent like-for-like replacements.

The same problem plagued this current iteration of the 4-2-3-1 however. While Eric Dier is a fine — if unflashy — substitute for Vertonghen at centre-back and Davies isn’t quite as error-prone as Saturday’s matchup against Sadio Mané suggests, the same cannot be said for matters higher up the pitch.

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Three-fourths of the front line is unchanged from last season. Harry Kane leads the line with close support from Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen. Those three represent enough attacking intent and ability to overwhelm most any defense.

Complementing their efforts on Saturday and in the weeks prior was Heung-min Son. But for a run of remarkably good form from late last season to the start of the current, the South Korean struggles to strike the balance Tottenham needs.

He’s nominally a winger, one that drops deep in pursuit of possession and shuttles play forward. His lack of consistent final product, as we discussed last week, might make better suited to a wing-back role in a 3-4-2-1. Clearly, though, he is not a player Pochettino can count on to take his chances in front of goal.

Son’s lack of goals aren’t the problem though. The man who would be starting in Son’s place were he fit, Érik Lamela, is also famously goal shy. The Argentine provides a service that Son doesn’t though, one so key that without him in the lineup the 4-2-3-1 falls apart. 

Lamela came to Tottenham for a fee similar to the one that brought Son, and with similar hopes as well. Both were slated to be reliable sources of goals and assists, hopefully complementing the work of a powerful central forward like Roberto Soldado or Harry Kane.

In reality neither player quite fills that role. While Son is still struggling to find a role, Lamela created his own niche and made himself invaluable.

There were hints of it in Pochettin’s first season, and by last year it was abundantly clear. Lamela is, in effect, an enforcer, a representative of Pochettino’s pressing style high up the pitch. He harries defenses when out of possession, tackling at a rate significantly higher than players in similar positions.

With the ball at his feet, he’s a cross between a battering ram and a lockpick. Defenses know he can be dangerous — particularly when picking out a pass that a teammate can convert into a shot — and thus are kept occupied holding him at back.

Its through his efforts that Tottenham strike a balance between midfield and attack. He is the type of player Pochettino teams are built around — someone who can occupy the liminal spaces between defense and midfield, midfield and attack.

With the 3-4-2-1 formation, such players are everywhere on the pitch — most importantly in the wing-back roles. Lamela might even struggle to find a way onto a team in that formation, such are the abundance of connections between every level of Spurs’ game.

Next: Pochettino Altering Tottenham's Priorities.

Without that link, Tottenham continually look a team split in two when in the 4-2-3-1. The defense is strong enough to earn points on their own. Without fluency in possession, particularly between midfield and attack, there simply isn’t a way for Spurs to break through with a lead or, in situations like the one on Saturday, fight back when already behind.

Lamela is slowly returning to health after a hip injury sustained last November. His return can’t come soon enough, especially if Pochettino persists with the 4-2-3-1 formation.