Tottenham’s reactive tactics bested Borussia Dortmund

If there could be said to be one glaring weakness in Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham, it is their fundamental inability to overcome the press.

The irony of Tottenham — a team known for their own pressing style — being unable to overcome such tactics does not escape many of the club’s detractors, or its supporters.

Prior to Wednesdasy night’s 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund, Mauricio Pochettino’s solution appeared to be to not have a solution. Tottenham would play their normal game and hope for the best, even against teams who also shared a pressing identity like Liverpool — or Borussia Dortmund.

In truth this oversight rarely mattered all that much. The fact is that pressing is a particularly difficult thing to pull off for most teams. It requires immaculate organization and a high level of physical fitness, plus the endurance to do it all for a full 90 minutes. The only reason teams like Tottenham can make it all work so well is because Pochettino designed them from the ground up to play in this manner.

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So, in Pochettino’s mind, it must hardly seem worth it to prepare for matches that might happen two or three times a season. Last spring’s 2-0 loss to Liverpool in which Jürgen Klopp’s team ran rampant over a hapless Spurs defense didn’t stop Pochettino’s boys from finishing second in the Premier League, after all.

A meeting against Dortmund is a bit different though. Pochettino wouldn’t be able to hope for better results later, as the Champions League group stage only afforded six invaluable opportunities to progress to the next round.

The first hint of this lesson came two seasons ago, when a — admittedly, heavily rotated — Spurs side got completely overrun by a dominant Dortmund side over two legs in the Europa League quarter-finals. Those were results that had an immediate, palpable effect — namely, Spurs dropping out of their only hope for European glory that season.

So if Spurs wanted to take this season of the Champions League seriously, Pochettino would have to devise a way for his team to beat perhaps the finest pressing outfit in football.

It’s hard to say what Pochettino originally intended for this match. Everything changed only four minutes in with Heung-min Son’s opening goal. Thereafter, Spurs had to defend a lead and Dortmund were significantly more desperate to find a way into the game. In all, Tottenham only played 9 minutes on level terms with Dortmund, thanks to Harry Kane’s immense efforts after the visitors leveled in the 11th minute.

Regardless of his original intent, what we ended up seeing was from a page right out of Spurs’ playbook. They pressed only occasionally, electing instead to retain a shape that denied Dortmund space to move or pass. When possession was reclaimed, it often got sent up field as quickly as possible — particularly to Dortmund’s evidently weak right side.

Kane and Son were tasked with chasing down those launched balls and driving forward through a Dortmund backline that often looked either three steps too slow or utterly dazed.

The result was that Spurs only conceded a goal that arguably no defense in the world could stop, but created half a dozen chances on the other end — three of which became goals.

None of this, it bears noting, was new to Spurs. Keen-eyed observers will recognize the tactics from many matches over Pochettino’s years in control. Pochettino often instructs his team to sit back and absorb pressure after early goals regardless of the opposition, though usually this shift rarely comes so early in the match, and usually only after at least a two goal cushion is secured.

Next: Spurs Player Ratings: 3-1 win over Dortmund

It is a very conscious effort to both deny space and conserve energy should a push be needed later in the match. Against Dortmund, this effort was decidedly more robust — never before could Spurs be accused to fielding a five man defense — but in broad strokes this was still Pochettino ball.