Tottenham Hotspur need more defensively from front three

If Daniel Levy was thinking that sacking Jose Mourinho was going to lead to a more offensive team he was wrong. Tottenham Hotspur parked the bus deeper than they have all season against Manchester City and paid for it with as resounding of a 1-0 loss as you will find. Ultimately, the defense was as strong as could be expected given Tottenham got almost nothing defensively from the front three.

Tottenham Did Not Press City

If you watch the game back it is no wonder that Manchester City dominated, as the game was only played on half the pitch. The number of times Harry Kane actually applied pressure in the attacking half can be counted on one hand. Heung-Min Son did very little on either side of the ball and certainly did not play any defense either.

Of the starting front three against Manchester City, only Lucas Moura really applied any defensive pressure. His reward for the effort was being yanked with 1/2 an hour to play and he got fouled a handful of times by the City defense. Other than 1 time that Kane stepped on Gundogan’s foot once trying to apply pressure the Tottenham front line did not start picking up defensively until after City got past midfield.

No pressure means easy entry passes

Tottenham has struggled most of the season getting out of their own end as they are pressured and can’t move the ball up the pitch. Alternatively, like a practice session, City essentially started every possession at midfield.

With both Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte under no pressure at midfield City is able to start the offense with ease. Further at the first sign of trouble, there is always an easy back pass available for Tottenham’s opponents because no one is closing down. Juxtapose that to Tottenham where almost every back pass leads to another back pass as the lack of movement and pressure defensively takes the Spurs’ offense completely out of rhythm.

Essentially, possession is just easier for the opposition because they are under less pressure and always have a free release of that pressure. With an easier start to each possession, Tottenham is constantly under more pressure defensively in the back as they scramble to close all the gaps at the top of the defense.

Tottenham too deep to make turnovers count

If you look at the game yesterday there were three big plays defensively from the Tottenham strikers one by Harry Kane and two from Lucas Moura. In all three instances, they were able to recover the ball, turn, and attack the City defense. In each of the three instances, they were brought down and the play was ended with one of the three resulting in a card for Laporte.

In each instance, it was near the Tottenham defensive third where the turnover occurred and then the foul happened right near midfield. If Tottenham were pressuring higher up the pitch and those turnovers occurred at midfield instead of the defensive third, then the fouls would be in an attacking position instead of at midfield.

Basically, the deeper the team plays the more it hurts everything the team does. Tottenham lacks the pace to counter quickly from deeper but has the talent to counter effectively from midfield. All of the turnovers players like Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli used to create in the middle of the park are gone and the team is left hanging on for dear life against the weakest of opponents.

Until Tottenham starts pressuring higher up the pitch the defense is going to stay pinned back and on their heels giving even poor teams will have a chance.