What to be excited about from Tottenham training under Nuno Santo

Tottenham has released some videos of their first training sessions under Nuno Espirito Santo and you can see from the session how Spurs will be different.

Tottenham training for football

Last season we got lots of videos of Tottenham Hotspur players at practice and they often were playing games. Those games included basketball, cricket, and football table tennis among other things. We rarely saw what we have already started to see from the team under new Head Coach Santo, the team playing football. Even more importantly, it is physical football.

Tottenham getting physical

In the video on Twitter (above), we see a lot of the use of exercise balls and pads by the coaching staff to body up to the players and create a more physical environment. Seeing players compete for headers and then blast a shoulder into the pad like an NFL linebacker is like music for the eyes.

Spurs have lost the physical edge over the last couple of seasons that reigned supreme during the early part of the Mauricio Pochettino era. If Tottenham can get back to being a hard-working physical team, it will certainly help when holding onto leads at a minimum.

There is some additional video from Tottenham’s YouTube page that has even more physical play. In that video, the players are fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with one another and then working to quickly change direction and attack the ball. Seeing more practices getting physical is something this team needs.

Spurs playing with the ball

There were many weaknesses to last season’s team, and some are already being addressed in these early training sessions. Spurs players often struggled with touches in tight spaces and there was a complete lack of service most of the season.

During these training sessions, Santo has the players controlling the ball and making passes in tight spaces. Whether it is keep away from the monkey-in-the-middle, or playing quick passes between dummies, this is a team that needs to improve in tight spaces with the ball at their feet.

As players hold the ball with pressure on them and then work to pass under tight conditions, the muscle memory to perform under the lights will again become natural for the squad.

Tottenham looking to create service

As the team moved from individual drills to team-oriented training, there was a clear emphasis on getting the ball wide and then creating service. Whether it was Erik Lamela, Dane Scarlett, or Harvey White, the name of the game was getting the ball wide and then back into the box. Equally encouraging was seeing those young players like Scarlett and White mixing it up with Lamela and Lucas Moura.

Using the width of the field and getting service was something often seen in Santo’s Wolves and the foundation for that with Tottenham is clearly underway. Likewise, we can see the beginnings of what will hopefully become a physical, hard-working team that we all want to watch. Now that is Tottenham’s DNA and should give fans a little reason for some optimism.