When Tottenham Hotspur faces the Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday if the Spurs can implement their game plan they can take all three points.
The return of Spurs Head Coach Nuno Espirito Santo to the Molineux – who spent four seasons at Wolves – may get the headlines coming into the match but the game will be decided if Tottenham can implement their game plan. While we saw midweek the depth at Tottenham may be questionable, the starting XI -12 if you include Harry Kane – are strong enough to beat the Wanderers if they play their game. Here are the keys to Tottenham Hotspur playing their game and beating the Wolves on Sunday.
Dealing with the trap
Wolverhampton is going to pressure the ball yet, stay compaction defense – just as Tottenham wants to do. However, under Bruno Lage, we can expect the Wolves to play with a slightly higher backline and try to pull the offside trap. This will be something we see more of from Wolves, particularly with new keeper Jose Sa from Olympiacos.
Sa was very aggressive last week against Leicester City coming off of his line and attacking the ball as a sweeper keeper. Jamie Vardy did get behind the defense and then rounded Sa in the box for a goal but was caught just offside as the defense stepped up.
The offside trap applied correctly can lead to a frustrating day or it can lead to a lot of chances. Tottenham has the opportunity to take advantage of both a depleted backline for Wolves – who are missing Willy Boly and Jonny among others – and an ultra-aggressive keeper. If Tottenham can just beat the trap once or twice or beat Sa to a 50/50 ball when he comes off his line, the Spurs could put a real hurting on the Wolves’ defense.
Besides beating the trap and sweeper keeper combination, here are two offensive and two defensive keys to success for Tottenham on Sunday.
Offensive keys for Tottenham v Wolves
Trying to take advantage of the vertical space between the defense and the goalkeeper is one of the two main areas to try and attack the Wolves likely 3-4-3 formation. The other place to look to find some space is in the corners.
Can Tottenham stretch the Wolves’ defense?
One of the advantages of three center halves in the back is the ability to prevent a lot of balls from getting clean looks in the box. A compact group of defenders can make finding a clear target extremely difficult. However, the way to beat this is to get the defenders to move off their spot and get out of their cover positions in front of the goal.
Outside of getting behind the defenders over the top the best way to move them off their spot is attacking the corners of the pitch where the backs have to defend in space. If Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn can get the ball wide in the attacking third they should be favored when running at the Wolves defense.
Even better, Tottenham can get multiple players on the wings in the attack, forcing those backs to not only defend the ball but extra space well outside the mouth of the goal. If the Lilywhites can stretch the Wolves’ defense both vertically with the long ball and horizontally by attacking the corners they can create space in the box.
Can the Spurs get some service, please?
One of the better sights during the preseason for Tottenham offensively was the return of the cross. Under Jose Mourinho, Tottenham has reduced their volume of crossing leaving Kane hungry for more service, despite his goal-scoring tally.
During the preseason this had seemingly changed as Tottenham was getting the ball wide and more importantly getting the ball served into the box with a number of crosses. However, last week against Manchester City the crosses were few and far between as Tottenham managed just a dozen crosses and three of those were corner kicks according to whoscored.com.
Whether Kane plays or not, Tottenham needs to put the ball into the box more often to create more opportunities for good things to happen offensively. Even better, they get some attempts on target off the crosses because there is more space from the defense responding to the ball out on the wings.
Some of the best Tottenham teams under Mauricio Pochettino, like the recent Liverpool Premier League Championship team, were crossing machines. If you get the ball in the box, good things can happen.
Tottenham Defensive Keys v Wolves
We know Tottenham needs to move the ball back to front and side-to-side to try and move the Wolves defense. As it were, we should expect a very similar approach from the Wolves themselves. With Adama Traore and Trincão as the two outside forwards, we can expect Wolverhampton to try a lot of through balls and speculative balls for the two attackers to chase.
Spurs need to keep Traore in front of them
With Traore and Trincão likely to be making diagonal runs almost every time the Wanderers manage to grab possession, the Tottenham defense has to be ready. Traore is going to run hard all day and the Spurs cannot let him get behind them.
Traore may have missed on his one-on-one opportunity with Kasper Schmeichel last weekend but Spurs should not count on him missing in a similar situation again. Rather they need to prevent those situations from occurring.
If Tottenham can work to deny Traore and Trincão the ball and keep them from getting behind the defense, they will grow frustrated. If the Spurs cannot limit their chances and give the two attackers clean opportunities on goal, it could be trouble for the Lilywhites.
Tottenham needs to compete like it is Manchester City
It is far too early to know if last Sunday against Manchester City was an aberration or something more. There were and still are a lot of reasons for Tottenham players to want to give it all and leave it all on the pitch against City on opening day as they did last week. However, over the last couple of seasons, we have seen the consistency of effort has just not been there.
Last week, Tottenham defended and tackled like old-school footballers. The Spurs ran and competed like schoolboys trying to make the varsity team. In short, the team competed as their lives depended on it, and in the end, it won the day. Heck one commenter on our site said it was the best performance since 1962.
While I do not know if was the best performance since 1962, it was certainly the best effort since maybe Amsterdam, Ajax, and the Moura miracle. What we saw was if this team competed with everything they have, they can play with one of the best teams in the world or even beat them.
Now, can that same intensity, desire, and competitive spirit be carried on to face Wolves and start to be an expectation once again? Well, that remains to be seen but what we do know is that if the Spurs compete as they did against Manchester City, they are likely to get a good result.