How Tottenham Hotspur will get back on track before Chelsea
By Aaron Coe
On Saturday Tottenham Hotspur lost by 3 goals to a team that lost by 3 goals to Chelsea to start the season, how do Spurs get right before they play the Blues?
Head Coach Nuno Espirito Santo was facing his first real test as Tottenham coach. After a miserable performance lacking confidence and character on Saturday in the humiliating defeat to Palace, Tottenham Hotspur need to get right fast. If the Spurs cannot perform better than they did at Selhurst Park, things are going to get ugly fast at N17.
Thankfully it is not time to hit the panic button yet, and these steps can help get Tottenham right before Tuchel and the Blues come to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Step 1: Tottenham need to fix their formation
Over the international break, we played around with the idea of Tottenham using a three-man defense, something Santo did often at Wolves. However, instead of going with a three-man backline or sticking with the normal 4-3-3, we had seen through three games, Santo went in a completely different direction.
It was always going to be tough with both Steven Bergwijn and Heung-Min Son unavailable, however by playing three defensive midfielders along with Dele Alli in the middle of the park, Tottenham never had a chance and not one midfielder performed up to their capabilities.
People can talk about a lack of creativity but the lack of creativity is about the players on the pitch not the team as a whole. Both Brayn Gil and Tanguy Ndombele were on the bench and available and both have creativity dripping off of them.
To add an extra central midfielder playing against a team that loves to attack the wings was just not smart football and the Spurs paid the price.
Rather than playing in a style and formation that had been working, Santo opted for Mourinho ball, asking the midfielders to cover for the fullbacks and we learned the hard way last season that is a recipe for disaster.
We have not turned on Nuno here at HotspurHQ yet but the lack of any kind of plan or scouting report for Palace was obvious and is very concerning. So step 1 is simple, go with what you know works and stick to the compact 4-3-3.