Tottenham: What to expect from Rennes in the Conference League

The Reindeer want to out possess Tottenham

We thought Tottenham should have tried to out-possess Crystal Palace on the road last weekend. Despite Palace being more of a counter-attacking team, they did manage to control the lion’s share of the possession even before Tanganga got his walking papers. Rennes is, even more, intent on controlling the ball.

Much like Tottenham during the Mauricio Pochettino era, Rennes like to control possession as much as possible, particularly from the back. It is not uncommon for Aguerd and Bade – the two center-halves – to dominate more than 15% of possession themselves. Both backs are good passers as is most of the team.

Rennes has won the battle of possession in all but one match this season -the 2-0 loss at Angers – and has held approximately 60% or more in three of their four Ligue 1 matches, with Angers the exception.

If Tottenham is slow out of the blocks they could be looking at a long day pinned in against a team that is used to having the ball and averages more than 9 shots per match. While the Spurs do not need to hold the most possession on the road, they do need to fight for it and work to keep the percentages closer to 50/50 than 60/40.

Rennes is going to try to dribble and pass through the Spurs

Tottenham needs to be prepared to defend on the ball on Thursday because Rennes likes to dribble. In their opening day draw with Brest, the team completed an incredible 12 dribbles. In the 1-0 win over Nantes, the team completed 10. While the Reindeer have come back down to Earth in their last two matches a big part of that is Jeremy Doku has not played in either match.

The 19-year old attacking midfielder averages 3 dribbles per match in Ligue 1 and fellow midfielder Kamaldeen Sulemana averages 2.6 dribbles per match.

Besides attacking the dribble, the Spurs need to be ready for a shot passing game. Rennes likes to play a lot of passes and they are mostly short. If they can get the defense chasing the ball, they can find room and attack.

Essentially, the short passes create opportunities to dribble and the dribbling leads into more short passing.  If Rennes can establish their passing game and find opportunities to isolate Tottenham defenders and attack on the dribble it could be a long, long day for the Lilywhites, no matter who is playing for the Spurs.