A Spurs Analysis

Article by ginolasleftfoot

The win against Sunderland once again brought about a high shot count for Spurs, with an even split between 11 shots Inside the Penalty Area (IPA) and 11 Outside the Penalty Area (OPA). The positive outcome from the match, three points aside is the shift of where Tottenham’s shots IPA are being taken.

The difficulty in Tottenham’s attacking play this season has been in the deployment of inverted wingers occupying the wide berths. Villas Boas has gone full circle with his experimentation of his wide players, as Saturday saw Aaron Lennon and Nacer Chadli occupying their respective wings for the first time since the opening game of the season. By having two natural wingers, receiving the ball and stretching the defence, Spurs were able to create chances in behind the Sunderland back line. This resulted in the chances created within the penalty are to be of closer proximity to the goal.

With the number of players at his disposal, it was a requirement for Villas Boas to experiment with line-ups in order to best gauge his team’s overall capability.

Within the framework of a tight defence, Villas Boas shifted his personnel, bringing in Townsend on the right to replace Lennon and perhaps with Chadli struggling to adapt, brought in Sigurdsson after the defeat to Arsenal in September.

Despite the changes, Tottenham maintained a positive streak in the league, which masked their inability to provide clear goal scoring opportunities for Roberto Soldado, a player who has been stifled by Villas Boas’ tactical offensive change. The indiscipline of Townsend, with his tendency to cut inside onto his stronger foot, diminishes the assist and crossing components that are expected by a winger. On the left flank, Gylfi performed his best when coming closer to the middle of the pitch and combining with Eriksen and Soldado but caused a greater level of congestion in the midfield area. Therefore the goal scoring chances were the result of from vertical through balls resulting in chances IPA providing something of a false positive.

Against Cardiff earlier in the season, Spurs were frustrated by David Marshall in goal, who kept Spurs at bay until the 93^rd minute. Review of the chances that were created, indicate that the approach in the final third was constricted to the width of the 18 yard box. Such approach allows the opposing goalkeeper to have a long view point of the build up and manoeuvre himself into a key position to best protect his goal.

The performance against Cardiff was something of a precursor to the defeat at home to Newcastle, the difference being Newcastle have the players to punish Spurs given the chance. Remy’s counterattacking goal in the in 13^th minute, forced Spurs on the front foot and into a position in which they were forced to react. Unfortunately, as the line up was the same as against Cardiff, much of the play in the attacking 3^rd followed the same pattern. A total of 31 attempts were made on goal, with 17 OPA and 14 IPA.

Sigurdsson, Townsend and Eriksen between them made 9 attempts from OPA, these are creative players who should be linking up and looking to feed the ball into the focal point of the attack. Roberto Soldado. Instead the chances created for him were much further away from the goal than what could be considered ideal for a striker of Soldado’s type. Put simply, Spurs have failed to provide Soldado with the appropriate service. He is a striker who thrives on balls played in behind and across the face of the goalkeeper, close to the goal line. The images below show where the problem lies for Spurs as they the chances created are around the peripheral areas of the penalty area. This is turn has a knock on effect on Soldado’s chance conversion as he is forced further away from the goal with his attempts.

At his previous club, Soldado was generally provided with width-based interplay allowing the final ball to be played across the goalkeeper’s sight and much closer to the goal line.

The style of Tottenham’s play on Saturday seemed to finally be suited to getting the best results from Soldado, except he was on the bench. One hopes that with the fixtures of Liverpool and Southampton looming, Villas Boas returns him to the fray, maintaining the approach play that has looked far more threatening in the last three matches.

With the width provided by Chadli and Lennon, and Paulinho providing a driving force alongside Soldado, Villas Boas appears closer to his ideal attacking unit. The question is whether he will allow a sustained period for these players to develop further in their roles. If so, then we may start to see the real Soldado emerge.

Over and out.

@ginolasleftfoot.

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