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Tottenham Flex Muscles with Power-Packed Display That Offers Fresh Dimension
- Updated: September 19, 2016
WHITE HART LANE, London — In the aftermath of Tottenham Hotspur’s UEFA Champions League loss to Monaco, manager Mauricio Pochettino found a theme and stuck to it.
“We need to play with more hunger and passion,” he said immediately after, per the club’s official Twitter account. Ahead of their Premier League return, he reiterated that “we need to show more aggression with and without the ball, more desire, more passion,” elsewhere again questioning the lack of those qualities at Wembley.
The changes Pochettino made for Sunday’s 1-0 win over Sunderland were partly in line with expected squad rotation as Tottenham enter a busier period of their schedule (an EFL Cup game against Gillingham is next up on Wednesday).
The more power-based approach he engineered making those alterations was also, however, a manifestation of that need to get back to a simplicity in which his players could find that missing aggression and passion.
“We all agreed after the Monaco game—especially the first half—that we need to bring more energy and maybe more passion,” goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris said after the much-improved performance was sealed by Harry Kane’s 59th-minute goal. “The most important thing is how you react and we showed a good reaction,” he said.
Having beaten Stoke City 4-0 last week, the meeting with Monaco felt like it might have confused things again for Tottenham from a selection perspective.
What should be read into more: the focus and creativity that had ripped apart the admittedly struggling Potters or the meandering, lacklustre overall effort seen in Europe?
Pochettino’s choices against Sunderland have certainly complicated the task of managing his resources, but the quality of the subsequent display at least means it is in the more pleasing variety of selection headaches.
At White Hart Lane for Tottenham Hotspur vs Sunderland. Today’s teamsheet. @br_uk #THFC #TOTSUN #PremierLeague pic.twitter.com/XDG0eRkXUl
— Thomas Cooper (@Thomas__Cooper) September 18, 2016
At first glance of the teamsheet (see above), the inclusion of Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama and, his six-game suspension complete, Mousa Dembele suggested a no-nonsense, powerhouse midfield was the post-Monaco response.
Indeed, it is the kind that—had it been deployed against the Ligue 1 outfit—might have meant Spurs were more suitably shored up than has been the case.
A more thorough scan, and the players’ eventual lining up for kick-off revealed a rather different setup.
Instead of one of the attackers making way to form something closer to a 4-3-3 formation, the usual 4-2-3-1 was kept with Dier actually playing centre-back for the first time since January’s FA Cup win over Leicester City. Ben Davies missed out at left-back (Danny Rose, the usual starter there, was still injured). In his place, Jan Vertonghen was switched out wide.
That in itself brought a bit more of a centre-back’s robustness to the flank. The Belgian plays there at the international level, but it has been a while since he was deployed by Spurs out wide.
Though less overtly attacking than Rose, he provided solid support for Heung-Min Son ahead of him. Defensively, he mostly shut the flank down as a potential route for the Black Cats, winning 100 per cent of his aerial duels and tackles while effectively clearing his lines when required.
There was one exception which led to Sunderland’s most significant chance of the first half.
That …
