Porro is always covering two players. For some reason we just leave a huge gap in front of him and have all season. The midfielder on that side then comes across to help while the winger stays high and wide. Well, I say for some reason, it is obviously a planned tactical one to win the ball back in that area and then use the winger to hit the opposition on the break. Yet we never or rarely seen to do that.
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Porro is always covering two players. For some reason we just leave a huge gap in front of him and have all season. The midfielder on that side then comes across to help while the winger stays high and wide. Well, I say for some reason, it is obviously a planned tactical one to win the ball back in that area and then use the winger to hit the opposition on the break. Yet we never or rarely seen to do that.
I actually think we do this very often, it's just our wingers are so inconsistent when in good positions. It's the thing above all else that's let us down this season. If we had two consistent wingers taking on their man and hitting the ball across goal we'd have scored so many this season, but the amount of times you've seen Johnson or Deki (both of whom I like) isolate their full back and not take them on or fail to do so is eye watering.
For me, it's a tactic that works. It's high risk, but with the right players it works. We just need another elite winger in the squad, that much is clear.
So how did it pan out?
Was Werner just a speedster without end product vs Brighton?
And did Son come on to provide this clinical touch in the end of the game?
Answers are - yes and yes.
Over and out.
Yea, there really are.
Like you. Who want to run players to ground without any regard of their well being.
Luckily, others like Ange and myself have a bit of brains to keep such things happening
.Someone to BE ABLE TO START and actually PICKED TO START. Are two different things, but some geniuses came to show they were so right before anything actually happened.
Anyway- from bottom of my heart - you can all suck a bag of dicks.
It went EXACTLY as I predicted and said it would.
Son was spared from starting, cause he had played unreasonable amount.
He came on from the bench and got us winner with his clinically accurate assist.
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Kulusevski leaves less than Johnson. I’m guessing because they want Johnson’s pace to force defenders to stay back and open space in MF
That's not inconsistent.
So was he ready to play or was he in default GLC mode for the game and his availability was imagined in one's own head?
So was he ready to play or was he in default GLC mode for the game and his availability was imagined in one's own head?
He was in full training.
Interesting stuff, I like the way they pressed us and put a player on Maddison, shows they did their homework and it allows us to come up with more solutions if another team does the same thing.
I've seen it all now, actual complaints about a Saturday 3pm.
I'm delighted we've got back-to-back Saturday 3pms, atmosphere on the South Wales Spurs bus is great for a normal timed kick off too.
Did you throw up gang signs as you typed that?Yea, there really are.
Like you. Who want to run players to ground without any regard of their well being.
Luckily, others like Ange and myself have a bit of brains to keep such things happening
Someone to BE ABLE TO START and actually PICKED TO START. Are two different things, but some geniuses came to show they were so right before anything actually happened.
Anyway- from bottom of my heart - you can all suck a bag of dicks.
It went EXACTLY as I predicted and said it would.
Son was spared from starting, cause he had played unreasonable amount.
He came on from the bench and got us winner with his clinically accurate assist.
Scenes at Johnson's goal in the stadium were among the craziest I've seen. Couldn't have a beer before as I was on strong painkillers and Diazepam for vertebrae problems.
This didn't stop my mates form leaping all over me, though. Thought fuck it, had a couple after and went home feeling no pain.
Follow me for updates on "Arthur's Back.'
I actually pulled a muscle celebrating Johnson's goal literally jumping around with some guy I'd never even seen around my row before.
Worth it.
Agreed. Much as I think he's the ugliest guy in the Prem, Gordon would be good in our team.
Bit more tactical analysis from the Athletic:
How Spurs unpicked Brighton's player-for-player press
How Spurs unpicked Brighton's player-for-player press
For once at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, Ange Postecoglou was not the head coach with the most extreme defensive approach.
Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Roberto De Zerbi missed the game after undergoing dental surgery, but Brighton’s pressing strategy had the Italian’s fingerprints all over it.
De Zerbi repeatedly speaks of Brighton’s “courage” to press player-for-player away at top Premier League sides. They did it victoriously away to Woolwich last season and this season against Manchester United, and tried to do the same against Tottenham.
It made sense: Tottenham have conceded the most high turnovers (opposition open-play sequences starting within 40m of a team’s goal) in the Premier League this season. Brighton’s aggressive 4-4-2 diamond press worked in the 4-2 win over them at the Amex in December. Still, Brighton knew Postecoglou would move his full-backs inside to try and overload the half-spaces.
To counteract Spurs’ rotation-heavy approach, and the fluid role offered to James Maddison, Brighton went aggressively player-for-player. Typically, teams that employ this approach have distance or location limits before they pass marking responsibilities over to a team-mate. Brighton did not.
The key focus was No 9 Danny Welbeck dropping onto Rodrigo Bentancur, Tottenham’s key midfielder in build-up, particularly with Yves Bissouma on the bench. Centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke was tasked with following Maddison upfield, and a lot of the time it meant the Dutchman was more advanced than Welbeck, as he would drop deeper when Bentancur pushed forward.
Here is how that looked early on. In this instance, Brighton’s two wingers — Kaoru Mitoma and Facundo Buonnanotte — are mirroring Tottenham’s centre-backs. No 10 Adam Lallana is tight to Pedro Porro, though this was generally Mitoma’s role (and Lallana pressed the centre-back). Tottenham can work the ball into Pape Matar Sarr, but he has no space to turn forward.
The upside for Tottenham was getting Maddison, their best passer on the ball more. The downside was it was too close to their goal, and they missed his between-the-lines ability further forward. Here, Van Hecke presses the midfielder into playing wide to Micky van de Ven.
The centre-back can directly access left winger Timo Werner, but when he sets it back to Destiny Udogie, Buonanotte recovers and tackles the Italy international. Tottenham do not cross the halfway line.
It was a recurring first-half theme, in which Tottenham made lots of rotations, Brighton just followed, and their usual passing combinations disappeared. Only five of Tottenham’s 18 sequences of 10+ passes (open-play) ended with a touch or shot in the opposition box.
Brighton kept pressing this way in the second half, even after both sides made substitutions. Here is Van Hecke leading the press as Maddison plays between Tottenham’s centre-backs. He ends up fouling the midfielder on the edge of the 18-yard box.
As jarring as they can be to play against, the vulnerability of player-for-player pressing schemes is that they can leave the centre of the pitch — the most important part — exposed. Brighton committing Van Hecke so high meant they left a three-v-three on halfway. While centre-back Lewis Dunk is strong aerially, and full-backs Tariq Lamptey and Pervis Estupinan have the pace to match Werner and Brennan Johnson, it demands defensive perfection.
Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has, statistically, been the best shot-stopper in the Premier League this season. Distance kicking, though, is not a strength. When Brighton pressed player-for-player at the Etihad last season, Manchester City opened the scoring by Edersonkicking in behind for Erling Haaland.
Vicario looked reluctant to do this, and when he did they lacked quality. Here, he tries to pick out Werner in behind Lamptey, but the kick is too loopy and Brighton recover the ball.
Of Premier League goalkeepers with more than 800 league minutes this season, Vicario’s 22.2 per cent launched pass completion (open-play passes kicked 40+ yards) is the second-lowest. He can play round and into feet, but Tottenham had to find a different way through.
It was the ideal game for Tottenham’s central midfielders to run beyond the ball and into the space vacated by Van Hecke. It suited Sarr’s box-crashing profile too. Here, Maddison drops in, receives from Vicario and wriggles free from Van Hecke. Sarr starts as Spurs’ deepest midfielder, with Billy Gilmourmarking Bentancur on halfway.
As Maddison plays into Richarlison, bypassing seven green and black shirts, Bentancur and Sarr switch. This causes Gilmour and Welbeck to momentarily switch off.
Richarlison lays it off to Udogie, and Sarr is making a run clear through the middle — Dunk has jumped to mark Tottenham’s Brazil forward. Udogie declines the forward pass, instead playing it wide to Werner. The winger tries to complete the one-two and find Udogie on the underlap, but Pascal Gross tracks the run and blocks his cross.
“The first half wasn’t great,” said Postecoglou. “Part of that is because Brighton are well coached and very disciplined and we weren’t. We took a few liberties with our football”.
There was a similar pattern at the start of the second half. Maddison playing deep attracts Van Hecke and Udogie’s narrowness pins Gross. Spurs can easily work it out to Werner.
This time, Bentancur comes alive and runs across Welbeck. Werner has his back to goal, and the pass comes into him bouncing, but as a right-footer he could realistically whip a first-time pass in behind — with the space available, it only needs to be into an area, not a perfect pass.
Instead, Werner controls, dribbles inside, and shoots from a low-quality position.
Tottenham’s equaliser came from efficient play down the right. Van Hecke had stepped out to make an interception, then chased the loose ball into Tottenham’s half. Bentancur gets possession, dribbling away from Van Hecke and Buonanotte.
Bentancur’s pass through midfield is blocked, but when it comes back to him he goes wide to Dejan Kulusevski. Porro has occupied Estupinan, and without Van Hecke next to him, Dunk hesitates on whether to drop or pick up a runner. Kulusevski sets Sarr through midfield with a one-touch through ball.
Sarr squares it for Richarlison, but Dunk blocks the cutback, which ricochets onto the post and back to the Senegal international. From a narrow angle, he equalises.
Ironically, Tottenham’s winning goal, undoubtedly their move of the game, was the exact attacking pattern that Brighton’s player-for-player pressing prevented them from knitting together for the first 95 minutes.
View: https://x.com/SpursOfficial/status/1756440594249871835?s=20
A fatigued Van Hecke and Dunk tried to jump but Tottenham moved the ball too quickly. Down the left, they went into Richarlison and then back to Maddison, who held the ball, Van Hecke stood still, and he split the defence to Richarlison. He knocked it onto the overlapping Son Heung-min, and he pulled it across goal for Johnson to tap in.
It had echoes of Tottenham’s late win against Liverpool in September. A 2-1 win with a second-half injury-time goal, scored at the same end of the ground, against a team who had been defensively stubborn (albeit in different ways).
The pre-match expectation was that a De Zerbi versus Postecoglou game was going to be three things: high-scoring, with late drama, and tactically interesting. Two out of three — not bad.
Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Roberto De Zerbi missed the game after undergoing dental surgery, but Brighton’s pressing strategy had the Italian’s fingerprints all over it.
De Zerbi repeatedly speaks of Brighton’s “courage” to press player-for-player away at top Premier League sides. They did it victoriously away to Woolwich last season and this season against Manchester United, and tried to do the same against Tottenham.
It made sense: Tottenham have conceded the most high turnovers (opposition open-play sequences starting within 40m of a team’s goal) in the Premier League this season. Brighton’s aggressive 4-4-2 diamond press worked in the 4-2 win over them at the Amex in December. Still, Brighton knew Postecoglou would move his full-backs inside to try and overload the half-spaces.
To counteract Spurs’ rotation-heavy approach, and the fluid role offered to James Maddison, Brighton went aggressively player-for-player. Typically, teams that employ this approach have distance or location limits before they pass marking responsibilities over to a team-mate. Brighton did not.
The key focus was No 9 Danny Welbeck dropping onto Rodrigo Bentancur, Tottenham’s key midfielder in build-up, particularly with Yves Bissouma on the bench. Centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke was tasked with following Maddison upfield, and a lot of the time it meant the Dutchman was more advanced than Welbeck, as he would drop deeper when Bentancur pushed forward.
Here is how that looked early on. In this instance, Brighton’s two wingers — Kaoru Mitoma and Facundo Buonnanotte — are mirroring Tottenham’s centre-backs. No 10 Adam Lallana is tight to Pedro Porro, though this was generally Mitoma’s role (and Lallana pressed the centre-back). Tottenham can work the ball into Pape Matar Sarr, but he has no space to turn forward.
The upside for Tottenham was getting Maddison, their best passer on the ball more. The downside was it was too close to their goal, and they missed his between-the-lines ability further forward. Here, Van Hecke presses the midfielder into playing wide to Micky van de Ven.
The centre-back can directly access left winger Timo Werner, but when he sets it back to Destiny Udogie, Buonanotte recovers and tackles the Italy international. Tottenham do not cross the halfway line.
It was a recurring first-half theme, in which Tottenham made lots of rotations, Brighton just followed, and their usual passing combinations disappeared. Only five of Tottenham’s 18 sequences of 10+ passes (open-play) ended with a touch or shot in the opposition box.
Brighton kept pressing this way in the second half, even after both sides made substitutions. Here is Van Hecke leading the press as Maddison plays between Tottenham’s centre-backs. He ends up fouling the midfielder on the edge of the 18-yard box.
As jarring as they can be to play against, the vulnerability of player-for-player pressing schemes is that they can leave the centre of the pitch — the most important part — exposed. Brighton committing Van Hecke so high meant they left a three-v-three on halfway. While centre-back Lewis Dunk is strong aerially, and full-backs Tariq Lamptey and Pervis Estupinan have the pace to match Werner and Brennan Johnson, it demands defensive perfection.
Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has, statistically, been the best shot-stopper in the Premier League this season. Distance kicking, though, is not a strength. When Brighton pressed player-for-player at the Etihad last season, Manchester City opened the scoring by Edersonkicking in behind for Erling Haaland.
Vicario looked reluctant to do this, and when he did they lacked quality. Here, he tries to pick out Werner in behind Lamptey, but the kick is too loopy and Brighton recover the ball.
Of Premier League goalkeepers with more than 800 league minutes this season, Vicario’s 22.2 per cent launched pass completion (open-play passes kicked 40+ yards) is the second-lowest. He can play round and into feet, but Tottenham had to find a different way through.
It was the ideal game for Tottenham’s central midfielders to run beyond the ball and into the space vacated by Van Hecke. It suited Sarr’s box-crashing profile too. Here, Maddison drops in, receives from Vicario and wriggles free from Van Hecke. Sarr starts as Spurs’ deepest midfielder, with Billy Gilmourmarking Bentancur on halfway.
As Maddison plays into Richarlison, bypassing seven green and black shirts, Bentancur and Sarr switch. This causes Gilmour and Welbeck to momentarily switch off.
Richarlison lays it off to Udogie, and Sarr is making a run clear through the middle — Dunk has jumped to mark Tottenham’s Brazil forward. Udogie declines the forward pass, instead playing it wide to Werner. The winger tries to complete the one-two and find Udogie on the underlap, but Pascal Gross tracks the run and blocks his cross.
“The first half wasn’t great,” said Postecoglou. “Part of that is because Brighton are well coached and very disciplined and we weren’t. We took a few liberties with our football”.
There was a similar pattern at the start of the second half. Maddison playing deep attracts Van Hecke and Udogie’s narrowness pins Gross. Spurs can easily work it out to Werner.
This time, Bentancur comes alive and runs across Welbeck. Werner has his back to goal, and the pass comes into him bouncing, but as a right-footer he could realistically whip a first-time pass in behind — with the space available, it only needs to be into an area, not a perfect pass.
Instead, Werner controls, dribbles inside, and shoots from a low-quality position.
Tottenham’s equaliser came from efficient play down the right. Van Hecke had stepped out to make an interception, then chased the loose ball into Tottenham’s half. Bentancur gets possession, dribbling away from Van Hecke and Buonanotte.
Bentancur’s pass through midfield is blocked, but when it comes back to him he goes wide to Dejan Kulusevski. Porro has occupied Estupinan, and without Van Hecke next to him, Dunk hesitates on whether to drop or pick up a runner. Kulusevski sets Sarr through midfield with a one-touch through ball.
Sarr squares it for Richarlison, but Dunk blocks the cutback, which ricochets onto the post and back to the Senegal international. From a narrow angle, he equalises.
Ironically, Tottenham’s winning goal, undoubtedly their move of the game, was the exact attacking pattern that Brighton’s player-for-player pressing prevented them from knitting together for the first 95 minutes.
View: https://x.com/SpursOfficial/status/1756440594249871835?s=20
A fatigued Van Hecke and Dunk tried to jump but Tottenham moved the ball too quickly. Down the left, they went into Richarlison and then back to Maddison, who held the ball, Van Hecke stood still, and he split the defence to Richarlison. He knocked it onto the overlapping Son Heung-min, and he pulled it across goal for Johnson to tap in.
It had echoes of Tottenham’s late win against Liverpool in September. A 2-1 win with a second-half injury-time goal, scored at the same end of the ground, against a team who had been defensively stubborn (albeit in different ways).
The pre-match expectation was that a De Zerbi versus Postecoglou game was going to be three things: high-scoring, with late drama, and tactically interesting. Two out of three — not bad.
When Kulu had his shot saved and when Madders bent his shot round the post both times Werner was waiting in acres of space for the pass that would have been a tap-in. Lets not write him off too quickly
I think that right there is the big difference between Kane and Richy, I think Kane plays that first time to Sarr.
Unless the referee is obstructing Richys view of Sarr.
Porro will be chuffed to see Sarr back.
Literally the first thing I thought when I saw that vid.
People keep talking as if we cannot upgrade on Richy and that he should be first choice, these are the kind of situations where he lacks, it's not just about goals, we already have a goalscorer in Son - we need someone who is better at linking the play and playing first time passes.