Analysis of the goals conceded against Southampton (22/12) and some thoughts

Lallana’s goal – Danny Fox charges forward, and finds Lallana, who outwits Chiriches and finds the bottom corner.

1

Danny Fox has the ball on Southampton’s left, as Spurs regroup.

2

Spurs have plenty of bodies back to deal with this situation so, for me, the criticism about the lack of defensive midfielder causing this goal is not relevant. Chiriches – towards the bottom left of this shot – takes a huge gamble as the ball is slipped to Lallana. He tries to be clever, read the pass, and nip in to get to the ball first.

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Instead, he is caught out by Lallana letting the ball run across his body.

4

Lallana finds the bottom corner with his shot. Lloris has little chance.

Lambert’s goal – Lallana runs behind Dawson to get onto Cork’s pass, before squaring to Lambert to tap in.

1

Southampton have possession, and Spurs are in a relatively good defensive shape. Sigurdsson is tucked in to make up the numbers. Notice Lambert, who has pulled into the space between Rose and Chiriches.

2

Chiriches tries to make up the ground to get close to Lambert, but doesn’t stop him laying off to Cork.

3

As Lambert drops off, Lallana is on the move – he runs into the space that Chiriches has vacated, leaving Dawson in his wake.

4

Lloris is caught out and is unsure what to do. He starts to come, but doesn’t really achieve anything. Lallana’s vision to pick out Lambert is really quite special.

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Lambert is left with the simple task of slotting home – untracked by either Eriksen or Bentaleb.

 

I was very impressed with Spurs’ attacking intent today. Much has been made – and certainly was made on the various social networking sites – about Spurs 4-4-2 formation and lack of a defensive midfielder.

When you have a team full of confidence and playing at full tilt, you can afford to have one fewer player in attack because the other forward-thinking players will compensate and take players out of the game with movement, trickery and ability. When you’re struggling for confidence and goals, though, you either have to take a few more risks, or go ultra-pragmatic and try to grind out results. AVB was attempting the latter, Sherwood has so far attempted the former.

It’s a calculated risk, but today it worked well. We are still a million miles off our best and some players are still clearly desperately short of confidence. We also have a lot of injuries. But that is why, in a nutshell, Sherwood made the call he did to go with two up front, and to get players into the box.

Join the conversation

  1. Yes Ade is back in the team at last! Now just need BAE back. I thought he might bring Capoue on at the end the shore things up but he brought on Defoe to try and finish them off. I like it.
  2. With Adebayor playing as he can up front, it doesn't feel like a 4-4-2 at all. Biggest mystery to me is what happened between him and AVB. Even if he only performs for 2-3 games, it was surely worth giving him a start.
  3. Both Rose and Chiriches are to deep for the second goal, they should be up in line with the rest of the defence instead of playing people onside and giving them more space to play in.
  4. 1st goal can be directly attributed to Sigurdsson. We were attacking and instead of playing a simple first time ball to the player running to his left he dallies and loses it. Instead of us running in at goal they go straight down the other end and score. Don't get me started on how shit Chiriches is. Second goal although our defensive shape was bad, what the hell was Lloris doing out where he was other than presenting the Saints with an open goal. He has not been the same since he was introduced to Lukaku's knee. Liverpools 4th goal last week he came way off his line when he didn't need to. Bentalab looked impressive. Happy to get a win under our belts. COYS
  5. Gung Ho, Gung Ho As up the league we go. Andres out,It's Sherwood's shout. Gung Ho Gung Ho. The past is history:fact
  6. First one was a systematic error. When you play with a flat four across midfield the 10, be he midfielder or striker plays a part in non possession play that sets up the shape of the team as a whole, when he wanders off the tactic is fundamentally flawed and the game plan scrapped. If a player is in a fed position (ie one who lives off passes from others) and he doesn't get any action he will try and go make some. Inter won the CL not because of better players but players that rigidly stuck to their roles regardless for instance. For five minutes before the goal Ade was chasing the ball and when he does he falls into left wing, VdV would do it, but he would go hunting just in front of the back four, that just meant we were toothless upfront but ade wandering to the left meant there was no pressure in the centre, it in turn pulled Lamela into the middle which left the whole of the left exposed. Once Ade had got into the game it was less of a problem. While not an individual error we do need to watch that. The second one was just a case of wtf, it was actually on the back of some very good attacking possession. Lamela took just a second too long each time he got the ball, chalk that one down to nothing that wont come inside a month of playing. Bentaleb looked confident as well, I was surprised Capoue didn't come on at that time, a positive move that paid off. And now Sherwood is manager for the rest of the season. Good.
  7. Although you get jokingly mocked for doing these, they are very informative and interesting. Thanks Windy

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