How Do You Beat This Team?
Following our draw, see Juve 2-2 Spurs
I’m getting sick of all these one-sided games against top class domestic and European teams. Let’s be generous and level the playing field up a bit for Juve. How does an opposing manager set up to try and beat Spurs? I’ve got a couple of ideas.
They could sit back and try to hit us on the break. The trouble with that is that if they surrender the midfield to Dembele and Eriksen …. they’ll never get it back! Packing the defence in an attempt to restrict Spurs to wide areas, and hopeful crosses into the middle, probably won’t work either. It’s been noticeable in recent games that we are becoming far more talented in finding through balls for forwards to run on to. A good example was Kane’s goal against Juve. And there were three or four other great attempts to thread the ball through to a runner that were so close to reaching their destination. So that makes parking-the-bus a bit risky for the opposition.
Sitting back and hoping for a break might be a tactic that rebounds in any case. If opposition teams break at pace and then lose the ball, we are more than likely to break right back with better success. When the moment is right we’re not exactly slow at moving the ball in the right direction. It’s kind of handy if you’re able to attack down the wings AND through the centre.
The other strategy opposing teams could try against Spurs is man-for-man marking. Good luck with that! The continual inter-movement of our forwards as they weave their merry way backwards and forwards across the front line can be very confusing to defenders who would have no idea what to do about it or where they should go.
Apparently, some people think that Spurs are a one-man-team; the man in question being ‘our Harry’. If Spurs were truly a one-man-team what do they seriously think would happen if the other ten players stayed in the changing room during the game? Opposition managers could employ the tactic of double man-marking Kane. That might restrict Kane to two goals a game instead of three, but it would also act to free up Dele, Son, Eriksen, and a few others to run riot and increase their own personal goal tally. Wouldn’t they love that?
Anyway, that’s the only advice I can come up with. I realise this might not be too helpful to Juve, or anyone else for that matter, but it’s the best I can do. The bitter reality is that no matter what strategy teams implement to try and win against Tottenham, this spurs team appears to have the capacity to counter it. The trouble is that Spurs keep trying out new ideas in training. It can be frustrating when trying to identify flaws in their game. Sadly, this probably means having to sit through a few more one-sided games …. boring, boring, boring!
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