This season has been a real mixed bag for Tottenham Hotspur. The Lilywhites have had some incredibly strange results under both Mauricio Pochettino and Jose Mourinho, but the one thing they haven’t had this season is a settled system and way of playing, with tactical tweaks coming almost every week.
The longest run of games in which the Lilywhites have kept their formation the same this season is a meagre five games, where the system being used was a 4-2-3-1, in Pochettino’s final two games in charge and Mourinho’s first three (Transfermarkt).
That kind of stability just hasn’t been seen since then, though. The last three games the Lilywhites went into prior to yesterday’s trip to Chelsea saw three different system’s used, and after the fans had to suffer through a turgid 1-0 loss against RB Leipzig in midweek with a dire 4-4-2 being used, a tactical refresh is needed.
We don’t want to see Mourinho completely rip up the rulebook, but settling on a tactical outlook that can be effective despite both Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane’s absences shouldn’t be too hard a task, and it could be found by switching to a 4-3-3 for the next few months.
A standard back four with a midfield trio of Harry Winks, Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele would provide a solid base to both defend and then get forward and provide creativity, and with Steven Bergwijn, Dele Alli, Lucas Moura and Erik Lamela four options to slot into three different positions on the left, the right and in the middle.
Is Mourinho an out-dated manager?
Yes
No
That should allow Bergwijn to slot in on the left, one of Lucas or Dele to play in the middle as a false nine and then either Lamela or Lucas to slot in on the right. The width and pace that this would allow the Lilywhites to play with would surely be more effective than the flat 4-4-2 system we’ve seen, and it would certainly give the fans more of a boost when supporting the team.