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Monday, September 16, 2013

High full-backs stifled Norwich

Posted on 11:30 AM by Unknown
Prior to the game on Saturday Spurs season statistics, as shown in the graphic (acknowledgement and grateful thanks to whoscored.com for their production), showed us having had 53 shots, which apparently equates to us having created more chances per game than any other side! Rather goes to show that stats can't tell you everything.

Norwich as you can be see like to attack down the wings and why wouldn't they with the excellent Snodgrass playing, an underrated player who would do well at a bigger club I believe. If Norwich had a threat it was going to come from his delivery. Rose might have a tough day, at least that was the thought prior to the game.

Andre Villas-Boas's system was put into action superbly, 63% possession tells it's own story, there was only one team in it. That's not because Norwich City were bad but that we were that good, we simply had the better players, the better tactics and executed them better.

Hugo Lloris had a holiday, Norwich had one shot for him to save and that was straight forward. He must have been bored when he came out to punch a cross that was marginally outside the penalty box and got booked for his troubles. So why did we dominate so much?

Putting aside the extra quality of player we had, the answer lies in the system we play and the player movement we showed. I have been talking about our system in the tactical series and wrote ast about the role of our full-backs within it. You can catch up on it below.

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The full-back role
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There were two keys to our dominance, the first of which was our misunderstood full-backs, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose. This game demonstrated the points I have been making. In our system the full-backs both attack together, joining the others to form a seven man attacking force, a striker, an attacking midfielder, two wide men, two full backs and the link midfielder.

Now I have not been Danny Rose's biggest fan but I have acknowledged that he is learning and he is getting better. Against Norwich full praise to him. He was excellent throughout, his positional play at the back was better, his linking with the midfield inside him in defensive areas was better, this week he drifted covering the wide man instead of leaving him and he was alert to the danger when Vertonghen went down in the box to rush across and prevent a free strike at goal. In previous games he has been tracking further back and wouldn't have got there, 2 yards change of position to be with his man instead of behind him made all the difference.

But the other area, the area he is better at, going forward is also improving, his delivery into the box has over the last two games improved, his pass into Soldado which led to our first goal was an example of that. But the point I'd like to make here and the key element was that he was playing in the advanced role AVB wants from his full-backs. The Norwich wide men were hardly seen as an attacking force, they spent most of the game in defence trying to cope with Walker and Rose overlapping.

Attack is the best form of defence as the saying goes, Walker and Rose kept their wingers busy in the Norwich half, between them they put in 9 crosses (Rose 6, Walker 3). Walker currently sits third in the creativity league table for the whole of the Premier league, that's not a league table for full-backs that's for everyone. Needs to be replaced does he? Like I say some people don't know what they are watching, don't understand what our full-back roles actually are and these are usually the most vocal element of forums.

Walker consistently plays more passes for us in a game than anyone else. He created as many chances as any other player and more then the whole Norwich team put together, yet I have still read people complaining he was out of position. His defensive stats were excellent but that doesn't fit in with their blinkered view so they ignore it. His pass success rate was 84% from a whopping 98 passes, he lost the ball just once, won all his tackles and made all his clearances.

Perhaps people need reminding we have conceded 1 goal in 4 games, less than everyone else apart from Liverpool who are yet to concede in 3 games. Not bad for a defence, where if you listen to some, 75% of it needs changing!

Because we had so many players in their half we were able to press very high and win the ball back a distance from our own goal which of course minimises the threat of conceding. We hunted in packs and their players had to quickly pass the ball which meant they were passing it to whoever was available and didn't have time to pick the pass they wanted. The result is panic passing which will eventually lead to a mistake or nobody to pass the ball to and our pack pounce to win possession back. Of the 11 interceptions we made 6 were in the opposition half, 3 were on the left of midfield and just 2 central in front of our box. Those stats show we kept them away from our area for most of the game.

The other key element was the movement of our midfield. Because we had advanced full-backs and were able to press them back Paulinho and Dembele were able to alternate who went forward and who sat. Paulinho crossed the ball for Sigurdsson's second remember and that came from an Eriksen pass after Townsend had over run the ball going for another greedy shot. Dembele was the holding player on the occasion, a holding player in their half though.

If you park the bus against a 4-3-3 it can be difficult to break down but the movement of our midfield, wingers and full-backs was such that their defence got pulled all over the place creating holes that we exploited. As I have mentioned in another piece off the ball movement is key to this system working. If you have movement all over the pitch the defender has to constantly make decisions, do I go here, do I go there, do I follow a run and that is when mistakes occur.

Our off the ball movement was exceptional, Townsend was cutting in with the ball, Walker could overlap and Rose do the same on the other side where Sigurdsson didn't put in a single cross all game. The Norwich players ran themselves ragged because Dembele and Paulinho can interchange. Dembele can drag a player out of position, Paulinho step forward and a hole is created, they have swapped roles and the midfielder is marking the wrong man.

One can drop back to collect the ball off the central defender or the other one can, each time a Norwich midfielder would come with them but as they were playing 4-4-2 that left them with only three midfielders and only one in the middle, so no only did we out number them we had space to work in as well.

They always look to give the option of a pass between the opposition players, everyone is doing this, it sounds simple but England for instance weren't doing it. When the England back four had the ball there was no movement. Next game keep half an eye on the movement off the ball and see how easy that makes each pass.

Chris Houghton commented on our movement in his poat match interview. "We had no complaints today. We were beaten by a very good side and we needed periods of possession on the ball. We didn’t do that well enough. Tottenham are too good with their movement and they can hurt you. They will definitely be up their challenging come the end of the season."

AVB also commented on it saying our movement wore them out in 45 minutes.

“I’m very happy for the team, I’m even happier because of the football we played, especially after an international break, which is always difficult. We knew that Norwich would sit back and wait for the counter-attack, they do it so well and did it against Everton (first game of season) to nick a point.

“We had to be patient and move the ball well and we did it so fast, so quickly that it really made the difference. In the end, in 45 minutes, we managed to make Norwich exhausted physically and they couldn’t really cope with our quality out there.

And his view on what the key was to that type of performance was:

“First of all, the quality of the players to understand which pass is most important, they linked up very well to create so many chances. Also, our defence stood up to press really high, so we managed to recover every single ball straight away, so we never allowed them to be in a position to threaten us. We controlled the set-plays as well, so overall, it was perfect. There were many positives for us.”

As a blueprint for how we want to play the game and as an example of the tactical side we have been going through, you couldn't have asked for a better example.

Tromso can't come soon enough and nor can Cardiff City.





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Sunday, September 15, 2013

Bassong in praise of Eriksen

Posted on 11:46 PM by Unknown
Former Spurs player Sebastien Bassong was impressed after the new look Tottenham defeated his Norwich City side 2-0 with ease. He was full of praise for Christian Eriksen.

"Ozil must be one of the best number 10s in the world. He is a fantastic player, and Eriksen is not far from him.

"Ozil is more famous, he has played for Real Madrid and has loads of games under his belt.

"But I think Eriksen is a player I really like, the way he moves.

"He knows where to put himself, he was floating between the lines.

"And as soon as he gets the ball he is a threat, he is a top-quality player and it's hard to know whether to follow him as he can make the difference as soon as he gets the ball, in a split second. That is how top players are.

"Hopefully for Spurs and for him the Premier League will suit him well.

"I have seen him play before. He plays very simply with his touches, vision. He sees the right pass at the right moment and is moving well in-between, which makes him hard to pick up. For his position he has good qualities to perform.

"They brought good players in, top-quality players, and as soon as they get up to speed they will do very well.

"AVB has brought a different mind-set to the club. He brought this new mentality and a different way to play, different players, and I think it is working well.

"Lots of players went and some have come, the club is still the same but the team is much better than when I left.

"The club is getting bigger and bigger.

"I hope they will be up there challenging for the title.

"They have loads of players and if they can get them into a good team they will be very dangerous."





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Full match replay and Eriksen match highlights

Posted on 11:47 AM by Unknown
For those of you who have not seen the whole game you can watch it via this link: Spurs vs Norwich City

You can watch the 10 minute video below if you just want to catch up on the debut of our new creative central midfielder Christian Eriksen, a debt Phil Thompson was raving about, mind you he thought all the Spurs players were outstanding!

One swallow doesn't make a summer but his performance in his debut game was certainly promising. Cardiff City away and then an important game against Chelsea at home will tell us more.

Erik Lamela should have settled in a little bit by then as well. I'm looking forward to Thursday night as I'd expect him to start and get a game under his belt, along with Defoe, Kaboul, Holtby, Naughton and Chiriches if we have his work permit in time.






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Friday, September 13, 2013

AVB looking for players to step up their game

Posted on 11:29 PM by Unknown
Andre Villas-Boas is looking for a positive result against Norwich at White Hart Lane this afternoon. In three games last season Spurs were unable to secure a victory against them and with Norwich having strengthened all the Spurs new boys will have to gel quickly to not stumble again today.

He is extremely happy with the transfer window and has begun the task of finding the best version of his system to suit the unit so as to get the best out of all it's component parts.

"All of us have done good business in the transfer window, but Manchester City and us maybe a little bit more than Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. "We are happy with what we have done in the transfer window, extremely happy. Arsenal did a great least minute coup with Ozil but they will be as competitive as they were before.

"He is a wonderful, gifted footballer and in the end Arsenal paid heavily for a player of that dimension. It's a €50 million transfer for a number 10 that nobody has any doubt over his ability. They have lots of players for that position also but they have become even stronger with Ozil."

"This is a squad with great potential which has the ability to achieve our objectives that we couldn't last season. At the moment, we are trying to do that -- to put these players together and find a style in our play that brings out the best potential of each individual. That is the main objective.

"What we have improved on from last season is the individual quality we have on board and all the players are striving with big motivation to achieve it [Champions League football].

"That is the only thing we can do. The frustration was big after the Arsenal game because we had an opportunity to continue our perfect start to the season, and get a win over our rivals, but we didn't create enough clear cut chances in that game even though we had lots of possession. We wanted a result there.

"The players have come back here now looking ambitious to get the result we need and hopefully they can step up their game so the team can do exactly that."




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The FA masterminding England's decline

Posted on 12:00 PM by Unknown
With news that England are to slip to 16th in the FIFA world rankings behind Switzerland and the USA and the disjointed mess we witnessed in the Ukraine, Gerg Dyke has beaten the drum.

Newly appointed boss of English football [FA Chairman] he has to be seen to be doing something, he has to make his mark. His approach is a fact finding mission which is a sensible place to start.

He needs to welcome the likes of Gary Lineker who is willing to sit on his crisis commission into the state of English football.
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Last night's article in the tactical series:
Walker - understanding the maligned full-back role
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If you look at the stats Glenn Hoddle was doing an excellent job as England manager, he should certainly be another to sit on the commission. We don't have to many people who played abroad but their opinion would be valuable. What we don't need are the same people with the same ideas that don't and haven't taken England forwards. There will be some, and I have always had the impression Trevor Brooking was among them, who have ideas worth pursuing.

It would help if we stopped picking the wrong managers like Kevin Keegan, Steve McClaren and Roy Hodgson and stick with the right ones when you find them like Glenn Hoddle.

It should be compulsory for all players to be released for all internationals at whatever level and we should be sending the best team to international tournaments, not sending them to pointless money making matches in Brazil. Premier League managers should not be able to dictate to the England boss who can play and how long they can play, if you don't want international players playing for their country don't buy them.

The touble is there is to much money in the game, players are paid to much and they are more interested in earning money than what should be the ultimate honour, representing your country. National pride has gone missing, to many fans the Champions League has taken over and international football now gets squeezed into slots convenient to clubs. That has to stop.

International football has to be put first again and nations allowed to arrange their own fixture dates when they want to, not when the clubs want them to. If you lose a player that's tough.

There are issues with both FIFA and UEFA. It is unhealthy to have two people in the top jobs who simply stay there. Sepp Blatter will tell you he got re-elected and he did against nobody, he refused to allow anyone to stand! We pointed out bribes were being dished out that it had become a votes for cash organisation. Blatter having overseen all this corruption backed his opponent and the English were condemned for 'causing trouble', his opponent of course was guilty.

Blatter recently made comments about traditional football nations should no longer tell everyone else what to do, by that he meant England. I'd have had a private investigator looking into Blatter by now and exposing him for what he is.

Platini heads UEFA and wants tackle free football basically, an end to transfer fees and clubs 'owning' players. Both these men need to go before they do any more damage.

Quite how we are going to win back the support of the rest of the footballing world I don't know but I certainly applaud us for standing up for what is right, even if the rest are corrupt. Nobody should be allowed to serve on FIFA or UEFA for more than 4/6 years as a national delegate to help prevent corruption but who is going to vote to stop their own gravy train?

The English FA need to embark on the impossible task of bringing back tackling back into the game, refs give out yellow cards for nothing these days, when was the last player booked for simulating an injury? Isn't unprofessional conduct a bookable offence?

The rest of the world take age group football very seriously, we don't, we even appoint failed managers to manage them, where is the sense in that? What have Stuart Pearce and Gareth Southgate done as coaches/managers? They couldn't hack it, it all smacks of an old boys network.

I wonder do the FA talk to a club like Crewe Alexander who produce a conveyor belt of talent, do they take young coaches and managers like Eddie Howe and develop them?

All England age groups need to play the same system so they become totally familiar with it and players can step up a level knowing their role. They can't be an island with one coach playing the way he wants to and another another way, you are just pulling against each other.

Whilst we have a disjointed approach we'll achieve nothing. We need English players playing in the Premier League and more players playing abroad, quite frankly we need more players brought up abroad. The EU is blocking us with restraint of trade laws so although the like of Platini [UEFA] want more national playing in their own leagues there is little he or the FA can do about it.

Something needs to be done about English managers, the lack of them in the Premier League is restricting who we can appoint as a manager. More managers should be prepared to go and work abroad, I doubt many seek work beyond these shores, which it seems limits them to Championship and below.

Relationships like the one we have with Real Madrid should be encouraged and used at coaching level to exchange not only ideas but personnel. Six months coach exchange programmes to give insights and practical experience into foreign methods, foreign mentality.

How our children are taught needs to change. I wrote that article on Eric Dier and showed how he was taught to play in different positions, he had no choice, as a defender he had to learn to be an attacker and play it in competitive youth football. It is not a coincidence that foreign centre-backs are better on the floor and more composed in front of goal whereas ours basically have to rely on headed goals.

Player development was the priority for youngsters in Portugal, not winning as it appears to be over here. We stunt player development for meaningless wins. You win the battle but lose the war.

This is not a subject that can be really done justice here but the hub of the problem is the FA itself. Are the people who consistently appoint the wrong managers sacked or do they continue to be allowed to multiply their mistakes?

The FA seem to appoint faces that will fit rather than talent and that is a recipe for disaster. The organisation as a whole seems to have the wrong focus.

I have been, and stated on my Facebook page [Tottenham Memorabilia], worried about England qualifying for the World Cup in 2014 as soon as Roy Hodgson was appointed in what was simply a money saving exercise, his salary is £2m whereas he predecessor was paid £6m.

I suspect we have a load of people in the FA who are comfortable in their cushy jobs ambling through, doing what they do but not with any passion or burning desire to make a difference, to achieve anything.

The FA seem more concerned with running media campaigns, be it racism or their latest version of political correctness, an attack on Spurs fans.

Talk is cheap so unless Mr Dyke is going to refocus the whole FA approach and weed out the pen pushers not much will change, except for a bright new shiny media campaign to tell us it has.



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Thursday, September 12, 2013

Team vs Norwich

Posted on 12:37 PM by Unknown
Next up is Norwich City at White Hart Lane on Saturday at the unusual time for us of 3pm! I'm looking forward to seeing the new boys in the flesh.

With Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen not being seen yet, except for a small Lamela cameo and Vlad Chiriches new as well, what our long term first choice team will be is a little early to predict so we'll look at this weekends upcoming fixture.

The back five at the moment pick themselves, Lloris, Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen and Rose.

We have just had an international break for 2 weeks and we have a Europa Cup game coming up on Thursday verses Tromso also at White Hart Lane kicking off at 8.05pm (20.05hrs) UK time. With that in mind and Younis Kaboul working his way back to match fitness, now mat not be the time to tinker with the central defensive pairing.

Come next Thursday it will be interesting to see who AVB goes with, presumably Kaboul, but will he play Chiriches as well? Anyway as I say it doesn't seem the right time to be tampering with the centre-backs, although you could make an argument that Dawson and Kaboul will have been training together for 2 weeks so could start leaving Thursday for Chiriches to make his debut alongside the experience of Vertonghen.

Kaboul and Vertonghen haven't been training together so pairing them against Norwich would be a risk. All things considered the back five remain the same.

Midfield, where we seem to have an embarrassment of riches, hinges around one decision really. Sandro will play the holding role and presumably Eriksen will play the attacking role so it's a toss up between Paulinho and Dembele.

Paulinho offers more going forward with penetrating runs into the box so he grabs the link midfielder role, Dembele will have to make do with a slot on the bench. Holtby is returning to fitness but is more likely to figure on Thursday.

Soldado will play central with Defoe yet again sitting on the bench, he must be getting sick of it already so he'll be needing a run out on Thursday as well. The wide men may not be so cut and dried as everyone things. Adebayor, who is another behind with his fitness due to the death of his brother is in Togo and won't be returning until Monday, not that he would have figured anyway. He has been told he will be training with the youth team when he gets back until Andre Villas-Boas decides otherwise.

Lamela played in Peru for Argentina in the early house of Wednesday morning, by the time he gets back to training he'll have little chance to work with the team so he may well start on the bench again. That gives us Townsend and Chiriches, assuming Lennon is not fit, to start on the wings.

Team:
Lloris
Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Rose
Paulinho, Sandro, Eriksen
Townsend, Soldado, Chadli

Subs: Friedel, Naughton, Kaboul, Holtby, Lamela, Sigurdsson, Defoe

Now I wrote this piece on Tuesday and was waiting until Friday to see if Lennon would be fit but AVB has made some comments today which coincide with my thoughts so I've released it a day earlier than planned.

On Christian Eriksen he told them: "What we did in the transfer market is in the expectancy of these players becoming world stars. I think what happened with Christian is a bit like what happened with Van der Vaart and Sneijder when they were at Ajax.

"They reached a moment in their careers where they became extremely important for the team, and the club that goes there and gets them makes a great transfer move, and we expect great things of Christian Eriksen. We would like to develop him into becoming that type of important player for us as well.

"Will he be in the line-up this weekend? There is a big possibility but it's not a certainty yet."

On Erik Lamela he told the media: "I think the qualities that he brings to our team are his creativeness, his ability to find a pass and the last pass that leads to a goal.

"He is a natural talent. He is not a pure winger, he is creative and likes to come inside and find different spaces. He's a player with tremendous potential that we have to work on.

"He is going to suffer problems of adaptation, bearing in mind the fact that he doesn't speak a word of English. He has to adapt to a completely different culture and mentality.

"Also the Premier League is very specific in its intensity. It's nothing like the Argentinean league or Serie A, so that will require some kind of adaptation, but for somebody so gifted it shouldn't be a problem. He is a wonderful, gifted footballer.

"The fact that he's yet to train with the team puts him in a very difficult position to start the game, but it's not impossible."

On Vlad Chiriches he said: “His work permit is not finalised yet. It's a process that takes a bit more time.

“He's fit and training and was involved in both games for Romania, but there's a possibility we won't see him involved.”




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Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Walker - understanding the maligned full-back role

Posted on 1:46 PM by Unknown

Over the last few articles we have looked at a tactical analysis of our game, seen a video of the basic 4-3-3 concept, what it's trying to achieve, established player roles within the system and looked specifically at our own game and how our Head Coach (Manager) Andre Villas-Boas has us operating his version of the 4-3-3 system.

The greatest area of confusion and misunderstanding is over inverted wingers and full-backs which polarises opinion about certain players, Walker being a prime example.

Traditionally full-backs played alongside centre-backs in a flat back four but that is generally no longer the case. Now the full-back starting position is well in advance of the centre-back. Next time the ball is with Hugo Lloris look at the starting positions Rose and Walker take. During the game have a quick look where they are, you'll see them much further forward than you'd expect.

In today's game the full-back is an attacking weapon who needs sprinting speed to get back and defend. Where it is usual within the system for one to attack and one to hold back, alternating depending upon which side the ball is, under AVB's version of the system they both go forward at the same time to join the attack giving us seven attackers. If we lose the ball we can initially look to hunt the ball back in numbers.


AVB likes to play with one winger who can play as a winger or cut in inside and one more traditional winger, that's the approach he adopted with his treble winning Porto side and the approach so far adopted with us. We get into problems if both wide men want to come inside all the time as we lose the element of surprise and are asking the full-back to do an immense amount of work. Constantly overlapping and constantly having to get back is tiring, fitness is key.

Let's look at defending. The full-back tucks in when defending so as not to leave a big gap between them and the centre-half the attacking team can exploit. If the ball goes to a wide man he has to rush out to them, that is his role, Walker does it well, yet fans amazingly complain that he's doing it, thinking he is out of position and not tight on his man, man marking him as it were. What he mustn't do is get to close to his central defender so that if the ball is played to the wide man there is nothing he can do about it.

It is his role, along with the wide forward to patrol the area outside the penalty area to the sideline so when defending Chadli against Arsenal should be helping Rose out when Arsenal scored, however he and Dembele don't get back in time and Capoue has to come across. Rose shouldn't have been the one to close down the player on the ball but Arsenal had worked a two-on-one situation. Had Capoue covering taken that role on Rose could have drifted wider to cover Walcott. I highlight and show a video of this not to blame Rose (he has almost been forced into this) but to demonstrate a point how one lapse can be costly.

Play the video below and stop it after just 3 seconds.


Look at the defence, Rose goes to the ball when the player inside him, which I think is Capoue, should be the one doing that so Rose can cover the wide man. Ideally it should be Dembele or Chadi there undertaking that role but they hadn't made it back yet.

Moving back to attacking, playing with advanced full-backs we then have options. The full back can stay behind the wide winger, he can come inside ready to play the ball in behind the opponents full back (Walker looks for this pass a lot with Lennon, Townsend isn't reading this pass yet) or he can overlap the winger when they come inside. The example below against Crystal Palace shows Walker about to play the ball in behind the full-back and Lennon you will notice has already set off for the pass to beat the defender to it.


Lennon is proactive, he has read the game, knows what is going to happen, Townsend understandably is still developing that understanding with Walker and is currently more reactive, he goes when the pass has been played. Many fans when they see Walker play this ball and when nobody gets on the end of it knock him calling it a bad pass, but it's not, it's the right pass, it's a defence penetrating pass, exactly what we want, so unless he over hits it it's down to the winger if he watches and doesn't get on the end of it.

By the full-back being heavily involved with attacking play when we lose the ball again the same fans complain Walker is out of position, well quite frankly he's not because that's where AVB wants him to be. I use Walker as an example here but equally the same can be said for Rose.

The three man defence, two centre-backs and holding midfield player, are tasked with holding up play until the full-back can get back. It's disappointing when Walker has to shut his Twitter account because of abuse from fans who simply don't understand the role of the modern day full-back. Let's hope Rose doesn't have to suffer the same fate.

Now with an attacking full-back overlapping the winger has an unseen role to play here.

Think about this, if you want Walker and Rose to be putting in a lot of crosses from near the byline for you, they have a long way to keep sprinting back. Now that's OK but how many times a game do you want them to do that and how long before they get tired?

What happens when a player get tired, usually late in the game, he has lapses in concentration which lead to mistakes. As a winger you can't simply cut in all the time and expect your full-back to have super human qualities and be overlapping every time. The winger has to manage the full-back if you like. If Walker or Rose has just sprinted back from the byline they need a minute or two to recover. This may simply be a thumbs up between them or the winger appreciating that next time he gets the ball he'll attack on the outside instead of cutting in to give the full-back some recovery time.

There was a prime example of this in the England game against Moldova at Wembley. Walker was beside the opposition penalty area with an England attack, however we lost the ball. He was then in picture sprinting back the full length of the pitch and caught his man before our penalty area, we won the ball back, he played it inside and obviously he needed a little breather. The ball came back over to Theo Walcott who had tucked in a third of the way into the opposition half and he simply back flicked the ball without looking and it went out for a throw in to Moldova. Walker was standing on the half way line, not expecting the flick and quite frankly not wanting it, he wanted, needed a breather. It's something simple, a piece of game management, player management, but it immediately gave the opposition the ball.

Lennon and Walker operate very well together, they have developed an understanding, they are both very quick and can help each other out defensively. Townsend on the other hand, if playing on the right, simply wants to cut in and have an eye catching shot. Great for the cameras but it puts Walker under an enormous amount of pressure to be supporting the attack overlapping to stretch the defence all the time.

For those of you shouting Bale did it, I'll remind you once again of the stats. Bale's shooting accuracy from outside the box last season was the best in Europe, 44%, Townsend's was 18% and he created nothing for his teammates either. It has it's place but greater game awareness is needed otherwise Walker is effectively playing as a winger and a full-back and has the physical effort of being in two places a t once almost.

It's end product that counts and at the moment we are not getting an end product from our wide men. They are not feeding Soldado who scores goals from inside the box. One blocked shot from a cut back in the first 80 minutes against Arsenal should tell you all you need to know. Erik Lamela will quickly need to form an understanding with Walker and be the team player Lennon is, interlaced with moments of individuality.

For Townsend to flourish as an inverted winger he has to learn when to come inside, when to go outside and to use his right foot, which Les Ferdinand tells us he is doing. Our winger options are Lennon as a traditional winger on the right, Lamela, who can use both feet, as a traditional winger who can also play like an inverted winger, Chadli, who can also use both feet, can perform the same on the left and Townsend who can play traditional on the left or inverted on the right.

Quite a few options and Rose and Walker have to form an understanding with all of them. Tough job being a full-back. Fortunately we have a set system and players come in to fill a role within that system, in their individual way, so we don't change our basic game simply because someone is injured or suspended.

Chadli and Rose seem to have struck up a working relationship very quickly, they have started to work as an attacking unit well together with Rose looking for the flicks that sets him free. I've not looked at them as a defensive unit much yet, apart from the video example of the Arsenal goal in Monday's article, only Rose in isolation so that's one for the future.

Across on the right hand side Walker and now Lamela one expects, haven't yet played together so will have to learn each others game and develop an understanding. Townsend will continue to develop his game and that will put Lennon under pressure for probably the first time.

Previous articles:
Tottenham - A Tactical Analysis
Video - The 4-3-3 explained
Player roles within a 4-3-3
Players attacking roles within a 4-3-3 system
AVB Formula for Success

Think about the system we are playing, watch the 4-3-3 video again and you'll be watching our games in a new light.




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