Stats prove that Tottenham aren’t pressing as much as they used to

Tottenham haven’t been at their best this season and the results are proof of that. We lost to Newcastle and drew against Olympiakos, but the worst result of the season came in midweek.

Colchester United dumped us out of the Carabao Cup despite several senior Tottenham players starting.

Tottenham’s game hasn’t looked as sharp, and the Athletic claims that our intensity has been on a downward spiral. The report highlights that a senior player was certain the team isn’t doing as much pressing as they used to (Athletic):

“One senior player has privately complained that Tottenham have stopped pressing like they did a few seasons ago, as if their hard-won identity has been allowed to drift away.

“It feels like both a symptom and a cause of the broader feeling of staleness and tiredness at Tottenham right now.”

Tottenham’s pressing sequences have reduced from 15.6 per game in 2017-18 to 13.2 in the previous campaign, according to the report.

This season has been poor, with the club averaging the second-lowest in the division with 9.5 per game (h/t Athletic).

Another metric sees that our defensive actions in the opposition half have gone down from 127.6 per game in 2016-17 to 104.7 last season. Currently, we record just 80 in this field so far (h/t Athletic).

Tottenham need to get something to click

The report couldn’t pinpoint why the pressing had gone down, as several theories were floated. One was that the players were tiring at the end of the season and hence the pressing was toned down.

The other reasons were physical and mental fatigue, which have seen our decline in the pressing stats. Tottenham need to find a solution to their problems quickly as we are already 10 points behind Liverpool.

Injuries have hurt Spurs over the past year, and our summer signings are also facing the same issues.

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Ryan Sessegnon hasn’t played a single minute for us while Giovani Lo Celso is out until October.