The international break could not have arrived at a worse time for Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou.
The North London outfit are left mulling over their recent comeback defeat at the hands of Brighton, having to wait two weeks before they get a chance to get back onto the pitch and prove themselves again.
In the meantime, they have received some insight from a club legend that could help them—should they choose to acknowledge it.
Glenn Hoddle points out Tottenham’s defensive flaw
In a recent Premier League Productions appearance, football pundit and Spurs legend Glenn Hoddle pointed out the issues at the back that are derailing Tottenham’s progress.
“The full-back is advanced of [Timo Werner]. If you lose that ball now, then you are in trouble. [Destiny] Udogie is trying to get back. He gets back, fortunately, and they win the ball again. But that happened quite a lot in the second half.
“Then they have handed the ball over again and your full-backs are all out of position – for me, the two full-backs going in works when the ball is further up the pitch, in the middle third and the attacking third. I can understand how that catches people out.”
Hoddle talking about the Spurs defence, as quoted by Spurs Web.
The Brighton defeat leaves Spurs with eight goals conceded in the league after seven games with 10 points amassed, which leaves them four points off Chelsea in fourth and eight points off the top.
The Lilywhites will welcome West Ham at home in the next game as club football returns next weekend.
This is not the only problem
Tottenham are not the only team that play high-line attacking football. They are, however, the only team who choose to continue playing that way regardless of what happens in a game. If it becomes apparent that the opposition are able to play through them, or if they have a player or two sent off, they do not adapt.
Is that brave? Sure. It’s also needlessly naive, and that simply does not cut at this level of the game, when analyses of your game are available to other side in almost real time. We saw exactly this happening against Brighton last week.
The defenders could certainly use more instructions for attack-to-defence transitions. The question is: are those instructions ever going to arrive?
