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New Tottenham leadership already at work; identify problematic takeaways from Ange Postecoglou reign
New assistant manager Justin Cochrane highlighted Tottenham’s inverted full-back issues under former boss Ange Postecoglou
Thomas Frank is now set to begin work as the Tottenham Hotspur head coach in what will be a new era at White Hart Lane.
After weeks of intense speculation, Spurs confirmed on Thursday that Thomas Frank has signed a three-year contract to be Ange Postecoglou’s replacement. The Dane did a brilliant job during his seven-year stay at Brentford, but he will have his work cut out at N17 this summer as he looks to oversee a squad rebuild and get the club back up the Premier League table.
Along with Frank, Tottenham hierarchy have not wasted much time in getting his coaching team in place too. The 51-year-old has brought in a number of coaches to assist him at Spurs, including Justin Cochrane, who is a part of Thomas Tuchel’s England set-up and is expected to continue to remain so on a temporary basis.
One of the most highly-rated young coaches currently in the game, Justin Cochrane has dealt Brentford a big blow by following Frank’s footsteps across the capital. Brentford wanted to keep hold of the 43-year-old, but Frank is determined to bring him to Spurs, which was the primary reason for the hold up over the appointment of the new head coach.
Interestingly, only a few months ago, Cochrane had analysed the merits and demerits of one of the important positions in former Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou’s system. The 43-year-old, who was previously on the books of the North London club, acted as a UEFA technical observer last term and analysed Ange’s team during their Europa League run.
He was tasked with examining the role of Spurs’ full-backs Pedro Porro and Djed Spence in the Europa League round of 16 second-leg victory against AZ Alkmaar. Cochrane spoke about the use of Ange’s inverted full-backs and mentioned that while it helps Tottenham create overloads in midfield, it also makes it difficult for them to recover when there is a turnover in possession.
“The full-backs are often narrow, which creates more passing options and makes the opposition close the inside, opening up passing lanes for the wide players to go one-on-one,” Cochrane was quoted by Football London.
“The narrow full-backs also create central overloads. Once the ball goes wide, there is often a run into the half-space from an inverted full-back or the high No.8 if the full-back is lower.
“The full-back who goes inside must be technically good and able to operate in tight areas. They need to be offensive. The problem they face is the distance of their recovery if the ball has been lost. A full-back must have the ability to receive and play in tight spaces between lines – to play like a midfielder – a key attribute for playing as an inverted full-back.
“The timing of runs forward into the half-space is also important, while recovery runs are too. A player has to get back into position if the ball is turned over. We saw Spurs’ full-backs doing all three of these. When full-backs do invert, how does that affect the other players?
“The centre-backs no longer have an easy pass to a full-back and can sometimes pass straight to a winger. The other midfielders fill the spaces, but there is not a clear pattern. In the Spurs vs AZ game, James Maddison and Lucas Bergvall often dropped into the spaces and looked for a forward pass.”
Using a system with inverted full-backs has both advantages and disadvantages, of course. It is upon the coach how to use them to their strengths and minimise the shortcomings, something Ange failed in doing so. It was pretty easy for the opponents to play through the Australian’s side, exploit the spaces vacated by the attacking, inverted full-backs and cause problems to their defence. It was one of the primary reasons why the Lilywhites suffered almost with every turnover in possession.
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Unlike Ange, Frank is a tactically flexible manager and will not be afraid to change things if it is not working. The tactical rigidity often seen under Ange is set to become a thing of the past, and with Cochrane identifying the flaw with the use of full-backs in the Australian’s system, this area is certain to get addressed during the pre season.
