Tottenham earned an impressive draw against Man City.
Tottenham had an inspiring 2-2 draw at N17 against Man City. Thomas Frank & Co. came back from a two-goal trail in the second half as Dominic Solanke’s brace inspired Spurs to earn a point in a game where the Lilywhites showed mettle against Pep Guardiola’s mighty Blues.
And we take a look at a few things from the game that we spotted along the ninety.
Three things that we spotted in Tottenham vs Manchester City
Shuffling attacking structure exposed the Lilywhites’ build-up vs Man City
Tottenham had two different shapes in pressing and in possession based on who had the ball.
So when the Lilywhites were out of possession, the North Londoners pressed with a front two of Dominic Solanke and Xavi Simons, where they were aiming to screen passes into Rodri and force City wide. But as soon as Guglielmo Vicario had the ball, the first instinct was to go long, and this is where the front-line structure changed. Solanke was suddenly pairing up with Randal Kolo Muani instead of Simons, and either one of them (based on who the ball was taken up by) or Simons dropped off to hunt second balls.
And this disconnect mattered. City were happy to let Tottenham go long because Tottenham did not have that compactness to take up the second balls. This is where City consistently won the loose balls and immediately attacked what was already a stretched midfield.
And this problem was not just personnel but also spacing.
The former Atletico Madrid midfielder was continually taking up the same vertical zones as the forwards when Tottenham had the ball. A few times he even drifted too close to Cristian Romero during build-up. This ends up taking away a crucial passing angle and also ending up exposing Bissouma whenever possession is turned over. A good example is that second goal from Tottenham; it came when Gallagher was driving from the midfield (much like how Brentford’s midfielders used to do under Frank) before launching a cross. Spurs had to do more of that.
Haaland’s problem ended up exposing Dragusin
Erling Haaland didn’t really dominate the game when you think about it, but his presence did dictate how the defenders behaved, and that is exactly where we exposed a key contrast between both the centre-backs.
Radu Dragușin was consistently allowing Haaland space to receive, and he was stepping out aggressively after the Norwegian got the ball (or first touch). And this ended up giving away space behind, forcing Cristian Romero to shuffle across and cover. And it has a domino effect from there, given that there is already a destabilised back line, and this creates chaos in defensive transitions.
But when Romero directly marked Haaland (in that first half before he was subbed), this dynamic suddenly flipped (in turn showing Romero’s quality as well). The Argentine stepped in front of him quite early, and he was looking to deny him clean touches, which forced Haaland to play backwards or make a sudden decision. City looked less comfortable in those moments.
The difference between the two was quite big. When you also look at Dragușin’s decision-making (when to engage and when to hold the line), it most of the time ended up hurting Tottenham. And this was highlighted in City’s second goal, when his long clearance fell straight to Rodri, allowing City to recycle possession and punish Tottenham seconds later.
This quite shows that he is nowhere near Premier League quality just about now, and if Tottenham end up selling him this winter, it could widely be because of his performance today.
Compact without the ball (but careless with it?)
There were positive things from the defensive shape that Tottenham maintained. Without the ball, Tottenham were really compact (a very familiar Thomas Frank structure from when he was at Brentford), often switching between a back three, four, and five depending on City’s movement. Having that compact structure forced City to try their luck from a bit of distance more often than they would have liked.
The problem, though, was that the Lilywhites’ midfield did not show the same level of intensity that Frank’s side once did when he was in charge at Gtech Community Stadium.
At Brentford, wide midfielders and eights constantly moved to close passing lanes. But tonight we saw that City consistently had free players in wide areas (which makes sense), but they had a lot of time on the ball, and that was because the North Londoners’ midfield did not move quickly or aggressively enough to cover on the pass.
When the hosts had the ball, the problems were even more apparent. Tottenham consistently began their attacks in a back three with Romero leading the way for the majority of the first half, but the decision-making in the final third was always delayed. The Lilywhites took too many touches in the final third, which allowed City to press and win the ball back before anything could materialise.
And Bissouma was the epitome of this. There were a few times when he got the ball between the lines (exactly where Frank would want him to have that ball before the game), but then he took too long to distribute the ball. So City pressed, turnovers were forced, and suddenly Tottenham were punished (that first goal).
If we are speaking about it purely from an on-the-ball perspective, Xavi Simons was the only one who looked quite hungry to do something every time he got it. He was the only player who was trying to take risks and force City to react rather than dictate. Wilson Odobert did the same after coming on, but he was also nowhere near what Simons was doing.