Tottenham's Premier League started reasonable despite losing Harry Kane to Bayern Munich.
The reason? A talented manager in Ange Postecoglou, who has gotten a team of talented players to quickly get to grips with an exciting new style of play.
The reason? A talented manager in Ange Postecoglou, who has gotten a team of talented players to quickly get to grips with an exciting new style of play.
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00:00 Good I might, my name's Adam Cleary from 442 and I promise that's the only Australian
00:09 accent I'm doing in this video.
00:11 Now at the risk of embarrassing him ever so slightly, I just want to quickly show you
00:14 what my colleague Ryan Dabbs said about Tottenham in our craziest predictions video.
00:26 And while he no doubt feels very silly now, that's not there to shame him because I think
00:30 a lot of people were of the opinion that having just lost Harry Kane, Spurs were in for a
00:35 really really difficult season.
00:37 But I mean, certainly doesn't look like it does that they go into the international break
00:41 on 10 points just behind Man City, unbeaten in the league, they've scored 11 times, they've
00:47 barely conceded from open play, just easy innit.
00:50 And you can sum up precisely how this has happened in one word, Anjbal.
00:55 Oh and just really quick before we start, we've got a sponsor today, look 442 going
01:02 up in the world, yay, go us, NordVPN, there'll be more about them in a little bit.
01:06 Right yes so Tottenham appointed Anj Pasterkoglu, you know that bit already and he arrived from
01:10 Celtic with a really clearly defined footballing ideology and the question was, can he make
01:15 that work in the Premier League?
01:17 Because and Tottenham fans should not forget this, there was quite a lot of sniffiness
01:22 about him getting this job.
01:24 Yeah well playing this sort of attacking football might get you results against St Mirren my
01:29 friend but you're not going to get away with that in his majesty's Barclays Premier League.
01:33 At the risk of making this video too self-referential, you may remember we did a video here on the
01:37 channel about why we thought Pasterkoglu's appointment at Spurs could actually be perfect
01:43 for them.
01:44 And in it we said that Tottenham fans should expect to see a really aggressive, really
01:47 attacking style of football, a central striker who pushes defenders back, wide players who
01:52 maintain the width, then these two eights who sort of double up as creative tens but
01:56 also go and join in with the centre forward when there's an opportunity.
01:59 The midfield gets all the way up, the two full backs invert either into sort of the
02:03 half space or just behind the midfield and the defenders just sit on the halfway line.
02:07 And lo and behold if you look at Tottenham in any single game this season, whether they're
02:11 in their own build-up phase or whether they're trying to create stuff in the attacking third,
02:15 you can see this shape, you can see these hallmarks of Anj ball.
02:20 The wide players you can see here, they hold their width which stretches out the defence
02:24 and creates the space for the midfield as you can see here, either they join in or they
02:28 sit in that pocket.
02:29 And the full backs you can see are inverted, they're playing in the centre, they are helping
02:33 with the build-up.
02:34 And also I mean just look at how high the f***ing line is here!
02:37 It's an absolutely insane way to play your football.
02:40 And it's genuinely just like so impressive, not only how quickly Pasterkoglu has got these
02:45 players to buy into this philosophy, but how effective they've already become at implementing
02:50 it.
02:51 Like I know Tottenham fans will not want reminding just how turgid and miserable the watch they
02:54 were for really long parts of last season, but already this campaign, if we look at the
02:59 numbers, they play great stuff.
03:01 Like they're so on the front foot, they are currently second in the league for the number
03:04 of tackles made in the attacking third, they're second in the league for the number of high
03:09 turnovers they've made in the attacking third, they're second in the league for the number
03:12 of shots they've got from high turnovers.
03:15 And they're so incisive and neat and just deadly with their interplay, they're second
03:18 to bottom in the league for the number of long passes, that's any pass that goes like
03:23 over 30 yards.
03:24 They're just doing everything so just nicely.
03:27 These are the best stats of all, though, if you're a Tottenham fan, they lead the league
03:31 in terms of progressive carries, that's any time a player gets on the ball and progresses
03:35 it nearer to the opposition goal.
03:37 So not putting your foot on it, not passing it back, not looking for an easy option, but
03:41 getting on it and thinking, me, yes, I will make this happen.
03:44 They're the top team in the league for that.
03:46 And just to really drill this down, they are second in the league for the number of those
03:49 progressive carries that end in the final third, and they are top of the league for
03:54 the number of those progressive carries that end in the penalty area.
03:57 Basically, there is no team in the Premier League right now that is going at you as hard
04:02 and as frequently as Tottenham Hotspur.
04:05 And it's startling, really, just how well this brand of football has translated into
04:10 the Premier League.
04:11 Like, Tottenham are scoring almost identical goals this season that Celtic have been doing
04:15 for the last two years.
04:16 Like, we already discussed it in that video, looking at everything Man Utd did wrong in
04:20 the Tottenham game.
04:21 But one of the best examples of how this system functions is in that Sar goal.
04:25 Like, fundamentally, the role of the wide players is to hold the width as often as possible
04:29 to stretch out the defence.
04:30 You can see when Kulishevski receives the ball here, he's just been left in miles of
04:34 space on the touchline.
04:36 This absolutely panics Manchester United because they've compacted too much.
04:38 They've got to try and get out to him.
04:40 It disorganises the defence.
04:41 And the role of Richarlison here is really important.
04:44 You would think as a goal scorer, your first thought should be, right, where can I find
04:47 the space?
04:48 Who can I peel off the back of?
04:49 Where can I put myself to get the optimum chance of scoring a goal?
04:52 But he doesn't do that because that's not his job.
04:54 Instead, Richarlison makes sure he is mirroring Kulishevski's run.
04:58 He pushes the Manchester United defence towards the near post.
05:01 Now, if the ball does come to him, he'll try and get on it and he'll try and score.
05:04 But he's not doing that.
05:05 His job is to create the space behind him, which he does.
05:09 And this is partly why we did that video on Man Utd's problems rather than what was so
05:12 good about Tottenham, because they do actually recognise that situation.
05:16 And you see Casemiro, he fills in the hole that's been left by Richarlison pulling the
05:21 defenders away.
05:22 Now, Man Utd are actually set up reasonably well to defend against Angebal in this situation.
05:27 But what's been so impressive about what he's done with these players is the buy-in he's
05:31 got from them, the determination they've got and how eager they are to score goals using
05:36 this system.
05:37 So you can see that even though Sarra's outnumbered here and there should be three players who
05:40 can pick him up, he's the only one who makes that driving run into the box to get on the
05:45 end of that and get the goal.
05:47 Because that's the most important thing about Angebal that people forget.
05:50 It isn't just systems and shapes and numbers on a spreadsheet.
05:53 It's like a mentality thing.
05:55 You've got to want to play this way.
05:57 You've got to be really enthusiastic about the prospect of running so much you're physically
06:02 sick if it does get you a 2-0 win.
06:05 And as we've demonstrated, the reason it's Sarra that scores that goal, the reason Man
06:08 United should know to defend against this is because once the attacking player creates
06:11 a space, pulls the defenders away, then it's one of these 2-8s that are free to go and
06:16 join in with that attack.
06:18 Like even in the Brentford game, would you ever have expected to see Oliver Skipp arriving
06:23 as a centre-forward in this shape?
06:25 But that's the job of those 2-8s.
06:28 When they see the opportunity to go and play with the centre-forward to double up with
06:31 them, they have to go and do that.
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08:09 in his own half.
08:10 Now back to the video.
08:11 Now if you're not a Spurs fan, you're sitting there thinking, "Hang on, my team plays 4-3-3,
08:17 why don't we always have our 2-8s arriving late into the box?
08:20 Why aren't they that attacking?
08:21 Why do they actually just play as midfielders?"
08:23 And that's because of the inverted fullbacks.
08:25 As you can see here in the buildup, that's exactly where you would expect your 2-8s to
08:29 be, but oh, no surprise, it's actually Tottenham's fullbacks.
08:33 Opta's pass map's a really good illustration of this, because if you look at the Man United
08:36 set up, you can very clearly see the 4-3-3 they were set up in.
08:39 Here is the back four, and here is the midfield three, and here are the three attackers.
08:45 Like that looks about right, that's what you'd expect.
08:47 But bear in mind, Tottenham were theoretically playing in the exact same shape as Man United,
08:52 right?
08:53 Look at this.
08:54 Here's the back four, and while the first thing that might jump out at you is simply
08:56 high up the pitch, Udoge is, look at how narrow both him and Poro are.
09:00 Remember, these are average positions across the course of the game, so they will have
09:04 done the defending in wide areas, so to still be this narrow on the average map means they're
09:09 spending a huge amount of time in the centre of the pitch.
09:12 The midfield three is absolutely perfect, but crucially, both Sar and Maddison are playing
09:16 on average about as high up the pitch as Richarlison, meaning that they are not afraid to get up
09:21 and support him, and likewise he isn't afraid to drop off if that's where he's going to
09:24 create the space.
09:25 But this brings me very neatly to the one thing I think is kind of going underappreciated
09:30 about this system.
09:31 If you look at this pass map, you can actually see the main problem with it, the reason that
09:36 it shouldn't actually work.
09:38 Both Kulishevsky and Son are way, way, way too narrow for a team playing orange ball.
09:45 That is not where he wants his wide players to be.
09:48 Now it's understandable, of course, because Son and Kulishevsky are two incredibly talented
09:52 wide attackers who want to get on the ball out wide or at least start there, but they
09:56 want to move in towards the goal.
09:58 They want to be playing in and around the box.
10:00 And that is the problem Tottenham should be having, because the system lives or dies by
10:04 the wide player's ability to stretch the defence.
10:07 Now we saw for the goal it worked really well, Kulishevsky was in the right position, but
10:10 fortunately for him, the space Man United left allowed him to just charge into the box
10:14 and do what he wanted to do.
10:16 Tottenham should be having these attacks break down because their wide players aren't holding
10:21 their width.
10:22 But these attacks aren't breaking down and it is working absolutely perfectly and they're
10:25 scoring loads and loads of goals doing it.
10:27 And the reason for that, James Madison.
10:31 Now the role of James Madison in this eighth position is, as we've discussed, it's to push
10:35 up, it's to support the attacker, but also if the space is slightly in the pocket to
10:38 then drop off and be creative, to find little passing triangles with the wide player or
10:43 with the underlapping full back or with the centre forward to do that.
10:47 That's what an orange ball eight does.
10:49 And also crucially, if the chance avails itself, as we can see here in the Bournemouth game,
10:53 to make the run.
10:54 If you see the space that a centre forward has vacated, get into it and score the goal.
10:59 But again, this goal is another perfect example of how this system works.
11:02 With Charleston and Sarr, they both drag the defenders out into this channel.
11:07 Basuma gets the ball, he does a progressive carry towards goal, because that's what they
11:10 all want to do.
11:11 That creates a space.
11:13 Madison is really aware of what's going on.
11:15 He gets him behind the defender and he's through.
11:17 He's in effect a central midfielder in this system, but he's not afraid to make a run
11:21 into the centre forward area because sometimes it will just open up for him.
11:25 So he does the two jobs he's supposed to do really, really well.
11:28 But the reason this system is working, the reason spurs are so dangerous right now, is
11:33 because it has created a third job, which should be a problem, but he is dealing with
11:38 so well, it is making the system sing.
11:41 Mano Solomon receives the ball on the left-hand side.
11:44 He is another one of Spurs' wide attackers who can go down the line, who can go either
11:49 way, but really wants to, if he's being honest with himself, move towards goal, get on his
11:53 right foot and do what he was doing at Fulham.
11:55 Now this should create a problem for Tottenham, because he is on the ball and he is about
11:59 to move into an area that Madison is already in, that Son will feel comfortable dropping
12:03 into, and that the full-back may be making an underlapping run into.
12:07 It should just be a mess, he should crowd it out.
12:10 But the second he gets on the ball, James Madison realises what is going on and he forgets
12:16 about doing what he wants to do.
12:18 Because obviously he's a 10, he's an attacking midfielder, he's dying to receive that pass
12:22 in that area and be the creative one, get a shot at goal or play somebody in.
12:25 He forgets about all that and he remembers the space.
12:29 He makes this darting run into the wide area that Solomon has elected not to go into, and
12:33 that immediately accomplishes three really important things.
12:37 First off, obviously it leaves the room so Solomon can actually travel into it, meaning
12:41 he's not going to get lost in traffic.
12:43 It drags a defender away to make his job that much easier when he gets there, and crucially,
12:48 he then occupies the wide space, which not only makes him a suitable person to receive
12:53 a pass if it all breaks down, but also it keeps stretching that defence.
12:57 If they were all in the centre of the pitch, they could then get compact and the whole
13:01 thing wouldn't work.
13:02 Like, just never mind how technically good James Madison is.
13:06 You know already how good he is on the ball.
13:08 He's contributing goals, he's contributing assists.
13:11 The most important thing he's doing for this team right now is how just well he understands
13:17 what they're all trying to do and how willing he is to be the one to fill the little gap
13:21 or make the extra run or take himself out of a situation.
13:26 That's worth so much more.
13:27 And I know that might sound like a weird thing to say, like, "Always off the ball runs are
13:31 more important to Tottenham than slamming one in from 30 yards."
13:34 But just think about last season.
13:36 They had one player who worked really well every single week and a system that fundamentally
13:41 didn't and it was miserable.
13:43 Now they've got a player like James Madison who will occasionally be the shining light
13:47 in this system, but is also willing to take himself out of it when circumstances demand.
13:53 And that's how you have a big season.
13:55 Not by having one or two players have personally strong campaigns, but getting proper buy-in
14:01 and understanding from a talented team playing a philosophy that the rest of the league are
14:06 really struggling to keep up with.
14:08 So it is only early days, yet they've only played four games.
14:11 I'm sure people would say that the Man United fixture aside, they've been fairly kind opening
14:16 games, but the signs are there.
14:19 The signs are there that Tottenham could absolutely f*** this season.
14:23 It's almost as if, I don't know, when people talk about coaches having the right pedigree
14:27 and elite experience and things like that, almost like that's nowhere near as important
14:32 as just having the right personality fit for a club and a bunch of players.
14:37 So they'll all buy into what you're trying to do and it'll work really effectively.
14:42 Almost like that, but I mean, what do I know?
14:44 I mean, if Antonio Conte couldn't get a tune out of this team and Jose Mourinho couldn't
14:48 get a tune out of this team, who can get a tune out of this team?
14:52 Oh God, I don't know.
14:54 Maybe this guy who a few talk sport pundits might not personally rate and think is a weird
14:58 appointment, but is at least going to try and play a song that they all f***ing like
15:02 and can understand.
15:03 So yeah, that's why Tottenham are just all of a sudden the best team to watch in the
15:06 Premier League.
15:07 And like, unless you're an Arsenal fan or something, you should probably be secretly
15:12 rooting for them.
15:13 Now that's enough for me, but if you did enjoy this video, I know I say it every time, but
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15:27 there's the potential that one could be good down the line.
15:30 Yeah.
15:31 In the meantime, though, you can grab me on Twitter @adamclearyclery.
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15:45 Bye!