Sitting 15th in the table just 8 points from safety, it's the stuff of nightmare for Ange Postecoglu and Spurs. However, they've scored more than Arsenal, they've won 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium and they're through to the next round of the Europe League... So there's signs of hope. Here's how they can turn their fortunes around...
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00:00Hello guys, Adam Monk here from 442. Now you've seen the title of the video, some of you may
00:08think that this is a question that is impossible to answer and some of you may have a different
00:13barometer of what fixed even means in the context of Tottenham. You know at the moment
00:18it's a little bit like asking the Empire to fix the Death Star after it blew up in A New
00:23Hope or something, well they built the Death Star too. What I mean is it's not looking
00:27good right now. Ange came out a few weeks ago and said he always wins something in his
00:31second season and by that at this rate he might have meant the postcode lottery, honestly.
00:37They're currently 15th in the table and 8 points off the relegation zone. To be honest
00:41this is the worst it's been in my opinion since the days of Martin Yall or Juan de Ramos
00:47and it's a culmination I think over the last few years of a mix of complacency, bad luck
00:51and a bit of an inherent inferiority complex as well that's led them to this current situation.
01:00So how do you fix it? Well with any big fix you start from the top. Daniel Levy's been
01:05Tottenham chairman since 2001 and for many of you watching that will be longer than you've
01:09been alive and when he took over as chairman at Tottenham I had chicken pox and was very
01:15very ill. Much like many of the Spurs players were after eating lasagna one time but that
01:19incident was too long ago to be relevant to the video. Now the good side of Daniel
01:22Levy is what he's done for the valuation of the club over that period of time and it's
01:26subsequent ability to spend in the market. Whether that money's been spent well in the
01:30market is a different discussion for later. But when Levy came in Spurs were valued at
01:35roughly £80m and after substantial investment into the squad and the club 25 years later
01:41or so they're now valued between £2.5 and £3 billion so that's quite a stark upturn.
01:47This would tell me that in my opinion he's done one side of his job as chairman better
01:50than any other chairman in his position in the same time frame in arguably world football.
01:56You know he's made Spurs sustainable, profitable and now they sit at the top table with the
02:00big dogs on a financial basis so in that regard well done Daniel.
02:04You start with the scattergun approach to hiring managers. Let's go back all the way
02:08to 2008 it started with Ari Redknapp an attacking manager who did do well overall but then in
02:132011 AVB came in who was a team who 2004 Jose Mourinho. Then we went to appointing
02:19Tim Sherwood. Yeah that's a sharp drop off for reasons I can only justify as being impulsive
02:24and vibes based. To Maurizio Pochettino who did very very well and progressed the club.
02:29To then Nuno you know the polar opposite of Pochettino tactically a manager whose defensive
02:34style suits the underdog as we're now seeing at Nottingham Forest. To then Jose Mourinho
02:39and Antonio Conte whose tactics just simply breached the Geneva Convention. To then the
02:44tactical polar opposite again in Ange Postacoglu. Now this flip-flop approach tells me that
02:49there is no real plan from Daniel Levy in terms of a structure or a strategy in a footballing
02:54sense for Spurs. For reference right City wanted Pep in 2012. That's 13 years ago when
03:00Harry Redknapp was just about to leave Tottenham. That's what a clear footballing strategy looks
03:05like. That's what planning over years and even decades looks like. I know City are the
03:10prime example but other teams have done it. Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool. Even the Mikel
03:14Arteta project we're 5-6 years into that now. That's what needs to happen at Tottenham.
03:18So this flip-flopping of philosophies from Daniel Levy sets the tone of immediacy and
03:23an immediacy to win now at any cost. That doesn't set a good precedent for a team that's
03:27currently under strain as much as this current side is. Nor the players who see a long term
03:32future at the club. So for me fix one if you can call it that would be to keep Daniel
03:36Levy but let him deal with the commercial and infrastructural decisions and put someone
03:41else now in charge fully of making the footballing ones. Right let's talk about Ange because
03:46he's 15th in the table and 8 points off the drop. That is bad right? But his side have
03:51also scored two more goals than neighbours Arsenal. He won 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
03:55He's currently beating Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-finals and he's through to the next
04:00phase of the Europa League as well. So what is going on? Because as bad as it's been on
04:05the surface some of what we're seeing is actually good. It's kind of like watching Dua Lipa
04:10get swallowed by quicksand. Now the glaring thing is injuries. I'll just rattle them off
04:14now. Wilson, Odebere, Micky van der Ven, Cristian Romero, Vicario, Odoge, Werner, Johnson, Solanke,
04:20Sarr, Jed, Spence and Richarlison. They are all out. They've got more men missing than
04:25Bermuda Triangle's air traffic control department. You just simply can't expect the very best
04:30from any manager in the midst of an injury crisis like this because I count about 7-8
04:35starters there to be honest with you. And the few players who are playing are being
04:38forced to play three games a week which in modern football is just going to kill you
04:41especially when you're having to play certain players in that team out of position like
04:45Archie Gray for example. Many Spurs fans may disagree with this and that's fair enough
04:49but I touched on it last week in my North London derby video. I think what's killing
04:53Ange at the moment is a reluctant in the midst of this injury crisis to compromise his system
04:58somewhat or be a little bit more defensively pragmatic. You know an example of this from
05:02the North London derby was his half-time decision to hook off Sarr and Bissouma and replace
05:06them with Madison and Johnson at the expense of having no midfield in the second half at
05:09the Emirates Stadium. That to me is just absolute lunacy and something he doesn't need to do
05:14with so few players at his disposal right now. And again I've touched on this so many
05:18times in other videos but this high line right here against Chelsea with nine men last season
05:22was when I first thought he could end up really being the architect of his own undoing so
05:27to speak. You look at the very best managers right and yes I mean Pep but many people attribute
05:32one style of play to Pep and that is one of beauty and quick passing that's maybe gained
05:36a bit more of a physical edge over recent years. But Pep isn't afraid to change things
05:40up in accordance to game state even if that means sacrificing his atypical approach somewhat.
05:46For instance this weekend when he opted to absolutely lump it to the big man Erling Haaland
05:49up front and bypass the entire progressive build up throughout the middle of the part
05:52that he spent the last 15 years having sleepless nights over perfecting. Ange needs to learn
05:57to do this too in my opinion because it's that very personal pride that's going to be
06:00his undoing in the long term. Trophy or not in my opinion. The signs have been there at
06:05times though for Ange that when he has his players at his disposal the results do come.
06:10When all his players were fit he won eight out of nine at the start of last season and
06:13I put this largely down to him just having the right amount of experience and age profile
06:18within the team at his disposal which he doesn't have right now. Whereas now with it being
06:22a bit part system you're only seeing certain facets of the system work. Take James Madison
06:26for example. All of last season Madison got 13 goals and assists in all competitions albeit
06:31with injury and this season he's already on 14 goals and assists. So without all the parts
06:36this system can clearly still work in its isolated components. So part of what Possokoglu
06:42is doing is still working theoretically speaking. Kulishevsky is another example. 12 goals and
06:47assists already this season. 11 goals and assists all of last season. The goals are
06:52simply not the problem right now for Possokoglu. It's simply a case of riding out this storm
06:56defensively at the moment whilst you have nobody because they've ultimately scored two
07:00more goals than Arsenal in the league this season despite being 15. So fix two. I would
07:05actually keep Ange because I think there's foundations there for a successful system
07:09in the future. It's just in the present there needs to be a few tweaks defensively and a
07:13few little bits of compromise and obviously that's on Ange to do. I am in no control of
07:17that happening. A lot of Spurs fans talk about needing a mentality shift and a lot of Spurs
07:21fans seem to think that that's going to come from winning a trophy. In this instance the
07:24Carabao Cup but I actually I don't really agree with that. I think the Carabao Cup yes
07:29it'd be nice for Spurs to win. It'd be that monkey off their back so to speak but in terms
07:33of a collective mentality shift I think that actually already happened more under Maurizio
07:37Pochettino and that came from believing in the football you're playing, enjoying it,
07:42everyone's singing off the same hymn sheet. Possokoglu just doesn't have the players right
07:46now. Spurs, believe it or not, used to be a very resolute and good team about five years
07:50ago. They got to the Champions League final for God's sakes. I know they lost it but mugs
07:54don't get that far into a competition like that. Spurs have been there before. I don't
07:59believe in this whole history of them bottling games. Pochettino made them a very resolute
08:04side but a lot of the time he had more quality and more fit players. Possokoglu doesn't have
08:09that right now and I think the ideas are there. They've just got to stick with his philosophy
08:14and ride out this season somewhat. If they do drop into the relegation zone then yeah,
08:18there will have to be a discussion to be had but right now I would keep the faith and ultimately
08:24if you just focus on the cup competitions, Spurs win the Europa League, that'd be brilliant.
08:28In the cups, so far so good. So I'd give him the benefit of the doubt right now.
08:33Now finally for the current system and the current crop of players fit. Now I've talked
08:37about compromise a lot so that's what I'm going to emphasise here. Let's get the tactics
08:41board out now. This is the formation and team that played in Tottenham's 5-2 win at
08:45Burnley at the start of last season. It's a different formation to what Possokoglu's
08:49playing right now. A standard 4-2-3-1. You had Vicario, Inet, Porro, Romero, van de Ven
08:54and a doggy across the back four. Of course all the starting defenders right there. Bissouma
08:59and Sarr in the pivots. Maddison, Kulisewski, Manor, Salomon and Heung-Min Son leading the
09:05line. Now right now Angie's playing a midfield three which you could say is pragmatism but
09:09back then when he had a fully fit back four he was able to play a double pivot. If you
09:13put perhaps Sarr's heat map over here you can see that he wasn't completely all action.
09:18Largely he was occupying the right hand side of the pitch. However Yves Bissouma was the
09:23real all action midfielder in this pivot and then if you put Micky van de Ven's heat map
09:27over this as well you can see that van de Ven was actually marauding the ball into midfield
09:32which we know he likes to do. We saw him do it at Old Trafford this season. This is a
09:35luxury that Pasterkoglu simply is not afforded right now so he's had to cut his losses somewhat
09:40so far but I think there's a different way he could go about it. So right now this is
09:44the team he played against Leicester the other day when they lost 2-1 obviously with fewer
09:48players at his disposal. So you had Kinski in net, Gray, Davies, Dragosin and Porro across
09:52the back four. A midfield three of Papsar, Rodrigo, Bentancur, Lucas, Bergwalt and then
09:57a front three of Kulisewski, Richarlison and Heung-Min Son. So now because you don't have
10:02the luxury of Micky van de Ven being able to carry the ball into midfield or the luxury
10:05of Yves Bissouma's off the ball ability he's had to pat the midfield with three players
10:10in there. If you start by overlaying Papsar's heat map this would scream one word to me
10:14and that would be scarce in terms of his off the ball movement, the positions he's occupying
10:18on the pitch. He's almost, you can see there where the little darker patches, that's kind
10:22of Archie Gray's zone, the left back area. He's having to cover for a player who is already
10:27playing out of position. And then if you overlay Lucas Bergwalt's heat map and Rodrigo, Bentancur,
10:32the other day, both of them are almost combining to be the equal of what Yves Bissouma provides
10:36Tottenham in terms of off the ball movement. So voila, this would be my new system whilst
10:41Tottenham have got a lot of players out and Spurs fans don't be scared. I know that this
10:44formation triggers some very, very severe PTSD from the days of Conte and Mourinho,
10:49but I think it'll play out a little bit differently and all it's designed to do is
10:52bring into play the form players being Madison and Kulisewski going forward whilst also taking
10:57the strain off Archie Gray who's having to play far too much and also out of position.
11:01The three centre-halves I would have are Dragacin Davis and Archie Gray. And then the wing-backs,
11:05I would have Pedro Parra, of course, and then Sergio Reguilón as the left wing-back.
11:10This would allow Archie Gray to then play centre-back and be a centre-back that progresses
11:13the ball, as we know he likes to do, into midfield, which would take the strain off
11:17Bergwalt and Bissouma a little bit in the middle of the park. Son can then go back to leading the
11:21line like he did in that 5-2 win at Turf Moor where he scored a hat-trick. And then behind them,
11:26in sort of number 10 creative positions, you would have Dejan Kulisewski and James
11:30Madison who are having statistically the seasons of their life so far this season in the midst of
11:34all this chaos. This would then also allow Pedro Porro to get forward from right wing-back with a
11:39lot more cover and Pedro Porro is currently having the best season of his career as well with nine
11:43goals and assists already this season. So this system would allow Porro, Kulisewski and Madison
11:48to all play in attacking areas in the positions that they're most suited to and like playing the
11:54most. Okay, let's take the Leicester goals here from the other day. Now look at Porro's position
11:59here from the offset. We know he likes to do this. Ange likely tells him to do this. If he's going to
12:04play this high and contribute going forward then you need to have ample cover. Because of a flat
12:10back four with Porro being the right-back part of it, you've then got your number six, Rodrigo
12:15Bentancur, in this instance going in for the 50-50 to cover for Pedro Porro. The 50-50 is then lost
12:20which just typifies the precarious nature of this current system because if the 50-50 is lost,
12:26the back line just crumbles like dominoes in this space left in behind. This exact area here where
12:32Bobby Decoteau-Varied receives the ball here is exactly where you'd expect your atypical right-back
12:37to be. A back five would simply allow the four other defenders other than Porro to shift over
12:43if Porro's caught napping forward like he is in this instance. So reason number one to go to a
12:47back five in my opinion is simply just to cover the channels a bit more if you've got flying full
12:52backs like Pedro Porro. And side note as well, Jamie Vardy. I love this man. 10 out of 10 for
12:57the celebration. And then for the second goal, Leicester score. Porro now has the ball in what
13:01you would say is his natural position so to speak. Now bear in mind this is meant to be a 4-3-3
13:07formation on paper as we showed earlier on the tactics board. So you don't need me to tell you
13:12why this space right here in the middle of the park makes next to no sense from a Spurs perspective.
13:18You put any Tottenham player either Bergwalser or Bentancur in the centre circle right here and
13:23then instantly Bilal El-Kanous who, spoiler alert, is about to score a goal would have to think about
13:28either cutting out the passing lane to Archie Gray or the would-be Spurs player who should
13:33be in the middle of the park. So again perhaps dropping a little deeper into a back five would
13:37give Porro more options to play it back to here but also keep the pivot in the middle of the park
13:43more rigid in the centre circle stopping them having to chase the ball like Bentancur's having
13:47to do here to receive the pass from Porro. And look obviously Leicester nicked the ball off
13:51Bentancur here. Once they do win it and El-Kanous receives the ball look at Yeman Sarr coming into
13:57shot here busting a gut to get back. It's just it's it's total ill discipline and the reason I
14:02think Spurs need to adopt a safety first policy now is to just stop conceding stupid goals like
14:08this until they get their players back. Or alternatively Spurs could stick with the back
14:12four as they currently have. If they do decide to do that then uh yeah Ange good luck at Anfield
14:18mate. So yeah in short Daniel Levy no more soccer decisions. Ange Postakoglou drop a touch deeper
14:24for now mate and keep your job until your players are fit again. And as for the players when they
14:28are fit I do actually think they are good enough to get top four in any other given season. Obviously
14:33it's gone now they've just got to have a stronger finish than they currently have which I think
14:37they will. So yes guys do you think there's any way back four Tottenham this season? Let me know
14:42in the comments below. The new magazine edition is right here you can pick that up at any good
14:46retailer or online. I'm Adam Monk have a very good rest of the week hope you enjoy the video
14:52I'll see you soon goodbye. It's just who we are mate it's just who we are it's who we're
14:58gonna be till uh as long as I'm here