The Defence

[SpurMeUp]

Not really. They press throughout the game, but not all the time. You have to pick your moments. In football I would think you'd want to press from the get go to unsettle your opponent, score quickly, and then tighten up. You can then employ the press at specific periods of the game to increase your advantage. I would think it would be more effective when you switch it on and off, especially when they least expect it. But of course this also means you have to be solid defensively and be able to protect a lead, something we struggled with last season. We shall see...

I definitely think there is a 'middle way' - where you hunt (press) at the right times, but can drop back into a tight defensive formation as well. To transition from one to the other the team has to communicate and work together exceptionally well - sense the opportunity and pounce. A basketball court is of course far smaller than a football pitch. If one or two are not pressing in football, the press is undermined.

But it is/ was key to Poch's strategy and I think there is more to come. Interested to see how he has us setup this season.

 

[NaijaSpurs]

Yay, I have just realise that along with Everton and Utd we currently have the best defensive record in the league

 

[SpurMeUp]

I think we are more careful with our pressing this season. We seem to first get back into a defensive formation, and from there we press the ball. It seems to work better. Especially against good passing sides. Last season they would pass through our (more desperate) press and our back 4 would be quickly exposed. Now we tend be in a controlled formation before we press the ball.

It shows that Pochettino can adapt. He's not a one trick pony.

 

[GrimsbyYid]

There's been a few subtle differences. Our high line isn't as high and the pressing seems really well or go asked, and also more commitment to it. I do think the biggest differences though are the personnel - Toby is not only. Reliant but seems to have brought back the Jan we love, and obviously Dier.

Been thinking about our squad though, we have some great depth, but actually now Dier has moved to midfield (or IF he has permanently) then we probably need a CB in January. Though wimmer seems decent to me, but hard to tell fully until we see him more.

 

[NaijaSpurs]

Personally I would rather give CCV a run out as our 4 centre back instead of buying a new one

 

[afsoc4life]

Personally I would rather give CCV a run out as our 4 centre back instead of buying a new one

Agreed.

 

[parklane1]

There's been a few subtle differences. Our high line isn't as high and the pressing seems really well or go asked, and also more commitment to it. I do think the biggest differences though are the personnel - Toby is not only. Reliant but seems to have brought back the Jan we love, and obviously Dier.

Been thinking about our squad though, we have some great depth, but actually now Dier has moved to midfield (or IF he has permanently) then we probably need a CB in January. Though wimmer seems decent to me, but hard to tell fully until we see him more.

Could not agree more, our CM last season was wide open and it led to our back four being over run and it great ( imo) to see that Poch could see it as well and done something about it.

 

[Jordinho]

 

[Raziel]

There's been a few subtle differences. Our high line isn't as high and the pressing seems really well or go asked, and also more commitment to it. I do think the biggest differences though are the personnel - Toby is not only. Reliant but seems to have brought back the Jan we love, and obviously Dier.

Been thinking about our squad though, we have some great depth, but actually now Dier has moved to midfield (or IF he has permanently) then we probably need a CB in January. Though wimmer seems decent to me, but hard to tell fully until we see him more.

Two things for me

- Jan is happier (and more effective) w/Toby
- Dier not only shields, he sometimes drops back in back line when the FB's move forward so we aren't just left with two exposed CB's

 

[Millsy_Yiddo]

ignore. Just me talking brick as usual. Didn't take the time to read the graph properly.

 

[Modric THFC]

That graph was a decent idea put terrible implemented.
The graph needs to be started at 0,0.
The labelling on the graph and the dividing it into 4 arbitrary sections is completely subjective.

 

[Bullet]

...dividing it into 4 arbitrary sections is completely subjective.

Not really, they split the 20 teams into 4 quadrants of 5 teams, not that arbitrary... but it implies Spurs and Watford are similar which is pretty silly!

 

[Pirate55]

Two things for me

- Jan is happier (and more effective) w/Toby
- Dier not only shields, he sometimes drops back in back line when the FB's move forward so we aren't just left with two exposed CB's

Spot on. With Dier playing a more traditional DM role we have tightened up considerably at the back. The Mason/ Bentaleb pairing gave us the worst of both worlds. Neither are good enough defensively and they were both confused imo as to what their roles were. It was interesting to me that Mason looked so much better when he was freer to supplement the attack when he knew that Dier was covering in behind him.

A big, big improvement on last season when we looked so wide open to counterattacks.

 

[parklane1]

Spot on. With Dier playing a more traditional DM role we have tightened up considerably at the back. The Mason/ Bentaleb pairing gave us the worst of both worlds. Neither are good enough defensively and they were both confused imo as to what their roles were. It was interesting to me that Mason looked so much better when he was freer to supplement the attack when he knew that Dier was covering in behind him.

A big, big improvement on last season when we looked so wide open to counterattacks.

Could not agree more.

 

[glorygloryeze]

Another clean sheet today; Got to hand it to our defence and Poch's changes to shore it up.
The real test, imo, might be when we are missing both Dier AND Alderweireld

 

[parklane1]

Defence was once again solid yesterday we have the joint best goals against in the Lge.

 

[braineclipse]

Whole team deserves a lot of credit for our defensive record this season. Third best in the league at the moment, just a goal more conceeded than Manu and Arsenal

We've gotten away with a couple of individual errors recently, hopefully we can stop those from happening quite as often. But in open play we're looking really solid.

Thought we dealt well with the threath of Gestede yesterday. He did get his two chances. Both from individual errors from us really (Dier and Lloris coming out). But we really stopped them from putting quality crosses in a lot and picked up runners from midfield quite well when they hit it long. Of course Villa are awful and no real measure of a team's defensive capabilities, but still good to see. We've struggled with strikers like him the past.

 

[awesome dawson]

Plenty of worrying moments for me yesterday. I'm overseas in Mexico and it isn't always possible to watch live games at the moment but yesterday for the Villa game I watched it all in HD. I'm not moaning but in think the following are valid points;

Toby's distribution was awful. Jan's was the opposite, excellent passing.

We still allow regular brainfarts to happen and it's not just Walker, even Lloris had his moments. Coming out for crazy balls, he's never going to make. Cheap giveaways in the final third.

Rose is my first choice LB but he's always on the edge in terms of tackling. This can be great when it works but I guarantee he'll get red cards this season if he carries on the way he is.

We gave a poor Villa side plenty of chances to steal a draw yesterday after supposedly dominating. In summary, I'm happy with how we're going but i think a reality check is needed in terms our supposedly formidable defence. Work in progress is my opinion of them.

 

[benp]

I think what you saw was our players taking a rest during the game. At half time it was done and dusted and I, much like our team, relaxed and got a bit sleepy. Villa got a very lucky goal to give them a sniff. Then the team, much like me in my computer chair, took a little bit of notice and then put the brummies down. Our defence is great because it involves the whole team.

 

[braineclipse]

Plenty of worrying moments for me yesterday. I'm overseas in Mexico and it isn't always possible to watch live games at the moment but yesterday for the Villa game I watched it all in HD. I'm not moaning but in think the following are valid points;

Toby's distribution was awful. Jan's was the opposite, excellent passing.

We still allow regular brainfarts to happen and it's not just Walker, even Lloris had his moments. Coming out for crazy balls, he's never going to make. Cheap giveaways in the final third.

Rose is my first choice LB but he's always on the edge in terms of tackling. This can be great when it works but I guarantee he'll get red cards this season if he carries on the way he is.

We gave a poor Villa side plenty of chances to steal a draw yesterday after supposedly dominating. In summary, I'm happy with how we're going but i think a reality check is needed in terms our supposedly formidable defence. Work in progress is my opinion of them.

A few too many worrying moments in all of our last 3 games after a very solid performance defensively against Liverpool and in the games before that.

Most of our problems seem to be individual errors though. Hopefully just natural variation with a handful of those coming at the same time.