Zones help you understand Spurs game
Today has been a day spent mostly in bed, doing a bit of research and placing a few bets.
Simon Jordan
I did like hearing Simon Jordan (talkSPORT) comment after hearing someone misrepresent what he actually, in context, said. I get this with agenda driven types with their axe to grind.
They read what they want to read and not wat I write, interpreting things incorrectly to suit their agenda.
"I do wish people would listen to what people actually say rather than working out the things they don't like and then re-representing them."
He went on to say, how he had actually praised but the people miss that because they focus on the negative.
"They were too busy focusing on the one thing they don't like pay attention, it's not difficult."
Matt Doherty
Just before 6pm I came across Matt Doherty talking saying Antonio Conte encouraged him to go away with the Republic of Ireland to try and get two games under his belt.
“I know once I’m back fit again he knows what I can do for him. He wanted me to come away and try get two games in.”
Antonio Conte has said Doherty will be available for selection after the international break which will give Emerson Royal some competition.
Doherty said that while he has been available he wasn't moving properly and it is only in the last two or three weeks that he has started to feel sharp again so that it has taken longer than he expected to get back to fitness.
The manager [Conte], he said, was right, that he know Conte trusts him and that when he is back fit again he knows what he can do for him.
The right-back said he no longer had to think about things and that these last few weeks they have become more natural to him again so he is ready now what he can do for him. to get match fit.
“He's changed the whole mentality of the whole club. He’s made us feel like winners. We know he’s obviously won a lot in the past and we’re kind of trying to do it."
New signing Djed Spence isn't ready for Premier League football how Conte Vats him to play.
People seem to forget he is a Championship player looking to make the leap, and it is a leap in standard, to the Premier League.
That means you have to improve your fitness, improve your mentality, improve your footballing intelligence, improve your skill on the ball and improve your game off the ball.
Spence, like Yves Bissouma, is not yet up to speed with how Conte wants him to play.
Our game pushed the opposition into areas on the pitch e ant them to be so positioning to cut of passing lanes, the angle of your feet to aid sharp movement, in conjunction with your teammates, is a skill to learn.
If you have one loose cog it breaks the system, therefore you have to all be on the same wavelength, Bissouma and Spence aren't yet. It is taking them longer to grasp and implement than others.
Three points are more important than giving them game time so they have to show what they can do on the training field first.
Heung-min Son
There are plenty out there who need to fill in the Heung-min Son apology form.
His game was still there, he was still contributing, now he has goals under his belt too.
A ball goes in instead of hitting a post, instead of hitting a bar, instead of being brought down when clean through and everyone says he has regained the form, which he had never lost.
Spurs Style
I watched another talkSPORT video with Darren Ambrose, a Spurs fan, saying he is happy with the football.
"I'm not bothered. If we're winning I'm happy. If we're picking up last minute draws against Chelsea, I'm happy, we've not lost a game [Premier League] this season third in the league going into the north London Derby."
Isn't this "hat I have been saying about "inning mentalities, this is ho" "e think, this is ho" Conte thinks.
You get your enjoyment from winning, nothing else. You can play brilliantly exciting football, but if you don't win then you've failed.
The caveat to that is if you are in transition, if you are learning a new style, if you are building something.
Then you become analytical and the disappointment is replaced with what was achieved, what was good and what areas could have been improved.
Many, many, many a time, this will be by players who didn't even touch the ball in the situation evaluated.
Take the first goal against Sporting in the UEFA Champions League defeat. Not a brilliant example I grant you but my point here is that Emerson was not in the right position to affect play.
In that instance he should have been tighter to affect the opponent jumping for the ball and send him off balance, even if Emerson doesn't head the ball.
I analysed a goal against Chelsea showing how Højbjerg and Bentancur were out of position and being too close together prevented either from performing their role with more urgency on Bentancur's part and positional on Højbjerg's part.
George Graham set Arsenal up not to concede, then to attack, Conte is doing the same in the modern era and has won titles in England and Italy doing so.
Spurs Defensive Zones
A coach first divides a football pitch up into lanes and into zones.
The football pitch is made up of 5 lanes or channels, the two wings, the two channels and the central area.
Each of these lanes has a statistical rating as to it's threat.
Naturally the most dangerous lane or lane is the central one,
with the two wings as the least dangerous.
You therefore find sides try to push the opposition to the wings by overloading centrally, thereby minimising the danger of a goal being conceded.
A central attacking midfielder like Maddison tries to unlock centrally, but Tottenham, as my recent article highlighted are very dangerous in these wide areas with Kulusevski, Perišić and Richarlison having excellent xT (expected Threat) figures from crosses.
Tottenham have 7 headed goals in 7 EPL games, the next best is 4.
So Tottenham have become a dangerous side in the areas where teams are trained to send opponents, while we retain a solid defensive set-up.
This is why during the summer transfer window Spurs were not looking for an out and out central attacking midfielder like James Maddison, but a player who could play either attacking wing role also.
It is the same reason Richarlison was our first choice attacker, he holds a wide threat and can cover for Harry Kane.
Now these lanes are also split into zones and each zone given a statistical threat of conceding a goal.
There are various ways to break this down but I'll use this zonal map and explain the zones which you can mentally superimpose the 5 channels on.
Zone Key
Zone 1: The attacking third. High press (block) zone with high rewards.
a) Can regain possession
b) Keeps opponent away from goal
c) Opportunity to set pressing traps (as sides do against Sánchez)
d) Low risk
Zone 2: No direct threat
a) Tottenham try to manoeuvre teams to use this area
b) If Spurs can't keep an opponent in this area then we try to manoeuvre them into using zone 3. Just watch how much of our opponents play are in these lo threat areas of the pitch, hence why we don't mind them having the ball there. It is litle threat, they are not giving us problems as reporters keep saying, such as the Nottingham Forest game.
c) The touchline become an extra defender
Just before I go on here I'd like to mention Oliver Skipp and Yves Bissouma. Skippy likes to make tackles, going to ground a lot, but we want pushing the opposition to play the ball wide and play in front of us.
Bissouma has to master this before Conte ill trust him, as this is central to our defending. His attacking abilities can only be unleashed when his defensive game is in place.
Zone 3: Middle zone, be compact
a) Do not allow passes or runs with the ball into danger zone 5
b) Push opponents into zones 2, 3 or 1
Zone 4: Stop or block crosses
a) Try to force opponent into to pass into zone 2
b) Be mindful of and anticipate overlaps
Zone 5: Box and second box zone, it's red for a reason
a) Sanger zone, goals are created here
b) Central Attacking Zone (CAZ) and Box Passing Zone (BPZ)
c) Push opponents to zones 2, 3 or 4
d) Delay the opponent, have patience, avoid giving away cheap free kicks.
Two points here. Read the above (zones 4 and 5) and apply that to Davinson Sánchez against Leicester City for the penalty. An initial poor clearance created the whole situation.
He allowed his opponent into the wrong zone, he needed to keep him in zone 4 and not do anything reckless in zone 5.
The second point is our attacking. Spurs attack zone 5 in two ways from zone 4. Kulusevski cuts inside and plays a ball to the back post, Kane, Sessegnon (first game of the season) benefit from headers or tries to get to the byline (goalline) to cut the ball back, as does, Emerson, Sessegnon and Perišić.
Zone 6: Gold zone (GZ) Very high risk
a) About 80% of gaols are scored from this area
b) Zero tolerance margin for errors, thus a cool head is needed, mental control, sometimes simply last ditch defending
c) Block or clear, tackling is fraught with danger
That should help some of you have a greater understanding of how Spurs play, what we are trying to achieve, what we are trying to avoid, the role of a player, of the team.
It should give you a better grasp of these 'huge problems' reporters tell you sides create against us (Nottingham Forest), when in fact opponents are often in zones 2 and 3, exactly where we want them to be.
1,762 words
COYS
FURTHER READING
An article that talks about Lloris, Sánchez, Conte and talks about xT (expected Threat), expected crossing threat and figures showing the expected threat from each player.
Discusses the Sporting and Leicester City games but also contains the adjusted Premier League table for the expected Top 6 taking into account the strength of the opposition played.
This article asks Is VAR just a marketing tool and looks at the tactics of Marseilles head coach Igor Tudor.
2 comments
This is great. In all my playing years I never really got any tactical training from anywhere. I'm not stupid so I managed to work out a lot by osmosis, as it were, but this helps by giving far more clarity to the situation as a whole. Obviously I never played at any sort of high level, though bizarrely had a couple of games playing with Steve Kember back in the day. What an experience that was - even at his then advanced age - but I digress.
I must admit, even without the technical breakdown, I was never in agreement with the commentators when they were describing the threats posed by other teams when we were still in our shape and keeping them to the less-threatening areas you've explained here, but I just knew from instinct.
From what you say I would infer that Yves has already been assessed as intelligent enough to handle the extra understanding of the play that Conté wants - eventually at least. It seems he will possibly take longer than hoped but I doubt he w…