Reader Question: Explaining Spurs Wing Play
A quick post to answer a readers question, left as a comment to: Tottenham’s Woeful Finishing FIXED! The One Thing That Will Change It All.
"Clive,
I am confused by the way the 'Final Third' is being attacked by our players.
I am under the impression that we have a 'winger style' desire but actually try to play through the middle the majority of the time.
Yes, Johnson does, (when he comes in as a sub,) attack on the outside of his defender, and whips crosses across the six yard line, but more often whoever is on the wing plays the ball back and inside to a support player, who then plays short passes either across the pitch, in front of the opposition, or short forward balls into a team mate, surrounded by defenders, in the middle of the pitch.
I do not have numbers to corroborate my impression but wonder what you, as a coach, thinks."
Thanks for your comment Les and I understand your confusion regarding how we're attacking the final third under Ange Postecoglou. I'll try break it down a bit for you.
Ange's system is a mix of wing play and intricate passing through the middle.
It may seem like we aim to go through the centre more often, but that's part of his philosophy of fluid football.
Let's not lose sight of the fact that we are creating chance after chance and not yet putting them away. Solve that and we solve everybody's problems and make us a nightmare to play against.
This incident sums it up where Solanke didn't even get a shot away and I have written an article covering that which goes against the grain of many people's thoughts.
Instead of relying on traditional wingers, who are a rarity these days, to always hit the byline and whip in crosses, Ange encourages players to overload central areas to create more options.
This approach allows our wingers to drift inside, link up with midfielders and play quick, short passes to unlock tight defences.
The idea is to keep the ball moving and drag opposition players out of position, creating gaps either through the middle or wide when defenders are drawn to the ball.
When someone like Brennan Johnson comes on, he adds that more traditional winger approach of attacking down the flank and delivering crosses, as does Timo Werner.
Johnson had 10 assists last season and most of Werner's assists, if I remember right, have been crosses along the floor after going outside his man.
My impression is that instead of a wide man trying to go past his man, we are playing it in to a focal point, perhaps 5 yards from the corner edge of the box and feeding in the winger inside the full-back.
Postecoglou is looking to have us play through the lines, through the defence for the winger to run onto and then provide the cross or cut-back.
From what I see, that element has increased significantly and, as you say, that man may have 3 men on him, which simply takes them out of the game and opens them up.
In these situations we are trying to draw opponents to one man and with one pass go beyond them so they are going back towards their own goal, or if not with one pass, with two or three.
We play it in to this man, but if the gap isn't there we have to recycle the ball.
In a nutshell, we are looking to play the ball inside the full-back, rather than traditionally running with the ball outside him.
But it’s all about balance, sometimes we try to stretch defences wide and other times, we can break through the middle with quick, incisive passing.
One other point. When the winger receives the ball, he has to calculate the area behind the full-back and what cover the full-back has.
If our winger takes the ball and attacks the full-back, is he going to simply come up against a covering player. He'd be running into a blind alley with few options. He wants to isolate the full-back.
Playing the ball out to a wide man means a defender has to go out to him, which hopefully creates a gap we can exploit inside.
If we can quickly play the ball into a heavily marked man to quickly play it past them, we are in the danger zone.
This is backed up by this data: Are Spurs Closer to Winning Silverware Than You Think? The Data Says Yes! There is a graphic there about box entry which gives a clear picture of how well we turn possession into attacking opportunities.
Another graphic shows our passing leads to lots of shots, more than most. The box conversion graphic shows us to be poor, which highlights the real problem.
Ange’s philosophy is to keep possession and control the game.
While it may seem like we’re overplaying centrally, it’s often a tactic to wear down the defence and create opportunities both inside and outside.
I have discussed mental fatigue many times by constantly making the defenders and midfielders make decisions, plus creating anxiety to bring out hesitation or mistakes.
You’re absolutely right that we could use more direct wing play at times and Johnson gives us that option, but the focus is on flexible, adaptable play depending on the situation.
I did talk about more traditional wing play recently, it down to a time and a place.
A final point.
Players play o a system, the system ditates where they are on the field.
A winger reverting to traditional play goes against that, if he overdoes it and breaks the system.
Football at this level isn't send 11 men onto a pitch and let them do their own thing, its very much 11 men do as you have been trained to do.
I hope this helps clear up the strategy behind our attacking play.
COYS
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