The Soccer Blog: The Dynamic Way Forward For Spurs?

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

The Dynamic Way Forward For Spurs?

By: Robert Reed | March 15th, 2011
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Since the emergence of Sandro as a serious player in the middle of our midfield, every Tom, Dick and Harry has given their two cents on what formation we should be playing. With Harry in charge, I believe the argument is pretty much academic as he is a dyed in the wool 4-4-2 man, with two wingers and some version of two up front. He is unlikely to be around for ever though of course, and an old dog does occasionally learn new tricks so who knows what the future could hold?

4-3-3 is a much fancied formation by most, and with good reason. At the World Cup a great many teams employed the formation as with the right players in the right positions it can switch to a defensive 4-5-1 in an instant. Mourinho’s Chelsea dominated with it in the past, and it is an effective, modern way of setting out the team and so should be considered when everyone is fit, I think.

The first thing which has to be realised is it isn’t necessary for every one of our top players to play in every game, that is the whole point of a squad after all. We have Bale, Modric, van der Vaart, Huddlestone, Sandro, Krancjar, Piennar, Palacios, Jenas and Lennon to chose from in midfield. That means we can go a whole season without exhausting any of our players and is a strength we should take advantage of. Having said that, we would still need to buy in at least two areas to make a 4-3-3 work.

romelu_lukaku The way I see it the most crucial position in this formation is the centre forward, and I don’t think we have anyone who measures up. Some may think Pavlyuchenko is up to it, but I don’t. Drogba has done it season after season at Chelsea, and a player in his mould is needed. A player in that position needs to be good in the air, reasonably fast, tough and able to hold the ball up to bring others into play but most importantly capable of sticking the ball in the onion bag when the chance comes along. There are a number of players out there who can do those things, and I’m confident we will be buying one of them in the summer. Lukaku, Llorente, Hulk, even Drogba himself could fill that role (although I maintain that you don’t progress by buying your opponent’s cast-offs).

The other position I think we are lacking to make the formation work is at right back as effective, fast and energetic full backs to negate the lack of width in midfield when attacking are another very important ingredient. Sir Alex Ferguson, José Mourinho and Redknapp himself have all stated that long term they think Gareth Bale will be most effective as an attacking left back, so who am I to argue with them? At right back we have Corluka, who is a good player but slow, and Hutton who may be fast but is proving a liability on too many occasions. Again there are decent players we could buy for that position; personally I’m a big fan of Micah Richards. Having said that we already have Kyle Walker who will be returning from Aston Villa who could perform that role, but I think Harry still intends to buy.

Other than those two areas though I think we have the personnel. Everyone would have their own opinion (if you even favour the formation in the first place) but I think the following would work, and I will explain why.

Up front I would have our suitable striker in the middle, flanked by Modric on the left and van der Vaart on the right. Modric has played some of his best stuff for Spurs, and scored the most goals (something lacking from his otherwise stellar season so far) from the left wing. Van der Vaart has been deployed as a right winger on several occasions this season, but it feels like a bit of a waste as he is so effective in the final third. Both players can drift inside, swap wings, link up and generally create havoc for the opposition in the right areas when we are on the attack. When we lose the ball, they can drop deep to the wings. You are left with a solid bank of four and a solid bank of five across the midfield starving the opposition of space and ready to turn defence into attack quickly. You can either knock the ball long for the striker to attack or hold up and lay off, or knock it forward for one of the fast, attacking full backs to hit them on the break.

97329 I’ve mentioned the full backs, they would give the narrow 4-3-3 formation the width that is needed. With Modric cutting inside as he likes to do from the left it would free up space for Bale’s lung busting runs, and allow for plenty of creative play between the two. Ditto on the right with van der Vaart cutting inside allowing our right back to attack. Crosses from the full backs can be either attacked by the big centre forward or knocked down to Modric or VDV who would be floating around itching to score.

Central midfield could change with the opposition. If we were playing Wolves away, a midfield three of Huddlestone, Sandro and Palacios could be ideal. Sandro is much more than just a defensive midfielder and can break forwards and join in with the attack, whereas many an attacking move would start with a telling pass from Huddlestone. Palacios could be more disciplined and patrol the back four giving some freedom to the other two. The important thing though is when we have to defend we have ample defence for the back line in the middle of the pitch.

The beauty of it is that there would be so many players to spare. If we were at home to a team we should be attacking hard you could replace, say, Palacios with Modric in midfield and have Lennon up front on the left. He is more of a goal threat from there where he cuts in and shoots with his right and we would have a more dangerous attacking threat from deep while maintaining the defensive strength when we lose the ball.

We would not lose our main strength at the moment which is our pace and counter attacking threat down the flanks, but would eradicate our main weakness which is being out numbered and out muscled in midfield.

Glenn Hoddle has always maintained that the problem with 4-4-2 is that it is all played in straight lines and therefore easier to have a game plan with which to combat it, and I’d agree with that. We have done well with it so far but it is the brilliance of players like Bale who have seen the formation reap such rewards and it does not favour the kind of consistency required to win a competition such as the Premier League. With a 4-3-3 we would become more fluid and less predictable in attack, while far more solid in defence.

Crucially though, we have many players who could fit seamlessly into a number of positions allowing us to keep the same formation, home and away, and rotate in order to keep the players fresh or to allow for injuries.

Harry has done very well, and far be it from me to tell him he is doing things the wrong way, but in my humble opinion with the players we have we could be a lot cleverer and more consistent with the superb squad we have. Nobody can argue with the view that inconsistency in the league is costing us.

As I’ve implied, this would not be a system I would suggest for the remainder of this campaign and it would be foolish to try and make a wholesale change to our tactics and formation mid-season. If it were implemented in pre-season however, with all the practice games available and the expected changes made to our forward line, I could see it working wonders.

The formation and deployment of personnel is one of the most interesting topics to discuss about your team and as I’ve said everyone has their own opinion. Perhaps you’d play a different formation entirely, or just in a different way. Maybe you think if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Whichever, I’d be very interested to know what your opinions are.

COYS!

You can follow me on Twitter @ RobertReedUK

Some Related Spurs Posts:Jermain Is Not A Happy TeddyWhy Spurs Should Be Considered Favourites To Finish ThirdBale Or Modric Go To United? You’re Living In The Past, FergieSpurs Are Where They Should Be, Without Over-PerformingSpurs’ Ideal Scenario

Category: Blogroll, Champions League, Harry Redknapp, Players, Premier League, Team News, Transfers

Tags: Aaron Lennon, alan hutton, Aston Villa, Blogroll, Champions League, Chelsea, Gareth Bale, Harry Redknapp, Jermaine Jenas, Luka Modric, Players, Premier League, Premiership, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Spurs, Team News, Tom Huddlestone, Tottenham, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfer Rumours, Transfers, Vedran Corluka, Wilson Palacios
Tweet « Jermain Is Not A Happy Teddy | Home | Comments | Add your comment Bobbly | March 15th, 2011 at 11:55 am

Gomes
Kaboul Gallas Dawson
Palacios
Sandro Hudd
Lennon Modric Bale
decent striker

Indyfan | March 15th, 2011 at 1:31 pm

re Modric – it’s all very well for the writer to say he has played some of his best games on the wing, but that is NOT Luka’s preferred position. He prefers to play in the center where he can make plays for both wings, So why would one want to stick him on the left? Playmakers of his caliber play in the middle.

Robert Reed | March 15th, 2011 at 1:52 pm

I have actually read that he does like playing left so he can cut inside and join the attack (he certainly scores more goals), but even so this is not a left wing position. He would be a left sided attacker with a remit to drift inside and get involved in the attack further up the field than he is now giving him more freedom than his current position. It’s been argued that he plays too deep and that he is better playing in the hole, as is VDV. This has led to the suggestion that either one or the other should play to get the most out of them, but with this formation both would be able to do damage in that area. It is a very fluid formation which gives maximum freedom to our most creative players while affording extra defensive cover when needed. Also with Huddlestone returning to the team it would be he who is sitting centrally and sending passes out to both the wings.

Anyway I did say playing him centrally would be an option in this formation. I don’t particularly rate Hud as a defensive midfielder, but in this system he would have one if not two alongside him and he would be very effective at dictating play from that position. If you wanted to go all out attack you could put Modric there as well at the expense of one DM and have Lennon on the pitch too.

Acon_Yid | March 15th, 2011 at 2:31 pm

@Bobbly, if you think Palacios is better than van Der Vaart, you need your head examined son…

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