Data Breakdown: City Conundrum & Battle for Fifth

By Harsh Mishra.

The first seven days of February will bring two unique challenges for Tottenham. They first face Liverpool on Sunday, for the temporary bragging rights of the fifth place. Then the following Wednesday, they once again host Manchester City, this time in the Quarter Finals of the Conti Cup.

Liverpool Preview

The last time Spurs faced Liverpool, they played out a very evenly contested 1-1 draw, where both teams deserved a point at the very least. It was a tactically interesting game, as Liverpool moved to a three at the back around the 60th minute, leading to a shift in momentum for a brief period and their equalizer. On the other hand, it was the first game this season, where Vilahamn brough on Jess Naz to play as part of the front two, rather than the wing. Here is the Data Breakdown from the reverse fixture, in case you want to read more on what happened in that game.

With Ashleigh Neville out for the foreseeable time and Angharad James leaving Spurs to join Seattle Reign, the starting full backs seem to pick themselves. Both Nilden and Grant had impressive showings in the 2-0 loss to Manchester City, despite that being their first WSL starts for Tottenham. And there is a strong chance that Vilahamn will pick the same 11 that faced City. However, I would like to see Naz get a start in this game. Off the ball, Bethany England and Martha Thomas offer a lot of similar characteristics – their tenacity and strength in duels. Conversely, Naz offers the pace and ability to run in behind, rather than coming to the ball. The games against City and also the first half against Arsenal, showed that in the games where Spurs are not on the ball as much, the England and Thomas duo have a rough time impacting the game. Naz has also been really good off the bench, making the most of whatever minutes she gets. If you look at the Conti Cup (3-3) draw against Arsenal, it was Naz who started the game and scored 2 goals with runs in behind. The game against Liverpool might be the perfect opportunity to give her another start, alongside one of England or Thomas, especially with the City game coming just three days later.

City Review & Preview

After the 7-0 loss in the last meeting with Manchester City, Tottenham clearly learnt a lot of lessons and tweaked their playing style for the game last weekend. It was another loss, but there were improvements on the defensive end. Unfortunately, these came at the cost of the offence.

Passive defensive block: To counter City’s wide channel play, Vilahamn opted to go for a passive 442 block, where the midfielders often dropped off, trying to make sure no runs into the channel went untracked. Last time we were looking to push out of the 442 block and put pressure on City, when they had the ball in between the lines.

Tottenham’s active 442 defensive block – CMs looking to engage and win balls
(Away game)

But this time Spurs only pressed when City were in the initial stages of their build up and then we dropped off, letting them have a lot of the ball (last game City had 57 percent posession, whereas in this game it increased to 68 percent). I feel the main reason to opt to go much more passive than usual, was to treat this as a confidence builder after the 7-0 loss and focus on not conceding as many goals. In the end, both of City’s goals were mainly a product of our mistakes. The first came from indecision between Turner and Votíková. The second came after Clinton’s pass into the midfield was intercepted, leading to a transition that made use of the empty right back space, vacated by Grant who had already made an overlapping run up-field.

Tottenham’s passive 442 defensive block – CMs looking to drop and cover runs
(Home game)

City’s only period of dominance came right after they scored the second. At that point Spurs heads dropped a little and City started getting their runners into the channels and hit the byline. Apart from that ten minutes spell, the defense stayed solid throughout the game.

Lack of Chances – The tightening of the defence came at a cost though. In the reverse fixture Spurs’ high pressing and their active defensive block created chances for them. Those were missing in this game. Spurs’ drop off in attacks can be seen in a comparison of final third passes made across the two games, below.

Tottenham’s final third passes vs City; (Left) Away game; (Right) Home game

It took the team 80 minutes to get their first shot from inside the box. This came when Naz was played through by fellow substitute Wang Shuang. As noted above Naz, in her short cameo, looked threatening with her runs in behind. Wang also looked lively and was involved in some neat interchanges.

With the Conti Cup game against City on Wednesday, Vilahamn now has one more chance to try and find a middle ground, one that enables the team to win balls in the midfield and create their chances, but also to stay compact so that they are able to defend City’s runs into the wide channels.

Thank you for reading.

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