Opposition View: Tottenham Hotspur
What’s going on at Tottenham Hotspur? Last season’s Champions League runners up haven’t won a Premier League game away from home since January, were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by League Two Colchester United and on Tuesday night suffered a 7-2 hammering at home to Bayern Munich.
There’s rumours of dressing room unrest and Mauricio Pochettino keeps talking about the end of a chapter. They’ve even managed to lose at home to Newcastle United, a result arguably more shocking than defeat to Col U.
Now, if there’s one thing that Brighton are good at then it’s being the side who opponents end terrible runs of form against.
Chelsea hadn’t won at home under Frank Lampard until last weekend, West Bromwich Albion had gone over 20 games without a win when we lost at the Hawthorns in January 2018 and Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City ended home winless streaks stretching back nine months against us in the 2014-15 season.
If there is anybody that Spurs want to be facing right now in an attempt to turn their season around, it’s Brighton. We’ve let Mark from Spurs Fanatic know that and in turn, he’s given us a closer view at the current problems at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Let’s start with last season. You must have been relatively happy at finally moving into your fantastic new stadium and reaching the final of the Champions League?
Yes it really turned out to be a fantastic season. The new stadium is incredible and it was great to finally move in. To make the Champions League final was unbelievable and just the most amazing roller coaster journey given what happened in the group stage to pull out a result in Barcelona and then against Manchester City and Ajax. I still have to pinch myself to believe that we even made it to the final!
Obviously, things aren’t going quite as swimmingly so far this year. What are the current problems stemming from?
There are issues both on and off the pitch. What we do know is the 4-3-1-2 formation is not working. It’s an incredibly hard formation to play anything other than counter attack football. Therefore, trying to press from it is leaving us wide open to being counter attacked on ourselves. Poch is relying on this formation after using different looks of 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 last term to mix things up. We really need to get back to that versatility and become more unpredictable.
Issues off the pitch are what we don’t completely know. There have been a lot of rumours and speculation in the media, but something isn’t right with squad harmony. Whether its factions between the senior players or the Christian Eriksen situation something has to be done before the whole thing implodes.
Is Mauricio Pochettino right when he says that a “chapter closed” with the Champions League final? How do Spurs open a new one, as the manager wants?
It should be chapter closed but when you overachieve like that and get so close to winning the ultimate prize, it’s got to have some lasting repercussions. I think Poch is right in wanting to move on, but it’s going to take time and maybe we are seeing some hangover from that now. It could well take this season to work it out of the system, but Poch has to take those with him who are on board with the long term plan that we constantly hear him referring to and jettison those who aren’t.
It seems mad to even be asking this but football is a crazy sport – could Pochettino find himself out of a job unless things improve? Or would he walk before then?
I think he has the job as long as he wants it. The question for him will be how much he wants to still be part of “the project” and if he believes he can reincarnate this team to go up another level? I believe last time we spoke I said he’d stick around for at least one full year in the new stadium and I firmly believe that. However, depending on what happens in this current period with the on and off the field stuff, next summer could see him having to make a big decision, maybe even sooner than that if this continues.
What do Spurs need to do to improve? And what weaknesses are there that Brighton could take advantage of?
Apart from squad harmony, the gaps between the lines and the errant positioning of our full backs – the team is giving up way to much space to counter attack in to and you could take good advantage of that. Coupled with this is our full backs. Serge Aurier has been a massive liability and its maybe a blessing in disguise that he is suspended for this one.
However, Poch doesn’t appear to trust Kyle Walker-Peters just yet and so has been using Davinson Sanchez as an emergency right back. Sanchez doesn’t have the change of direction to play full back and is prone to tricky wingers. There will be crossing opportunities to be had down this flank if Brighton can work them.
You did the double over us last season, although we actually gave two of our better performances against the big six against you. What did you make of those two fixtures?
They were two tough games, the match at our place especially. Chris Hughton teams are always well coached defensively and that proved to be a real stumbling block in breaking you down in both matches.
I’m expecting a much more open game this time as Graham Potter likes to play a much more attacking brand of football. If Poch again uses the 4-3-1-2 diamond we’ve been seeing, they’ll be a lot of space for your wing backs and wide forwards, so I’m expecting a few goals.
Who do you think will be this season’s top four and who is going down?
Such a tough question this early in the season, but for top four I’ve got Liverpool, Man City, Tottenham and Leicester. Going down will be Sheffield United, Watford and Newcastle.
Finally, a prediction for Saturday?
Spurs to win 2-1.
In the unlikely event that the Albion do manage to beat Spurs, why not remind Mark of his 2-1 prediction by following and tweeting Spurs Fanatic on Twitter. Incidentally, we’ve also gone for a 2-1 Tottenham win as our prediction.
