It's a big London derby this Sunday which means time for a thread on Spurs! 🐓
I'll try to look at Spurs' strengths & weaknesses and conclude with my XI to beat them.
Mourinho is such a great tactician that it's nearly impossible to guess his exact setup but I'll try here. (1)
Expected to line-up in a 4-2-3-1, Spurs' game plan will be to frustrate us & try to nick a goal on counter.
Defensively, they sit in a 4-4-2, with the 2 front players (Kane & Ndombele) focused on cutting off passing lanes to midfield rather than pressing the CBs too hard. (2)
Spurs' two CMs and wingers sit narrow and mark the opposition CMs & cut-off passing lanes to them respectively.
This strategy of cutting off passing lanes into midfield from Spurs makes Thiago Silva's diagonals to our attacking FBs/wingers even more important in this game. (3)
To counter, Spurs utilise the pace of their wingers while Kane, who is an excellent playmaker, is the one who becomes the pivot to launch these counters.
Kane likes to drop deep, drawing the opposition CBs out of position. This leaves space for the Spurs' wingers to run into (4)
To stop this, it's very important for our players to remain positionally disciplined.
Silva's experience should help in this while Kante's presence in the space infront of defence will be key in putting pressure on Kane and stopping him from picking passes from those areas. (5)