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)
When in possession, the Spurs full-backs love to bomb forward while their 2CMs cover for them. This at times leaves them vulnerable to quick counters.

The pace and 1v1 ability of our front players especially Tammy and Timo could be extremely useful in such situations. (6)
Toby is a big miss for Spurs in defence. His absence leaves them short in experience & their other CBs are prone to lapses in concentration which can be exploited.

Toby's absence also leaves Spurs vulnerable at set-pieces and is another area which we should try and target. (7)
Players to watch out for:

• Kane - Excellent playmaker & finisher. To stop him, Kante & Silva will be key.

• Son - Kane's partner in crime. A disciplined defence is key to stop him.

• Hojbjerg - Rock in the middle. Any loose passes/touches and this guy will eat you up. (8)
Spurs Weak Areas:

• Flanks - Spurs give up space on flanks. The quality from our wide players & FBs will be crucial in this game. Need to overload this area to force Spurs to come wide which in turn will create space in the middle

• Set-pieces - No Toby, less experience (9)
My preferred XI to beat them

• RJ & Ben the key players & we need them on top form

• Tammy & Timo to continue their brilliant partnership

• Kai in for his passing ability & threat from range. Kovacic tends to play a few loose passes which could be costly in this game (10)

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