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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has been renowned for his pressing style of play ever since arriving in England back in 2013, but a shocking statistic revealed by Sky Sports says Spurs are doing it less than any other Premier League team so far this season.
On the chalkboard
The Argentine transformed Southampton into a team who ran their socks off from the front to close down their opponents and put them under pressure, and it was a similar tactic to the one he implemented at Tottenham following his appointment at White Hart Lane.
At that time, the 47-year-old helped the young Kane become sharper, and the England international was willing to be the first line of defence by working his socks off.
However, it appears to be a different story in more recent times – and especially so far this term – following Sky Sports’ interesting investigative work.
In 2019/20 to date, the north London outfit have forced just the 31 pressed sequences in their four top flight fixtures, with Everton leading the way on 68 – proof of the huge gulf between the two.
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Harry Kane to blame?
As we mentioned previously, to play the pressing game you need a centre-forward to set the tone from the very front, but as Sky Sports suggest, it’s difficult to say whether Kane is able to do this effectively any longer.
While his goalscoring record – 157 goals in 267 games for Tottenham – is never in doubt, it appears as though his ankle injury issues may be catching up on him, as he prefers to drop deep to get the ball rather than running in behind, for example.
That intensity needed from the front clearly isn’t there and that has ultimately meant that Pochettino has had to try and find a new way of playing, because it is almost unthinkable to drop a striker who has proven to be so effective over so many seasons.
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One option excluding Kane would be to play Son, Dele Alli and Lucas Moura – as they did away at Ajax in the Champions League semi-final earlier this year – to replicate a classic and effective Pochettino-style performance.
Based on the last few weeks however, it is looking increasingly likely that Spurs need to move away from that if they want to carry on accommodating the Three Lions captain.
And let’s be honest, it is a huge sacrifice for the Argentine to make given the success he has had using the tactic since arriving in England.
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