Tottenham's Defensive Woes: Are Ange Postecoglou's Tactics to Blame for Spurs' Early Struggles?

Four points from four matches represent a disappointing start to the 2024-25 Premier League campaign for Tottenham Hotspur, especially considering how impressively they started last season. By now, the two major shortcomings of Ange Postecoglou’s approach have become well-established. There’s a problem with Spurs’ high defensive line and their inability to defend set pieces. Yesterday’s 1-0 defeat by Arsenal has inevitably been blamed on the second issue, with Cristian Romero losing Arsenal’s Gabriel for the winner. But the first problem shouldn’t be underestimated either.

Spurs' High Defensive Line: A Tactical Issue?

The problem with a high defensive line is often considered in basic terms: if your defence is high up the pitch, they leave space in behind that can be exploited. The team were missing Yves Bissouma against Arsenal but it was clearly an issue for the crucial goal in Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle in the previous game, too. But in Micky van de Ven, Tottenham have the speediest defender in the league, and he’s generally capable of covering that space. The issue, therefore, often isn’t the space in behind the defence: it’s the space in front after the back four have retreated.

Here’s one example from Sunday, 30 seconds into the second half. Tottenham are trying to press high up, with right-back Pedro Porro moving forward in advance of holding midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur to join the four attacking midfielders and the centre-forward Dominic Solanke in the opposition half. Jurrien Timber plays the ball over his head, and Arsenal go on the attack.

And this is the result — an odd situation where it’s suddenly Arsenal’s four attackers against four Spurs players and everyone else is completely out of the game. Therefore, the issue isn’t that Arsenal might go in behind suddenly, but more that they could work the ball backwards and have space in front of the defence.

Eventually, the move ended up in this situation, with Gabriel Martinelli firing the ball across goal towards Bukayo Saka, although Guglielmo Vicario intercepted and the flag was up for offside anyway. Tottenham’s players had got themselves back into the right-back zone, but look at the huge amount of space on the edge of the penalty box…

That foreshadowed a later move.

It came from a situation when Tottenham pushed lots of men forward into the opposition box, but Arsenal cleared and found Kai Havertz about to run in behind. OK, no problem for Tottenham — the defender here is Van de Ven and he won’t be outrun.

But, if anything (Clive), Van de Ven is actually too fast — because Havertz knows he has no chance of beating him. Therefore he made the intelligent decision to turn backwards, which you suspect he might not have done against any other Premier League defender.

He then played a backwards pass to Martinelli and this is Spurs’ real problem: the space in front of the retreating defensive line.

Martinelli had space to play the ball sideways — and again, albeit with Martinelli on the floor, Arsenal had their four attackers against four Spurs defenders. Spurs have covered the space in behind well, but it’s the space in front that is more of a concern.

Arsenal could have worked this situation better. Eventually, Spurs got men back and Arsenal are forced to settle for a corner. But that corner brought the only goal.

This does appear to be a constant issue. Here’s an early chance for Newcastle in their 2-1 win over Tottenham.

It comes from a simple Nick Pope kick downfield, which Anthony Gordon does well to control. Again, any other Premier League centre-back would be worried by the speed of Alexander Isak here, but Van de Ven has it covered.

Yet again the problem is the space in front. Despite the fact Tottenham were using two holding midfielders in the first half of this game, Gordon has space and freedom to come inside and play in Harvey Barnes, who also has space to do his usual thing: cutting inside and curling towards the far top corner. This effort whistled just wide.

Spurs' Attacking Issues

For a good example of the speed and determination Spurs need from their attackers, they can look to Martinelli.

Ten minutes after the goal, when Solanke won the ball from Leandro Trossard, Martinelli was wide-left, seemingly out of the game, and could be reasonably expected to throw his arms up in the air because of this needless turnover.

Instead, Martinelli sprinted back to close down Dejan Kulusevski in the centre circle, fouling him in the process…

But Kulusevski had offloaded the ball and referee Jarred Gillett played advantage. Although Martinelli was on the floor, he got up, sprinted back again and then made a crucial challenge in the left-back position…

He promptly got up and tried, in vain, to keep the ball in.

Spurs’ problem isn’t entirely about work rate. It’s also about organisation; if the forwards press, get bypassed and are out of the game, they will struggle to recover their positions.

But that type of determination to sprint back into a position close to the back four is often lacking from Spurs’ attacking players, perhaps with the exception of Kulusevski.

It’s all very well and good having Van de Van’s recovery speed — but if others aren’t able to recover their positions, too, then opposition chances are merely delayed, rather than prevented.

Spurs' Set-Piece Defending

Postecoglou, who has previously been dismissive of concerns about Spurs' defending at set pieces, said his side were punished for a momentary lapse. “I thought we handled them well ... but it only takes one,” he said.

Conclusion: A Work in Progress

It is still early in the season, and Tottenham have time to turn things around. But Postecoglou will need to find a way to address the team's defensive vulnerabilities if they want to challenge for the title this season. His commitment to attacking football is admirable, but he needs to find a balance between attack and defense to make Tottenham a truly competitive team.