Harry Redknapp defends Tottenham boss over criticism of north London derby tactics

[fishhhandaricecake]

It's one thing actually instructing players to push high up and it's another actually giving them a structure/strategy that they can rely on to push high up the pitch. I mean, it's a bloody obvious thing to tell a player to "push up" or "press" but have you given him the muscle memory in training on how to do it and how to do it as a team? For example, whenever Ndombele or Hojbjerg received the ball in attacking transition they looked hurried, they looked lost, they rarely had players surrounding them and they ended up giving the ball away repeatedly. Players can give the ball away and have bad games but it doesn't seem to matter who it is, when we face a team with quality and a good strategy we struggle to find our way out. That is not all down to mentality, it simply isn't.

If you watch countless teams across Europe, they will be able to find a way out of a press at some point and have a sustained spell of possession, unless they are playing City. You want to give teams a strategy that requires them to think less and just do. Our players look lost most of the time and don't know where to turn to or move the ball to. That's because they don't have a system that they can rely on and they don't know where their team-mates are going to move to, it all seems to be based on instinct, and then players get marked out of situations due to it.

Can you honestly say we'd have played the same yesterday under Parker, Gerrard, Potter, Nagelsmann, Rose, Ten Hag? No, the players would have understood what to do more and wouldn't have looked as lost.

Why is Jose not pulling players aside and saying 'when he gets the ball, move here' etc etc? Because it all feels a little reactionary.

Also, Poch became frustrated with players pressing because they'd spent the best part of 3 years tirelessly doing it and couldn't give 110% anymore.

Spot on.

You or I could stand there shouting at them to push up but if they don't have the structure and understanding of how and when to press and also how to play out from the back and pass through an opposing press/pressure then its pointless.

It's clear as day that Jose's tactics aren't working because we've lost our last 8 games against top half opposition and most of the times we've been pretty dominated just hoping to score with 1 or 2 attacks.

 

[Metalhead]

Spot on.

You or I could stand there shouting at them to push up but if they don't have the structure and understanding of how and when to press and also how to play out from the back and pass through an opposing press/pressure then its pointless.

It's clear as day that Jose's tactics aren't working because we've lost our last 8 games against top half opposition and most of the times we've been pretty dominated just hoping to score with 1 or 2 attacks.

It's a pity because this could (have) be(en) a renaissance for Jose as there is no reason why someone that is so experienced can't continuously adapt and there are some areas where he has (his policy with youth seems pretty decent and there seems to at least be strategy there). One thing is that he is working with coaches who are either inexperienced or not experienced enough to be able to feed back their own ideas (or at least I assume they can't) or perhaps are just on board with that philosophy. One assumes that Daniel knows as much about tactics as anyone on here but he has always been someone who won't interfere in that regard.

 

[UbeAstard]

In all fairness I think that the starting XI was ok.
Doherty has been improving lately, which is probably why he was picked over Serge.

tbh I was surprised that Doherty wasn’t able to defend against Smith-Rowe.

we clearly have a tendency for being overly defensive, and that is costing us loaaads of points this season.

I dont think Doherty had/has improved enough for me to trust him in the biggest games, and thats not being wise after.

 

[blankom]

I dont think Doherty had/has improved enough for me to trust him in the biggest games, and thats not being wise after.

If Serge had started, and had a terrible game - most of us would have questioned why Doherty didn’t start since his form has been improving.

 

[Shadydan]

If Serge had started, and had a terrible game - most of us would have questioned why Doherty didn’t start since his form has been improving.

Yeah, maybe not.

 

[Johnny J]

Perhaps they think he's shouting "chess" and so they stop moving and wait for the opponent to go first.