Tottenham’s Defensive Evolution
By Ryan Wrenn
WhoScored classifies any pass exceeding 25 yards as a long ball. All three players best their counterparts in long balls and clearances, the latter of which is simply a long ball that couldn’t find its target. In its simplest form, the long ball is the quickest way to get the ball farther away from your own net and closer to the opposition’s.
The frequency of their use has declined in recent decades as play as become more sophisticated and teams have been more inclined to build from the back in pass-happy, possession-based approaches. It’s making a comeback now precisely in reaction to this latter development, and it’s working. Manchester United and Southampton embraced the long ball last term to a surprising amount of success.
The long ball’s defensive qualities are evident, but what’s often lost is that if properly wielded their use can also be a potent component of a successful offense. Teams like Spurs who rely on retrieving the ball as quickly as possible consequently also rely on quick transitions from one phase of play to the other. The long ball fits that latter need perfectly: there is no faster route to a winger’s boot than a punt from the back line.
Naturally, the longball’s offensive qualities are rooted in the technical ability of the player’s delivering them. A blindly punted ball won’t do. These balls need to reliably distributed to an offensive trio or quartet that is primed to run down and retrieve them on their way to goal.
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Both Wimmer and Alderweireld come from teams last season – Köln and Southampton respectively – that built their defenses around this new generation of long balls much more than Spurs did prior to this summer. It’s no coincidence that Spurs’ head of recruitment, Paul Mitchell, was formerly of Southampton. His recruitment there largely influenced Southampton coach Ronald Koeman’s surprisingly competitive team last season.
In addition to his talents with long balls, Trippier seems also to be much more involved in offense than Walker was last term. It wasn’t a typical season for Walker, and it was shortened considerably by injury, but everything about last season’s numbers suggest that Trippier deserves a start in this new-look Tottenham defense.
Oddly enough, this would not be the first time Spurs have dabbled in the dark arts of the long ball. Indeed, Spurs’ struggles began not when they sold Gareth Bale, but when they sold Luka Modrić the summer before. The Croatian midfielder was the crucial fulcrum around which Harry Redknapp’s counterattacking side thrived. It was in no small part through his accurately fired long balls from deep midfield that Spurs earned their first Champions League spot in 2010. Levy evidently failed to realize how crucial Modrić was and thus never attempted to adequately replace his primarily product. Until now.
Spurs’ new project, with Pochettino and Mitchell at the helm, is now aggressively making up for lost time. It’s unlikely that all three of these players will take the field together. They’ll either be paired with one of the four existing Spurs players included in the above tables, and/or be understudies for a time. If Pochettino can find a way to integrate them into the first squad though, he can expect to find new dimensions to Spurs’ play on both sides of the ball.