Tottenham need to change their fullback partnerships
Mauricio Pochettino has shown a clear inclination during his time at Tottenham to rotate his fullbacks on a regular basis. Whether playing with a back four, or more recently a back five, his preference has always been to keep his players well rested. Unfortunately, Pochettino is making one crucial error with his fullbacks this season.
Fortunately, it’s only going to require a slight tweak from the Spurs gaffer. Currently, Pochettino is deploying Kieran Trippier and Ben Davies together for some matches. For other encounters, he’s partnered Danny Rose with Serge Aurier. It’s time for those partnerships to get changed up.
I certainly can understand Pochettino’s line of thinking. First off, Trippier and Davies were the fullbacks who entered the season fully fit and engrossed in his training methods. Rose wasn’t healthy to begin the year and Aurier arrived on Deadline Day from PSG. As such, it’s only natural that Davies and Trippier began the season as Pochettino’s first choice pairing.
Things are different now. Rose may not be 100% quite yet, but he’s very close. Aurier has slotted into the team very comfortably since his arrival. Pochettino now has the ability to choose from all four of his top fullbacks.
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The simple truth is that Davies and Trippier are too alike to start in the same XI. Both men have tons of skill on the ball when they’re given time and space. Unfortunately, both men also suffer from a lack of elite athleticism. That makes them vulnerable to attackers with loads of pace.
The problem of pairing Davies and Trippier goes deeper than that though. In terms of the Spurs attack, neither man is really willing to push the opposition with runs to the byline. Instead, they opt to sit back and ping crosses into the box. That isn’t a bad strategy, but it’s duplicative when both men start together. It leaves the Tottenham attack missing something.
In sharp contrast, both Rose and Aurier are more than capable of using their world-class speed to punish opponents on both ends of the pitch. Specifically, Rose adds an extra element to the Tottenham attack with his willingness to run with the ball all the way down the pitch. It’s quite obvious his teammates miss him when he isn’t on the pitch to make those marauding runs.
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The solution is alarmingly simple. Pochettino needs to change up his partnerships. I don’t really have a preference what change he makes, only that he makes one. The team will be much more dynamic by partnering one skillful fullback with one world-class athlete. It’s a simple switch that can pay big time dividends for Spurs.