Tottenham wins four games in a row, no victory without shooting

Tottenham wins four games in a row, no victory without shooting

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▲ Tottenham, 1-1 draw against Wolverhampton ▲ Tottenham, 5 goals in the last 6 games (the EPL team tied for 4th in the current period) ▲ Tottenham, 2nd in the minimum shooting after Sheffield with 87 shots in the last 10 games ▲ Tottenham, the last 10 8.67 goals scored in the match, second from the bottom behind West Brom

[골닷컴] Reporter Kim Hyun-min = Tottenham Hotspur played defensively even after scoring the first goal in a match against Wolverhampton Wanderers, and had to be satisfied with a 1-1 draw. Tottenham has been suffering from a scoring drought, consistent with overly defensive play in his last 10 games.

Tottenham scored a 1-1 draw in the 15th round of the 2020/21 English Premier League (EPL) against Wolverhampton at the Mollinho Stadium. Tottenham was ranked No. 1 in the EPL even up to round 12, but fell to 5th place after falling into a slump of 2 draws and 2 losses in the last 4 games.

In this match, Tottenham operated with a surprise 3-4-1-2 formation rather than the usual 4-2-3-1. This seems to have been a paving stone to counter Wolverhampton using three-back and two-top. Son Heung-min and Harry Kane made a two-top, and Tanggi Ndombele was positioned as a central attacking midfielder to support the attack. Sergio Regilon and Matt Doherty were in charge of the left and right flanks, and Harry Winks, not Musa Sissoko, appeared as a defensive midfield partner for Pierre-Emil Hoivier. With Eric Dyer as the center, Davinson Sanchez and Ben Davis stood left and right to build a three-back, and the goal was kept by goalkeeper Hugo Joris as always.

Editor’s recommendation

Tottenham Starter Lineup vs Wolverhampton

However, even Wolverhampton went on to 4-2-3-1 instead of 3-4-1-2. They came out with the opposing team formation, not their main formation. Tottenham’s manager Josu Mourinho moved Son Heung-min to the right flank midfield, Legilon advanced to the left flank midfield, and changed again with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Ben Davis as the left flank. I had to take it.

Tottenham went ahead with a surprise opening goal at the start of the game. Son Heung-min’s corner kick was shed in front, and Davis intercepted that the defense was clearing the pass, and Ndombele scored the goal with a powerful right-footed mid-range shot.

On the 13th minute, on the 13th minute, Ndombele’s cross was headed by Regilon but went slightly off the target. Then, in the 20th minute, Ndombele intercepted, followed by a single breakthrough, and Regilon gave the pass with a shot, but this was headed in front of the goalkeeper.

But that was actually all of the Tottenham attack. Afterwards, Tottenham seemed to concentrate on defense without even attempting an offense attack. This can be confirmed by recording. In this match, Tottenham’s shots were all six. Five of these took place 20 minutes after the game started. Tottenham’s shot after the 20th minute was all a free kick that Dyer tried from a distance in the 13th minute. It was Tottenham who spent 70 minutes defending.

When Tottenham switched defensively, Wolverhampton aggressively attacked. On the 27th minute, right flank defender Nelsson Semedo’s flanking cross followed by front-line striker Fabio Silva took a non-stop shot in front of the goal, but the goal was narrowly missed. In the 39th minute, Sanchez headed the cross of right-wing striker Adama Traore, and attacking midfielder Daniel Podense took a non-stop volley shot, which was blocked by Joris goalkeeper. The first half ended with Tottenham’s 1-0 lead.

In the second half, Wolverhampton began to attack in earnest. In particular, Huben Neves’ mid-range shot in the 21st minute of the second half and Pedro Neto’s mid-range shot in the 22nd minute of the second half passed through Tottenham’s defense and narrowly missed the goal. Accordingly, in the 18th minute of the second half, coach Mourinho threw Kang-su, excluding Legilon, and putting in flank striker Stephen Verbine. This was a paving stone to overcome the overly pushed phase by strengthening the attack. However, as Verbain did not provide any assistance in the attack, this was an unsuccessful replacement.

In the end, Tottenham’s attack reinforcement card failed, and in the second half of the 25th minute, Tottenham began to strengthen the defense by subtracting Ndombele, who was the best among Tottenham players, and adding defensive midfielder Sisoko. Finally, with 6 minutes left for the game, Eric Lamela replaced Son Heung-min.

However, with such defensive reinforcement, Tottenham allowed a heading goal to Wolverhampton center defender Roman Sais in the course of defending a corner two minutes after Son Heung-min went out. As it is, the match ended with a 1-1 draw.

In the end, Tottenham ended up in a 1-1 draw against Wolverhampton and fell into a slump in the last 4 consecutive games. The bigger problem is that Tottenham’s shortage of shooting wasn’t what happened today. In particular, it is exposing a rapidly decreasing problem in the second half. Accordingly, the British public broadcaster’BBC”s EPL match review program’Match of the Day (MOTD)’ started with Tottenham’s 9th round against Manchester City (hereinafter referred to as Man City) on November 21, and only shot 22 times in the second half of the last 7 games. I pointed out that it was a joint bottom line with West Brom. Even the effective shot was the lowest alone with six.

Number of shots in the second half of Tottenham's last 7 games

7 games are not all. Also, the number of shots is not limited only in the second half. Even if the range has been expanded to the last 10 full-time games, Tottenham is recording the second-lowest shot after Sheffield United (86) with 87 shots. Sheffield is a team that has fallen to the unrivaled last season this season, with no wins yet.

Due to the small number of shots, the expected goal (abbreviation for xG: Expected Goals, a statistic that calculates the expected score based on the shooting point and situation) is inevitable. Tottenham’s expected goals in his last 10 games were 8.67 goals, the lowest after West Brom (5.95 goals). As Kane and Son Heung-min score more goals than expected goals based on their excellent determination, it is safe to assume that they are barely scoring more than one goal per game while scoring 11 goals in the last 10 games.

Moreover, when he leads, he falls too defensively, so he belongs to the side with a lot of losses at the end of the game. In fact, Tottenham lost nine points in five matches this season, allowing a goal with 10 minutes left. This is the most lost victory point among all EPL teams. They are winning against Newcastle (round 3 1-1 draw), West Ham (round 5 3-3 draw), Crystal Palace (round 12 1-1 draw), and Wolverhampton (round 15 1-1 draw). He ended in a draw and lost a whopping 8 points. In the 13th round against Liverpool, he lost 1-2 points in a 1-1 draw situation and lost 1 point. In particular, despite having a 3-0 lead in the game against West Ham, he allowed 3 runs with 10 minutes left to finish the game, and missed the victory.

At the beginning of this season, Tottenham produced a number of goals through the role change of Kane and Son Heung-min, directing him to run at first place in surprise. As Kane descends to the midfielder line, he lures the defenders and stabs a through pass, and Son Heung-min, who digs into the space behind the defense, finishes it.

However, this attack pattern is now understood by other EPL teams. Now, the opposing teams either keep their defensive position without chasing Kane whenever they face Tottenham, or leave the defensive midfielder to defend Kane. When the situation turned out like this, Son Heung-min has only scored zero in three consecutive games in the recent official tournament. Kane scored a goal in the League Cup against Stoke City, but in terms of EPL alone, there were no goals in three consecutive games.

In other words, in order for Tottenham to escape from the slump of winning four games in a row, it is necessary to be more aggressive than it is now. Beyond the simple player quality problem, the line itself is too far down the defensive side. Right now, against Wolverhampton, the average position of Tottenham players was formed below Wolverhampton. In particular, before Man City, except for Kane and Son Heung-min, they were located under the half line. Man City, on the other hand, was on top of the half line, except for central defenders Aymeric Lafort and Huben Dias (see average position below). Even teams with less quality offensive resources than Tottenham are aggressive. There is no goal without a shot, and no victory without a goal.

Tottenham vs Man City average location

# Worst 5 shots in the last 10 EPL games

1st Sheffield United: 86th
#2 Tottenham: Episode 87
3. West Brom: Episode 88
#4 Burnley: Episode 89
5th Newcastle: Episode 90

# Expected Score Worst 5 in the last 10 EPL games

#1 West Brom: 5.95 goals
2nd Tottenham: 8.67 goals
3rd Southampton: 9.09 goals
4. Burnley: 9.77 goals
5. West Ham: 9.97 goals

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