Wide pressing traps and defensive solidity: what we can expect from Nuno at Spurs – tactical analysis

Tottenham Hotspur have moved from one Portuguese manager to another, with Nuno Espirito Santo being appointed as Jose Mourinhos successor at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, via an interim spell for Ryan Mason. Nuno does seem to be a rather belated choice for Daniel Levy, with Spurs having tried and failed to bring in Antonio Conte, Erik ten Hag, Paulo Fonseca and Gennaro Gattuso before finally settling for the former Wolves manager. However, there is reason to be optimistic about this appointment, as Nuno has shown his managerial acumen during a superb spell in charge of Wolves, who became a solid Premier League side following a Championship-winning season where they blew most teams away. He has also previously managed at Porto and Valencia, with mixed results, and in this tactical analysis piece, we will break down Nunos philosophy and past managerial record to try and predict what he may do while in charge of Tottenham.

His work at Valencia, Porto and Wolves

Nuno spent four seasons at Wolves, before which he had a solitary season in charge of Porto, and two seasons as Valencia head coach. Before we look at some specific tactical examples and situations, it will be informative to look at his past managerial record to try and understand just what to expect at Tottenham in the upcoming Premier League season.

This table has a few key metrics from Nunos last five seasons as a manager (data was not available for the 2014-15 season when he was in charge of Valencia, while he was fired just a couple of months into the 2015-16 season, making comparisons to that season pretty useless). We can see that the final position in the league table was largely dependent on the quality of the squad and team  he took Porto to second place in the Primeira Liga behind Benfica in 2016-17, and won the Championship handsomely with Wolves the next season, but has been largely in and around mid-table in the Premier League since. He also finished 4th with Valencia in the 2014-15 season, but a severe downturn in form led to his sacking in November 2015, just a few months after the start of the next season.

In terms of pressing intensity, Nunos teams usually look to sit back and invite the opposition onto them  his solitary season at Porto is the only exception to this, where they had the 2nd-lowest PPDA in the league i.e. they were only behind Benfica in terms of pressing intensity. We can see how his sides have been among the teams with the highest PPDA since then, and this is something that can be expected to take place with Tottenham as well. It is a similar story when it comes to possession as well  barring Porto, his teams have usually averaged under 50% possession, and this points towards Spurs being a team that will look to sit back and counter-attack, rather than one that will take the game to the opposition under Nuno.

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