Bournemouth Vs Tottenham Hotspur [3–2] – Premier League 2025/2026: Andoni Iraola Plan Exposes Spurs Problems – Tactical Analysis

The Premier League is in its busy winter phase, which is often one of the most decisive periods of the season.

On Wednesday, two struggling teams trying to salvage their seasons met, with AFC Bournemouth hosting Tottenham Hotspur in Gameweek 21.

Both teams have struggled over the last couple of months, ending up in the lower half of the midfield in recent weeks, so they are trying to regain some form.

Bournemouth, under manager Andoni Iraola, have not won any of their last 11 games in the Premier League.

After a very successful season, the Cherries are now threatening to drop back into the relegation battle if one of the other teams catches some form somehow.

For Spurs, it’s just another very disappointing season.

After winning the UEFA Europa League last season and qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, expectations were high under new manager Thomas Frank.

Spurs finished last season in the league in a disappointing fashion, and it doesn’t look like there will be a big improvement under the new Danish coach, putting a lot of pressure on Frank already.

In the end, in a hard-fought game, Bournemouth managed to beat Spurs at home thanks to a late goal, their first win in months.

In this tactical analysis, we will look at the tactics used by the two managers, how the game shaped up, and how Bournemouth ended up winning a close contest.

Lineups & Formations

Andoni Iraola did not make too many changes and stuck to his usual 4-4-1-1 formation again in this game.

Djordje Petrovic got the start in goal, with Marcos Senesi as the left centre-half, James Hill as the right centre-half, Adrien Truffert as the left-back and Álex Jiménez on the right defensive side.

In midfield, captain Lewis Cook and young Alex Scott formed the double pivot for the Spanish manager, hoping to control the game.

On the right wing, Marcus Tavernier got the start, and on the left wing, Antoine Semenyo played in what was likely his last game as a Cherry before his transfer to Manchester City is completed.

In the attack, Evanilson was the main physical presence up front, with Eli Kroupi playing as the second striker behind him.

Thomas Frank, on the other side, used a more traditional 4-2-3-1 formation in this away game.

Guglielmo Vicario started in goal once again, with captain Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven forming the centre-back tandem in front of him.

Djed Spence played as the left full-back with Pedro Porro playing on the other side of the backline.

The double pivot consisted of Portuguese international Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur, with Xavi Simons playing as the attacking midfielder in front of a double pivot.

Frenchman Mathys Tel played on the left wing, and Swedish starlet Lucas Bergvall played on the right side, flanking Randal Kolo Muani as the lone striker in this game.

Bournemouth Strength

From the start of the game, Bournemouth were the better side.

Frank had his Spurs focus on defending, and Iraola’s Cherries controlled the ball to start the game.

Spurs tried to play a high-pressing attack, but most of the time Bournemouth played long balls over the press, so Spurs never really managed to get any high regains.

What was interesting was the way Bournemouth played their goal kicks.

Iraola used the same shape most managers do, with two flat centre-backs at the corners of the six-yard box, with the near-sided centre-back starting play.

Instead of playing the ball to the goalkeeper like usual, Bournemouth played passes from the centre-back to the full-back, who stayed flat, but in a very wide position.

This made the initial distance that Spurs had to cover rather big and gave the full-back the opportunity to play long balls without pressure.

Iraola had a clear plan with these long balls; it wasn’t just an idea out of necessity, but rather a clear tactical measure used by the Cherries.

The defenders always chipped the balls into the half-space to one of the strikers, while the near-sided winger and the other striker instantly made runs behind the backline.

This opened up the opportunity to head on these balls and get behind the Spurs backline quickly for Bournemouth, but they struggled with winning those duels in the early stages of the game.

When they were not able to use that pattern of play, Bournemouth tried to find their central midfielder with vertical passes.

In the situation above, the goalkeeper is being pressed by Kolo Muani and therefore cannot play a pass to the outside; instead, he plays a pass into midfield.

These passes were not really played too well, though, and the midfielders often had trouble controlling them, but if they did, they were able to get their full-backs into play quickly again.

When they played over Spurs’ first line of pressure, Bournemouth also had a very vertical, direct approach.

They often got the near-sided midfielder and centre-half into the game and gave them the ball.

The wingers played very inversely for Iraola.

Here, Semenyo pushes inwards, dragging the full-back out of position because Frank played with a man-oriented press.

This opened up space near the sideline, and the full-backs were very aggressive with their runs into those areas.

Here, Truffert makes a very vertical run and receives the long ball over the top from his centre-back.

Spurs had huge problems defending those attacks, with the full-backs out of position, Van de Ven and Romero had to defend towards the outside very often, creating a huge gap between the two centre-backs.

The entire defensive compactness was gone at that moment, and Frank’s men were really chaotic from that moment onwards.

Here, Evanilson is wide open in the centre, and Romero has to defend Truffert at a very high pace, so Bournemouth gets into the box easily, where the shot is blocked.

From the start, Iraola’s men were the better team, but Spurs stung early.

After one of those passes was intercepted, Frank’s men went on the counterattack, where Tel showed his individual class and scored a beautiful goal to give the team from North London the lead.

Keeping The Momentum

Instead of starting to crumble now, Bournemouth kept on playing their game and managed to keep control of the game.

Considering their current form, it was very impressive to see that the team is mentally strong enough to keep fighting through the adversity.

Spurs, on the other hand, did not gain any confidence out of the lead and instead started to fall back into a deep block way too often.

This led Frank’s team to get way too passive, and Evanilson was able to punish it after a free kick, scoring a header while being left wide open.

Bournemouth kept playing through their wings, and they kept prioritising those opposing movements on the wing, but sometimes did it the other way round.

In the situation pictured above, Truffert pushed inwards while Semenyo stayed very wide, dragging apart the deep block.

This enabled the Cherries to switch play through the left half-space thanks to Truffert’s positional play, and the Frenchman quickly played the pass towards the outside to Semenyo, who is now in an isolated 1-v-1 situation.

From there on out, Semenyo cut inside, trying to find one of the two strikers making runs behind the backline with a through-ball.

Once again, the opposing movements were used by Iraola’s men, and now Truffert provides width with Semenyo in the centre.

Spurs very aggressively condensed around Semenyo in the central areas, trying to win the ball there, but instead, Bournemouth now had the ability to switch play again easily.

The Cherries always got their wingers in those situations where they could cut inside, and with their two strikers and one midfielder in the box, they always had the opportunity to cross.

In this case, even Semenyo pushed into the box as well, creating chaos for the Spurs backline.

In the end, the cross comes into the box, but the Spurs defenders are pushed back too close to their own goal and struggle with defending the ball.

This leads to the ball going untouched to the far-post, where Pedro Porro completely lost sight of his man, Senesi.

The defender now just had to square the ball, where both centre-backs completely lost sight of Kroupi, who finishes off the opportunity to give Bournemouth their deserved lead.

Bournemouth had a very clear plan to attack, and it worked out really well for them in this game, especially for Semenyo, who was very involved again.

But we also have to talk about the Spurs defence here.

It wasn’t really a tactical problem, but rather just a lack of aggression and awareness from the players themselves, and it really cost them in the first half.

Spurs Trying & Failing

So to start the second half, Thomas Frank and his men tried to get back into the game and started to dominate possession from then on.

The team tried to attack and managed to get some form of pressure on the Bournemouth defence, but was rarely able to actually generate dangerous situations.

Bournemouth now struggles a bit with getting on the same page defensively.

Their two strikers would try to press the Spurs backline, but the rest of the team rarely helped them out, and Spurs had no trouble playing over them.

Xavi Simons often dropped back now and received the ball deep in his own half, trying to take matters into his own hands and progress the ball.

Simons was the most active player on the pitch, finding progressive passes often to break the lines.

After his vertical passes, he moved well into the final third, ready to receive the ball again.

The rest of the Spurs attackers really struggled, though and often just lost the balls in the final third, simply because they lacked the ideas to create.

In this case, Tel loses the ball, and Spurs only stay in the situation because of multiple failed clearances by the Cherries.

Frank actually had decent positional play from his midfielders in those situations, which was the main reason they even managed to put up some pressure.

With three players at the edge of the box, they were able to collect the second balls and stay in the final third.

Still, Simons was the only player trying to play with a high tempo and actually creating opportunities.

Here, the Dutchman gets the second ball and has the vision to get his right-back running down the wing, but, once again, Porro lacks the situational awareness and starts his run too late, leading to his cross being blocked.

Spurs were only dangerous after corners.

Richarlison hit the post in the 70th minute, the starting bell for a very wild end to the game.

After another corner, Bournemouth had trouble clearing the ball again, and Palhinha scored a beautiful bicycle kick, tying the game.

But in the end, Semenyo had the last laugh with a parting gift to his club.

Despite three players around him, Spurs again failed to get into a duel with the winger, and Semenyo scored the winner from distance for Iraola in his last game for the club.

Conclusion

I think the game was going towards a tie, but in the end, I think Bournemouth deserved the win a little bit more than Spurs.

Iraola gave his men a clear idea and plan; they executed it rather well, but started to struggle in the last couple of minutes because they couldn’t clear the ball.

Over the course of the 90 minutes, Bournemouth was the more aggressive and dangerous team overall.

For Thomas Frank, this could also be the last game for his club.

Pressure is rising, and while they were in the game for the longest time, it was because of their individual class and not their tactical measures.

Tottenham can’t live with another mediocre season and this game didn’t help his cause at all, so I wouldn’t be surprised seeing a different manager in North London soon.