Premier League 2019/20: Burnley vs Tottenham – tactical analysis

In the Premier League game week 29, Tottenham travelled to Turf Moor to challenge Burnley. José Mourinho’s team were knocked out by Norwich in the FA Cup in their midweek fixture and so they were looking to bounce back and continue their fight to reach the Champions League qualification spot.

Burnley were the better side in this game; their xG total of 3.57 was more than a triple of Tottenham’s 1.06. Before a quarter of an hour had passed, Sean Dyche’s team had scored first through Chris Wood’s goal. In the second half, Mourinho made some tactical changes and Dele Alli equalized from a spot-kick.

In this tactical analysis, we will show you how Burnley drew against Tottenham at home. It is an analysis that focuses on tactics.

Lineups

Dyche’s team played in a 4-4-2. The starting eleven was similar to the last game, and the only change was playing Chris Wood with Jay Rodriguez instead of Matěj Vydra. Dwight McNeil played as the left-winger, he had a pretty good game along with the left-back, Charlie Taylor.

Mourinho rotated his squad after the 120-minute clash in midweek and the Portuguese also switched the formation to a 3-4-3. Toby Alderweireld joined Eric Dier and Davinson Sánchez as a back three. Japhet Tanganga started as the right wing-back. Tanguy Ndombélé started with the youngster Oliver Skipp at the midfield. Erik Lamela replaced Lucas Moura as the right-winger and Alli continued to play as a striker.

Tottenham’s offensive inefficacy

First, we want to illustrate Tottenham’s first phase of their attack. For the away team, their xG in the first half was merely 0.06 from two shots, despite enjoying 51% of possession. Their attacks were ineffective and inefficient due to a series of issues.

Everyone knows how Mourinho’s team was going to set their build-up positionings. It would be a back three with a pair of pivots, regardless of the formation. Then, they had both wide players pushing high to provide the width, who, in this game, were the wing-backs. These are highlighted in the following image.