The race for European football qualification in the Premier League is really heating up as we enter the final months of the campaign. There are a host of clubs battling it out to gain access to next season’s competitions such as the UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. One club that has had something of a love-hate relationship with European qualification in recent years is Tottenham Hotspur, and their bid to finish in the top four took a huge blow in their most recent game thanks to a 4-1 battering at the hands of Leicester City.
This heavy defeat comes after Spurs beat Manchester City 1-0 the previous weekend, and that pairing of unpredictable results has been the story of their season so far – inconsistency. Leicester City have also had their struggles this season. In recent years, the foxes have been a regular when it comes to fighting for European football, but at the time of writing, they sit in 13th position – in fairness, they are in form as of late so don’t rule them out yet!
In this tactical analysis, we will look at what went wrong for Antonio Conte’s side, with an analysis of what allowed Brendan Rodgers’ team to become the victors on the day particularly their impressive work in exploiting spaces and how their tactics enhanced their success in those areas.
Lineups
Rodgers left very few surprised by setting his team up in the familiar 4-2-3-1 shape, with the same back four that lined up in City’s 4-2 win at Aston Villa last week. There was one change in midfield, however, with Youri Tielemans being replaced by Nampalys Mendy in the deeper region of midfield, with Mendy getting himself on the scoresheet too. Kelechi Iheanacho continued to keep veteran Jamie Vardy out of the starting 11, and he repaid his manager’s faith with another goal.
Conte opted again for his 5-4-1 shape which would sometimes become a 3-4-2-1 in possession, with a number of changes occurring. With Hugo Lloris ruled out thanks to an injury, Spurs were forced to call upon Fraser Forster to put the gloves on. New signing Pedro Porro started in the right wing-back position; Ivan Perišić played the same role on the opposite flank. Japhet Tangana was the man tasked with filling in for the suspended Cristian Romero. The midfield and attacking united remained unchanged, with Rodrigo Bentancur grabbing the goal for his team.
Spurs’ gameplan visible early on
More often than not, you know what you’re getting from a Conte team, tactically speaking. Of course, this isn’t a bad thing at face value – you only have to look at what the Italian has achieved in his managerial career to know that he is pretty clued up when it comes to a gameplan. He hasn’t managed to quite strike the same consistent balance at Tottenham yet, but even in the opening 10-15 minutes, you could see the gameplan. You could see that Spurs had a system in mind to try and conquer Leicester.
