Everything was at stake for Tottenham against Inter at Wembley on Wednesday. Only a win was enough to make their aim of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League a reality. Luckily for the Londoners, they managed to beat Inter with a late Christian Eriksen winner. It was an even match which could have gone either way but Spurs got the vital win. This tactical analysis will look at the tactical trends of the game, particularly Mauricio Pochettinos active match coaching.
Teams
Tottenham came into the game with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Christian Eriksen surprisingly on the bench. Lucas Moura and Erik Lamela were instead preferred either side of Dele Alli. Inter saw the return of Marcelo Brozovic to the team as they also sat up in a 4-2-3-1 with the Croatian joining Matias Vecino in midfield behind Radja Nainggolan.
Both teams movements in possession
Both sides showed some interesting movements in possession. Mostly it was Tottenham who showed different rotations to cause Inter some confusion. In the build-up phase, Tottenham would have one of the two central midfielders, Moussa Sissoko or Harry Winks, drop outside of the two centre-backs. This created a 3 vs 2 against Inters first line of pressure to help with the progression of the ball. In truth, Inter were quite passive in their pressure and dropped deeper than expected. Still, the movements were important in allowing Tottenham to gain access to the wide areas which were often exploited as they looked to attack. Below we see how first Sissoko and then Winks drops outside the centre-backs to get on the ball.
Above you see how Sissoko has dropped out of his central position into the space vacated by the right-back Aurier as the Ivorian pushed forward. Below you see Winks dropping in that space on the left with Ben Davies having gone higher.
Subscribe To TFA To Unlock All Posts - Free 7 Day Trial
Try TFA Free For 7 Days
Gain access to all of TFA's premium contents.More than 12,000+ articles.
