Nuno Espírito Santo Tactics At Al-Ittihad 2022/2023 – How He Reinvented His Tactical Model In The Middle East

Nuno Espírito Santo’s time at Tottenham Hotspur went horribly wrong.

After sitting at the top of the Premier League with the Lilywhites in the first few games of the season, having beaten champions Manchester City on the opening week, things were looking promising.

However, by November, Spurs were sitting in eighth, ten points adrift of top spot.

After a 3-0 defeat suffered at the hands of a Manchester United side that was struggling in its own regard, the board took action.

Nuno was relieved of his duties and replaced by Antonio Conte.

It was the first time the Portuguese coach had been out of work in English football, having had wonderful success with Wolverhampton Wanderers, guiding the side to the UEFA Europa League in 2019 in their first season back in the top flight.

The former Porto head coach had earned a reputation for playing highly conservative football and building a solid defensive foundation, making Wolves a team that nobody wanted to face.

Nevertheless, for reasons unknown, Nuno could not instill this solidity in London, and the defensive style of football didn’t quite click with the Tottenham Hotspur faithful.

Nuno took a sabbatical for eight months before returning to the world of football management, taking charge of Saudi Arabian giants Al-Ittihad, which may have seemed like an eyebrow-raising career choice at the time.

Regardless, six months into his tenure in the Middle East, Al-Ittihad are sitting just two points behind league leaders Al-Nassr, who have just added Cristiano Ronaldo to their already stacked squad under the former Lyon boss, Rudi Garcia.

The Jeddah-based club are in an early title race in the Saudi Professional League and have lost just once under the tactician’s tutelage, playing a style of football so alienated from what we have become accustomed to from a Nuno side.

This piece will be a tactical analysis of Nuno’s Al-Ittihad, in the form of a team scout report.

This analysis will examine the tactics employed by the former Wolves and Spurs boss with the Tigers thus far.

Nuno Espírito Santo Formations

The UEFA Champions League-winning goalkeeper with Porto earned a reputation for playing an extremely well-drilled 3-4-3 at Molineux.

Often, the shape would convert into a 5-4-1 for large parts of Wolves’ games when Nuno’s men were sitting in a low block, making it really difficult for teams to break them down.

However, in his final campaign in the West Midlands, when performances and results had fallen off the edge of a cliff in comparison to the previous three seasons, Nuno looked to change Wolves’ formation, moving away from his preferred 3-4-3 to a slightly more expansive 4-2-3-1.

When Nuno took over at Spurs, following the sacking of the legendary Jose Mourinho, there was an expectation that the North London club would switch from a 4-2-3-1, which was primarily used under ‘The Special One’, to the new manager’s preferred 3-4-3.

But this never happened.