If the striker stays at Tottenham, his career could be defined by whether he can reel in Alan Shearer’s Premier League recordFootball tactics are complex chains of reasoning. Football tactics have a chaos theory element. Football tactics must always return to certain key tenets of space and movement. Very bright people are employed to stare at this seeking the tiniest margins of influence. But sometimes you do wonder about the obvious things.For example, the great innovation of the past 15 years has been the way teams attack “between the lines”, as embodied by inside-forwards, false 9s and their many shades. We remember the story of Pep Guardiola’s late-night phone call to Lionel Messi back in May 2009, babbling about switching...
Striker burgled a spectacular winning goal but helped his team as a pressing midfielder, playmaker and false forwardAbout an hour before kick-off at the Etihad Stadium a member of staff walks around handing out puzzles. At most grounds they are more popularly known as “team sheets”, but ever since Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City the exercise of deciphering his starting XI has become almost as absorbing as watching it. Brows are furrowed. Heads are scratched. Is that Bernardo Silva as a false 9? João Cancelo in midfield? That can’t be an 8, or a 7, and the 5 goes there, so … Ederson at centre-half?The real trick, of course, is realising that at Guardiola’s City, formations and starting points...
England striker’s continued excellence has kept a flawed Tottenham team in contention for a Champions League placeOne of the common anxieties of football’s age of billionaire owners and nation state PR projects is the fear that clubs will lose their long-standing identities, that they will become instead plasticised entertainment vehicles, anonymous machines for winning. Although not quite yet, it seems. Relax for a moment. Kick back. And take a long cool drink of the mixed and flowing substance that remains forever Spurs.There was at least something reassuringly familiar about the collapse at home to Southampton on Wednesday night. Tottenham may have the greatest new-build ground in Europe. They may have an A-list manager in his mid-career prime. They may have...
Slow tempo is hindering Tottenham’s attacking thrust and a change is needed to get the best from Harry KaneThere are no two ways about it, I found it hard watching Tottenham at West Ham on Sunday. They have scored nine goals in nine Premier League games and their defeat in east London tells us why.Tottenham’s tempo is slow and although it may allow them to control play it hinders their ability to attack. Despite having more than 60% possession against West Ham, Spurs managed four shots on target – without troubling Lukasz Fabianski – because they are not using the ball quickly enough to create chances. Continue reading...
Harry Kane remains a predator and could feast against Andorra and Hungary as he reels in Wayne Rooney’s achievementAs England’s players wander out at the Estadi Nacional on Saturday night, frown down at the plastic and rubber-crumb pitch, and steel themselves for 90 minutes of heavily weighted professional sport, there will be an urge to take out the low-key international week bingo card.We know how these occasions play out. Echoey, somnolent national anthems. An early reference from the TV commentator to the opposition centre-forward’s day job as an abattoir superintendent. Gareth Southgate frowning on his touchline, just about lending a due sense of gravity to a competitive engagement with the 156th-ranked team in the world (Andorra are three spots below...