Tottenham 1-1 Everton: a good tactical battle
The starting line-ups. Cahill and Pienaar interchanged in the first half.
An exciting first half followed by a quieter second, and a result that reflects the balance of play.
Harry Redknapp chose to start with just one striker for the first time at home in the Premier League this season, with Peter Crouch supported by Rafael van der Vaart. Younes Kaboul played alongside William Gallas at the back, and Wilson Palacios came into the centre of midfield.
Everton made two changes from the side that recorded a convincing 2-0 victory over Liverpool last weekend – Mikel Arteta and Leon Osman were both injured, so Diniyar Bilyaletdinov and Steven Pienaar came in, with Pienaar starting in a left-sided midfield role.
The game was relatively open in the first half, despite the prospect of two similar shapes cancelling each other out. Both were using a clearly-defined holding player in the centre of midfield, with Palacios for the home side and Johnny Heitinga for the away side, but further forward it was relatively fluid.
Central midfield battle
Everton were using Pienaar and Tim Cahill interchangeably – one would support Yakubu upfront, whilst the other would drop in alongside Heitinga in a more disciplined role.
The use of either Pienaar or Cahill in the centre of midfield, along with Luka Modric for Tottenham, meant that the second-most attacking midfielder for each side was generally the one with time on the ball.
To explain, Heitinga marked his Dutch international teammate van der Vaart very well indeed (see below), but Everton didn’t have anyone taking care of Modric on a full-time basis, meaning the Croatian found space, having two long-range shots and playing some dangerous balls into the box. Likewise, Modric isn’t great defensively and let Cahill run free, so when Palacios moved across to close down Pienaar, Cahill had time on the ball, and he tested Gomes from long-range.
Wide zones
The battle in the wide areas was relatively subdued, with none of the four wingers having much impact on the game. Seamus Coleman’s natural defensive abilities and sheer pace meant he doubled up well against the in-form Gareth Bale, whilst Aaron Lennon was quiet, and the Spurs full-backs didn’t provide enough attacking support. Everton’s full-backs were probably more adventurous, with Baines in particular motoring forward whenever possible. His superb free-kick gave Everton an early lead.
Spurs’ approach is the same regardless of their formation – they try and get the ball wide and get balls into the box, and therefore the underwhelming performance from their wingers was the main reason they struggled to penetrate the Everton defence. They relied on a dreadful error from Tim Howard to get an equaliser, though it was the already-familiar sight of a Crouch knockdown combined with van der Vaart running onto the second ball that produced the goal. The Dutchman had otherwise been shackled by Heitinga, who tracked him everywhere unless van der Vaart moved deep into midfield – the pattern of his passes in the game (with very few in a central attacking midfield position) shows that well:
Second half
There were two changes at the start of the second half – one in terms of personnel, one in terms of positioning. Harry Redknapp brought off Palacios, who had been shown a yellow card and was in danger of collecting another, and brought on the Brazilian Sandro. David Moyes moved Cahill forward into a more ‘permanent’ attacking midfield role, with Pienaar deeper.
This meant the game took on a different feel in the centre of midfield. Sandro played much higher up the pitch than Palacios, with the Spurs central three rotating , and no real permanent holding player. Cahill got a little more space inbetween the lines, but failed to make the most of this. Meanwhile, the change in Spurs’ midfield didn’t seem to favour van der Vaart, who dropped increasingly deep (both to escape the clutches of Heitinga and as he had slightly more defensive responsibility) and didn’t influence the game in the final third.
Substitutions
The second half was relatively lacking in goalscoring chances, but it did produce an interesting tactical battle between the managers with substitutions towards the end of the game. This started with Harry Redknapp bringing on Roman Pavlyuchenko and going 4-4-2, but rather than pushing van der Vaart to the right (the position he started in against Aston Villa), he put him on the left, with Gareth Bale playing in an unfamiliar right-sided role. This was a recognition both of the threat from Leighton Baines at left-back, and van der Vaart’s tendency to drift across the pitch and switch off defensively – Bale is a better player going towards his own goal, so was used up against Baines.
Moyes then realised there was no need for Heitinga in the centre of the pitch as he wasn’t able to mark van der Vaart, so removed him and brought on Tony Hibbert, who went to right-back up against the Dutchman, with Phil Neville moving into the middle of the pitch. With no direct opponent, Neville played to the right and helped track van der Vaart, so Moyes didn’t need Coleman helping in that zone, and replaced him with a second striker, Jermaine Beckford.
Despite changes that were attacking in theory (both sides went from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 in the second half), there was clearly a great deal of attention paid to keeping things tight defensively and making sure dangermen were marked by appropriate players, and therefore it wasn’t a great surprise that the second half was goalless.
Conclusion
An entertaining game in the first half and an interesting one in the second. These are two good sides with technically-accomplished players, and whilst both set out with attacking intent, the two managers’ desire to nullify each other resulted in a stalemate and a deserved point apiece.
Tottenham 1-1 Everton: a good tactical battle
From what I’ve seen of Everton this season, Heitinga is becoming an increasingly important and versatile player. His positioning seems to be reactive, dropping deep and shackling the opposition playmaker when faced with overtly offensive opposition (e.g. Spurs today) but playing much higher up the pitch if the opposition leave a gap between midfield and attack (e.g. Liverpool last week).
In my opinion he’s more of a threat creatively than he ever used to be, as well as retaining his defensive prowess and has become a vital component of Everton’s system. It’s nice to see him flourishing under Moyes.
Heitinga has been awful this season. Moyes has even taken the (for him) unusual step of questioning his form in public in yesterday’s press conference. For an idea of how pitifully ineffective he has been check out his passing statistics on the chalkboard for the Newcastle game and compare it with the three other central midfielders on the pitch. 16 passes completed compared to 44 for Arteta, 43 for Tiote and 39 for Barton. Today, again, 16 passes. He wasn’t taken off for tactical reasons or because of an injury today, he was taken off because he had carelessly given the ball away twice in the five minutes prior to his substitution, the second a particularly infuriating lapse leading directly to a Spurs counter attack. He did a decent job on vdV off the ball today but Fellaini was sorely missed, and with Rodwell back in training this week Heitinga’s days are numbered. Fans are fast losing patience with him, as is Moyes.
One clarification: I don’t think the Heitinga for Hibbert switch was a tactical one. Heitinga looked like he picked up a knock and was forced to come off, with Hibbert the only man on the bench who could really replace him. It looked as if Moyes was getting ready to bring on Gueye for Bilyaletdinov before he was forced into that switch.
Interesting that mylons, Rorious and ZM all saw the Heitinga substitution as being for different reasons (injury, pathetic ball retention, and tactics); it might have been some combination as well, but I’ll be interested to see what happens when Rodwell and Fellaini are both healthy again.
Zonal Marking, for you which is the more complete team in Barclays Premier League by now?
For me it’s Chelsea.
PS: today it’s the day of the king, I mean, that man that i think it is a king: Pelé. It’s his 70th birthday today. It’s just a information for you.
Till next time, bye bye!
Well, obviously chelsea is the most complete team.
And Happy Birthday PELE!
well Pele was good ,Maradonna was better but George Best !
Hahaha, man.
And Zonal Marking, how old are you man?
Old enough to know better
Interesting game, enternaining first half, more subdued second half.
Good tactical work from Moyes meant that Bale’s influence on the game was minimal, as mentioned, he was doubled up on very well, but I think a poor tactical decision to basically not have a player a doing a specific job on Modric, who did have alot of time in midfield.
Everton seemed to have a specific ploy of dealing with Crouch, sandwich him between Jagielka and P.Neville. Personally, I think they can count themselves very lucky they didn’t give away at least two penalties. Firstly, the act involves no attempt to play the ball what so ever, and numerous times the act was carried out with Phil Neville giving Crouch a shove in the back.
When Defoe comes back, it’s an interesting conondrum for ‘Arry. Who do you sacrifice/minimise the effect of in order to play Defoe? Redknapp is a 4-4-2 man prodominently, he has played 4-5-1 a few times recently, but that is more down to the injured Defoe than his preference for the system, so what does happen? I think 4-4-2 is outdated and flawed, but a midfield five of Huddlestone, Modric, VDV, Lennon, Bale is easily one of the best midfields in the league. A 4 of Huddlestone, Modric, Bale, VDV (out of position) and at the expense of Lennon is not as strong, but thats the midfield four I see Redknapp playing in order to go 4-4-2 with Crouch and Defoe up top. It’s a case of whether the mainly all out attack 4-4-2 will beat teams who are going to be organised, disciplined and out to man mark Spurs and overun them from midfield.
yeah, that’s also the problem with players like defoe, they always need formations with 2 central strikers…
I think it will simply depend on the opposition. I’d like to think Harry will keep 3 or 4 options permanently in mind and not just have one default way of playing. It’s amazing to have serious alternatives available rather than simple like-for-like swaps.
Crouch really bothers some teams, especially in Europe. He distorts defences even if he sometimes doesn’t threaten goal like he should.
Speaking of which – in response to ZM’s recent piece on Crouch’s underrated aerial ability – Crouch had, what, 2 or 3 completely uncontested headers from 6 yards out and failed to seriously threaten Everton’s goal. He’s just not as good in the air as he should be given the type of opportunities he gets. Although that doesn’t mean he’s not a real threat nevertheless.
just because he scores 48.2% of his goals with his head and her’s 6′7″ doesn’t mean he always converts every headed opportunity. Also, from this match report, “it was the already-familiar sight of a Crouch knockdown combined with van der Vaart running onto the second ball that produced the goal.”
So while you may be right that “[h]e’s just not as good in the air as he should be given the type of opportunities he gets”, without his threat maybe spurs lose, and as a fan or manager I’d thank my players for salvaging a draw instead berating them for not winning. Not that I’m a Spurs partisan.
As noted, Bale had little influence on the game. I though the reason they moved him to the right was to see if he would have more success away from the defensive combination of Coleman and Neville, rather than to defend Baines as zonalmarking suggests. Regardless, it was a pretty disappointing showing from Bale, hopefully due to fatigue.
any player in the world can be nullified with tactics, doesnt have to be bale’s fault for being ineffective
Bale looked pretty damn tired…would have been honestly a perfect opportunity to give Kranjcar some playing time. He was definitely defended well, but it wasn’t hard to see he had heavy legs.
Crouch was also pretty awful…almost would have rather seen Pav just subbed on directly for him…it may have just forced Spurs to be a bit more creative instead of sending prayers into the box and appealing for penalties over and over.
Not saying Pav has been great this season but he is a more versatile player; Crouch simply cannot go on runs or play one-twos or anything…he is so often a one-trick pony.
With you on both counts
Lennon was almost invisible for a greater part of the game and i felt assou ekotto played an important role in the game both defensively as well as in attack.
Yes! Assou Ekotto was man of the match for me. An understandably tired Spurs seemed a little fragile to me – Benny AK needed to be alert throughout, to support the attack and to cover well – his best game of the season so far.
I was at the game and my mate and I were saying at half time bring on sandro for palacios, which harry did, thank god. But Pav should definately have been a straight swap for crouch in my opinion. Van der Vaart looked good for a short while combining with Assou Ekotto on the left but then just seemed to drift out of the game. I would have loved to have seen him stay in the middle with Pav to try some one twos and through balls with. Crouch was offering absolutely nothing yesterday other than going to the back post and trying to head it back. Two or three times he was clear through and was run down in about 3 steps. Please hurry back Defoe!
And not sure whats happened to kranjcar this season but I agree with whoever said above yesterday would have been good to give bale a break.
Surely Kranjcar and VdV would be on the same footballing wavelength? Must’ve fallen out with Harry.
On the contrary, isn’t Harry quite a big fan? Not sure what the deal is there
Gomes only faced 2 shots. 1 unsaveable f/k. spurs fail to add to only 1 clean sheet gained all season ( in PL ). i expect this to improve now Gomes is back and getting into his stride, as he’s definitely among the top 5 g/k’s in the lge. it’ll be interesting to see how cudicini does in C.L. ( gomes now suspended of course ) . he’s a shadow of the g/k we saw at chelsea, and harry knows that too, with further back-up in shape of Pletikosa.
i commented a few wk’s ago on van der sars below par form. proved right with a big ricket last wk & letting 2 goals in from just 3 shots faced ; and interesting to note he made 0 saves today also. Reina also made 0 saves today. not apportioning any blame yet, as not seen the goals, but certainly worth keeping an eye on these 2.