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Tactx

@Tactx_

Published: January 16, 2025
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1/18
10:35 AM

Arsenal's press against Spurs last night was excellent Well drilled and with intensity, they continuously locked Spurs into their left-hand side and won the ball back or created dangerous situations. Concern for Spurs? They didn't adjust their build-up to counter it. THREAD🧵

2/18Continued
10:35 AM

Arsenal adopted a man-to-man press with Timber leaving his right-back position (and +1 on the defensive line) to jump onto Spence at left-back. The roles within this press are defined in the image below.

Image in tweet by Tactx
3/18Continued
10:35 AM

Havertz would always try to force play to the Arsenal right with pressure on the goalkeeper marking Dragusin. Odegaard, Rice and Partey locked onto the Spurs midfield players to prevent any link passes the player Havertz had left (Dragusin)

Image in tweet by Tactx
4/18Continued
10:35 AM

You can see here the risk involved to find the spare player. Arsenal have Spurs where they want them.

Image in tweet by Tactx
5/18Continued
10:35 AM

With this man-to-man press, you can see what Arsenal's defensive line looks like. 3v3, Spurs didn't manipulate this possible advantage. The longer pass into Kulusevski could have been a strong option.

Image in tweet by Tactx
6/18Continued
10:35 AM

Spurs want to find the spare player in the build-up, but Arsenal are prepared for this. Odegaard marks in fornt of Bissouma in this example. This will force play into the LCB (Gray) and make play predictable for Arsenal.

Image in tweet by Tactx
7/18Continued
10:35 AM

The only joy Spurs had with the link pass to find the spare player was when Partey didn't go tight enough from his deeper position.

Image in tweet by Tactx
8/18Continued
10:35 AM

The same again, Maddison drops deeper to link play and Spurs can build from the back.

Image in tweet by Tactx
9/18Continued
10:35 AM

Arsenal generally got the press right. It was a slight shift away from Odegaard leading the press on the front line but he was still dictating with his tactical understanding. Here he's telling Sterling to get ready to go onto Gray.

Image in tweet by Tactx
10/18Continued
10:35 AM

We lost count of the number of times Arsenal locked Spurs into the Arsenal right hand-side. Forcing play into this position, they turned the ball over and ensured Spurs could not build any progressive attacks.

Image in tweet by Tactx
11/18Continued
10:35 AM

Nowhere to go as Spurs are locked in.

Image in tweet by Tactx
12/18Continued
10:35 AM

The concern for Spurs in this. At no point did they adjust. We want to highlight Brighton. Arsenal tried to lock Brighton into one side and it looked to be working. A slightly different pressing strategy but looking for the same outcome.

Image in tweet by Tactx
13/18Continued
10:35 AM

Within 5 minutes, Brighton adjusted. Dropping a CM into the defensive line prevented them from being locked into one side.

Image in tweet by Tactx
Image in tweet by Tactx
14/18Continued
10:35 AM

Arteta adjusted to a full man-to-man press but Brighton simply went over it. Two managers constantly looking to give their team the edge.

Image in tweet by Tactx
15/18Continued
10:35 AM

This was the most disappointing part of Spur's game last night. At no time did they adjust, and they kept playing into the Arsenal trap. Arteta would have been asking for more of the same for the whole game.

16/18Continued
10:35 AM

The solutions? Spurs had joy with wide rotations. It's a usual pattern of their play, but they stopped doing it after Arsenal caught them out. Without it, they became predictable. Pushing Spence higher and rotating asks more questions about the Timber role.

Image in tweet by Tactx
Image in tweet by Tactx
17/18Continued
10:35 AM

Another possible solution is the positioning of Gray (move more central) and Spence (drop lower). Pushing the midfield higher would enable the back three to then divide the press of Sterling and Havertz and create a 4v2 with the goalkeeper This creates a larger distance for Timber to cover. If he jumps early, the longer pass into the equal numbers on the frontline has to be the option.

18/18Continued
10:35 AM

The potential Spurs solutions.

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