Roleplay

This is the second of three preseason articles in the 'The Run-Up' series, which examines what Spurs need to do to improve in the coming season.

You hear these complaints a lot in Spursworld:

‘We never replaced Kane!’

‘We need a proper number 9!’

‘We need a proper DM / CDM / defensive midfielder / holding midfielder!’

Each of these statements reflects a way of thinking that is, to put it bluntly, wrong.

Underwriting each of these statements is an assumption that we’re playing football in the 1990s and very much in England. We’re still in England, I guess, but times have changed.

The reality is that Postecoglou is introducing into the squad his version of Total Football, which is more about roles and role flexibility than about positions. N.B. I’m not looking to wade into any meta-debates about ‘positional’ versus ‘relational’ play. But in simple terms, all the baggage of terms like ‘DM’ and ‘proper 9’ make these misleading ways of describing the roles that Postecoglou wants his players to perform.

Roles, not positions.

Here’s what I mean by roles versus traditional notions of position:

• The 6 (Bissouma) role of course has defensive cover responsibilities as the deepest of the three midfielders, but is not asked to play as a defensive midfielder. The traditional profile of this role is indeed more of a defensive player (think Palhinha as a prototype throwback), but the Postecoglou profile of this role is as a hinge-point for risky and dynamic build-up play from deep positions. Bissouma’s primary role is to attack from deep in our own end by defying the opposition press, turning and disguising his outlet passes, playing quick one-twos, carrying the ball forward, and, when double-marked, drawing the attention of more than one pressing player toward his area to open up wide outlets. Defensively, what the Postecoglou 6 is asked to prioritize is to push up high in the press and cut out line-breaking passes from the opposition’s back line or deep-lying midfielders. Yes, you will see Bissouma dropping and chasing on the counter, but that’s not his primary defensive role, and his defensive role is not his primary responsibility in the squad. Every player in Postecoglou’s system is attack-first, and every defensive action in Postecoglou’s system is an extension of the front-foot press. We defend from the front. If you’re interested in a bit more on this as it pertains to the 6, I’ve written about Bissouma as a modern 6—and the trend of the modern 6, exemplified by Rodri—here.

• The 9 role will of course involve receiving the ball to feet and attempting to hold up play, like a traditional or ‘proper number 9,’ but this is not the primary role of the 9 in Postecoglou’s system. Rather, a Spurs 9 needs to be adept at movement between the opposition’s CBs, at quick combination play, and at timing runs to get on the end of low crosses coming in from wide. We haven’t seen our strikers do as much of this as we’d like last season because our wide players struggled at times to get separation, get to the byline, and drill in low crosses, especially against opponents that sit deep and crowd the penalty area. The solution to this problem is not to get a ‘proper 9,’ but to expand the dribbling profiles of our wide players. Timo Werner, for example, will be an assist machine in this system, as will Son. Against more attacking opponents who leave space in behind, Brennan Johnson will be as well. But we still need a winger in the mold of Doku, Kvaratskhelia, Nico Williams, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Neto, or (god willing) Grealish.

• Which is to say the winger role is multi-profile. We need runners in behind, like Son, who can get on the end of through-passes and finish. We need the Doku profile too, one who can receive the ball standing still, front up against one or two defenders, and beat them to the byline to put in a cross.

• The RB / LB and CB roles are all much more obviously different from the traditional expectations of those positions, so I won’t belabor it here. Inverted RBs, etc. You already know this.

The key to squad-building in this system is flexibility.

It’s not enough, however, to reconceptualize ‘proper’ positions as Postecoglou roles. The dynamism with which Postecoglou asks his players to play, especially in buildup, but all over the pitch in and out of possession, requires multiple roles per traditional position. It also requires different combinations of player attributes all across the pitch.

In practical terms, this means the types of players Spurs are targeting have this one weird thing in common: role flexibility. Forward players will be asked to play more or less anywhere across the front line. Attacking midfielders will be asked to play the false 9 role or to move out wide and take defenders on 1v1. Fullbacks will be asked to play central midfielder roles in build-up and winger roles in the final third. CBs will be asked to carry the ball, to make line-breaking passes, even to make runs in behind the opposition defense. And so on.

In more concrete terms, this is why we sign a player like Archie Gray, a natural midfielder with outstanding defensive and positional instincts who can play as a fullback, a 6, and apparently even a CB. This is why a player like Kulusevski holds immense value in the squad even if he’s not a shoe-in for any one position: he’s always done a job on the wing, he can play either the attacking or the deeper 8 role, and he can play as a false 9. He can do this because his attributes lend themselves to flexibility: intelligent decision making, physical strength in hold up, excellent link-up and combination play, elite pressing ability, and the ability to carry the ball through pressure, among others. In situations where players themselves lack such a range of attributes—think the directness of Werner and Johnson, neither of whom are great at decision-making or combination play in the center of the pitch, like Kulusevski—we look for other types of flexibility (Johnson has played on the left, right, and through the middle, for example) or we build flexibility into the squad by having multiple profiles in the same nominal position (Johnson direct and explosive, Kulusevksi possessive and creative).

Flexibility is why Richarlison—also an elite presser, but who can also play in between the CBs or out wide—makes more sense for Spurs than a ‘proper 9.’ And why Son can confound opposition by playing either in his (superior, preferred) winger role or as a striker running in between the CBs. And why the winger profile I hope Spurs add will be able to play on either side and, perhaps more importantly, beat his man to the left or the right (as opposed to only cutting in or only going wide).

We improve by taking role flexibility into account.

Here are three ways I expect this squad will move forward and improve upon last season’s results:

1. Refine the press. You might have noticed Ange screaming at the players on SpursPlay this morning during a water break against the K-League All-Stars. He was furious about the lack of press, demanding players press man-to-man. My sense is one thing Spurs are working on this offseason is the consistency and dynamism of their press, which means getting all of our players up to speed on pressing triggers and discipline. We defend from the front.

2. Refine final-third decision making, especially through combination play. Last season, Spurs blew too many chances—or excellent positions to create quality chances—by rushed and poor decision making in and around the box. We also struggled with combination play (it was more or less nonexistent). Already in preseason we’re seeing much more combination play, quick passing, finding the third man with one-touch football, etc. My sense is this is probably a training-ground emphasis, because you can see at times it’s a bit wooden so far, but it’s happening. Expect more combinations all over the pitch this season, especially approaching the box, especially making use of Kulusevski to link play. This is why I always say you sign technical quality over hustle merchants every day of the week.

3. Develop the missing profile combinations needed in certain roles. In Son we have elite movement, chance-creation, and finishing; in Kulusevski elite creativity and link-up play; in Werner and Johnson explosive and discomfiting directness. These are all very useful profiles that fit nicely into the roles asked of our wide attackers. But we’re missing the zero-to-see ya later 1v1 winger who can command the attention of more than one defender and shift deep blocks out of stasis. If we add that profile, we have options to break down different types of defenses and to keep opposition guessing about which personnel we can hurt them with and at what point in the match.

What about defense?

A combination of better final-third decision making (i.e. fewer turnovers in advantageous positions) won’t just improve our attack and create an avalanche of chances; it will vastly improve our defense, leaving us open to fewer counterattacks per game. In this way, the key to our leaky defense last season, beyond squad depth in defensive roles, is a more disciplined press and better decision making on the ball in attacking areas. The key is not ‘bring in a proper CDM’ or any version of that claim. We defend from the front.

This concludes the second of my three-part preseason series, ‘The Run-Up.’ If you’re interested, check out the first part here, and keep an eye out for the third and final part in the coming days.