Tottenham v Man City: Spurs' four-man block and Pedro Porro vs. Pep's Christmas tree.
The “Tottenham vs. Manchester City” game was nothing if not attention-grabbing; a fast-paced game with lots of key moments. Some would say that Postecoglou’s Tottenham performed well, they’d be half-right; as City’s performance - apart from Akanji’s mistake - was actually pretty good. Key reason? Superiorities, numerical ones to be more specific.
We can’t say for sure that Pep knew that Ange was going to use Pape Sarr as the player between the lines and first player to engage City’s defense to block the passing lane to Kovacic, but we can say that whatever Pep had in mind worked. To further elaborate; Spurs used a 1+3 first line of defense against City’s build-up, where Sarr was the “1” and Maddison, Son and Johnson were the “3” behind him. Maddison was responsible for marking Rodri and The other two were narrowing the gap to make it difficult to progress the ball through the center.
What Spurs excelled in during the course of this match was their ball progression, particularly in how Postecoglou used Pedro Porro invertedly in the build up phase and as a second striker in the ball progression phase over the course of the match; where he and Sarr would exchange positions numerous times in the match due to his link-up play which s obviously better than Sarr’s. All these advantages were used to create positional superiorities for the two wide wingers, Son and Johnson.
*Spurs’ shape during progression with Sarr between the lines and Porro as an inverted full-back
*Spurs’ press. Sarr engages any ball carrier blocking the passing lane in front of them. Maddison marks Rodri, and Son and Johnson are narrowing the spaces in the center.
There were two problems with that pressing scheme:
1- Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden. Their roles within the tactical approach of Guardiola for the game was to create numerical superiorities against Spurs’ block; as Silva was a winger only on paper, but in fact he was moving downfield alongside Rodri and Kovacic as a midfielder, along with the inside positioning of Foden in a 4-3-2-1 shape “Christmas tree”, making it essential for Postecoglou’s side to almost man-mark City’s players to counter the numerical superiority; thus canceling out the free man. That’s why City progressed the ball through Gvardiol countless times; the channel between him, Kovacic and Foden proved effective in progressing the ball from the left.
*Bernardo as a CM and Foden as an attacking CM to create numerical advantages.
2- Spurs’ eagerness to anticipate and press, especially Sarr, which made it quite easy for City players, such as Ederson and Rodri to shift their balance and body weight resulting in a shift in orientation, creating a passing lane to a free city player - mostly Kovacic - and keep progessing the ball through the left flank.
*City players creating passing lanes through body orientations and shifting their weights and directions.
*Channels created between Gvardiol, Kovacic and Foden.
*Dragusin would mark KDB making Bentancur free to mark Silva and almost turning Spurs’ press into a man-marking press.
Using Porro was the killer switch for Guardiola’s press, although he tried to roll around it by making Akanji join the press, only to find out that then he’ll have both of his defenders joining the high press leaving Walker and Gvardiol outpaced by Johnson and Son. Ultimately, Postecoglou fought the good fight, and was almost rewarded handsomely for it, only for Son to throw it away.