Tottenham Hotspur – Newcastle United: Spurs Slump Against Jaissle’s Magpies (0-2)

Roberto De Zerbi’s side faced problems with and without the ball against Matthias Jaissle’s direct Newcastle outfit. Newcastle’s pressing unsettled Spurs, while their switching of play were a clear strategy throughout and eventually earned them their opening goal, setting them on the way to victory.  

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

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Tottenham Hotspur were stunned last week away at Brentford as they lost 3-0 to an energetic, high pressing outfit. They would have expected to face a similar style of play here in the form of Matthias Jaissle’s Newcastle United side who were held to a draw last time out after conceding a late penalty against Liverpool.

Roberto De Zerbi lined his side up in a 4-2-3-1 shape for this game with Archie Gray, Jan Paul van Hecke, Micky van de Ven, and Andrew Robertson in the back four. Sandro Tonali and Rodrigo Bentancur partnered in central midfield with Mateus Fernandes more advanced. Pedro Porro and Mathys Tel started wide either side of the recently-arrived Omar Marmoush.  

For Newcastle it was also a 4-2-3-1 formation. Amar Dedić, Malick Thiaw, Sven Botman, and George Hall made up the defensive line, while former Manchester City man Nico González started alongside Lewis Miley in midfield. Anthony Elanga, Joe Willock, and Harvey Barnes were the attacking midfield trio behind striker Yoane Wissa.

Spurs’ inconsistent buildup

In last week’s game, Spurs faced issues with their buildup play from deep. De Zerbi’s style focuses heavily on the slow buildup game from the goalkeeper, followed by fast transitions into attack once the moment presents itself. In this game though, Spurs struggled to find a consistent rhythm with this.

Spurs’ structure from deep buildup was the usual 4-2-2-2 shape, wherein Fernandes and Marmoush both dropped off the last line, leaving the wingers to provide depth. The goal here is to create dilemmas for opposing center-backs regarding whether to follow Fernandes and Marmoush.

Against this, Newcastle started from their nominal 4-4-2 defensive shape which sometimes appeared as a 4-1-4-1 formation due to the midfield staggering in the press.

Spurs’ deep buildup.

Wissa was the most advanced player and usually started from Spurs’ right center-back van Hecke, trying to direct the game to the other side. Willock would be slightly withdrawn, initially standing in front of Tonali before jumping towards van de Ven once he received.

When Willock jumped, González would jump from his initially deeper position (in front of Marmoush) onto Tonali, while Miley would usually mark Bentancur. The key for Newcastle was that Botman stepped up aggressively onto Fernandes between the lines, ensuring he had limited space.

Newcastle were able to force turnovers on their right side after forcing the ball down this side with Wissa’s positioning. González proved an asset with his ball-winning and positioning in this area.

Spurs’ attacking structure

When they did manage to advance further up the pitch, Spurs often shifted from a double pivot to a single pivot in possession, essentially leaving them in a 2-3-5 shape.  Bentancur usually acted as this single pivot, while Fernandes and Tonali became part of wide triangles on the right and left respectively.

Spurs’ 2-3-5 attacking structure. 

Fernandes could be seen dropping into the right halfspace in rotation with Gray at times, while Tonali could play high or low in the left halfspace depending on whether Robertson ran forward in support of Tel or stayed deep.

Some of Spurs’ better moments in attack came from this left side, to where they would often look to switch the play towards Tel. Robertson’s overlapping in such a situation helped create Spurs’ best chance in the first half.

Newcastle’s attacking speed

Under Eddie Howe, Newcastle’s main attacking weapon was their ability to play at a high tempo and be direct. They have retained similar characteristics under Jaissle so far, but in slightly different structures.

When Newcastle had the ball, González would often drop between the center-backs or at least act deeper than Miley, who generally remained in the second line of buildup. Hall usually started a little deeper than right back Dedić, so Newcastle would often seek to build up over the left side thanks to Hall’s press resistance and quality on the ball.

Newcastle’s possession shape.

Elanga and Barnes usually focused on positioning themselves in the channels between Spurs’ center-backs and fullbacks and making runs into depth. Willock also made plenty of runs in behind from deeper positions which were a challenge for Spurs to deal with.

Willock and Wissa also had the capacity to drop between lines though, which created a good balance with the depth focus of Elanga and Barnes.

Newcastle were happy to play early balls in behind the Spurs defense throughout this game, knowing that they had a speed advantage. Some of these passes were quite simple long balls over the top but worked well due to the well-coordinated runs into depth.

Another key theme for Newcastle was the use of switches of play. These were done using the fullbacks plus the aforementioned channel positioning of Elanga and Barnes. Through this, they were able to create two-versus-one situations on the ball-far side against Spurs’ fullbacks through the forward runs of Dedić and Hall.

Such a scenario was exactly what led to Newcastle going ahead just after the hour mark. González, relatively unpressured, was able to pick out the long diagonal towards Dedić making the run outside of Elanga. Dedić then found Elanga inside the box, who finished smartly on the turn.

The buildup to Newcastle’s first goal. 

It was only ten minutes later that Newcastle put the game to bed with their second goal. This one was from a set-piece, where Nick Woltemade, having only just replaced Willock, was able to knock the ball down from Hall’s far-post corner delivery. The ball fell to Wissa in the box who was free in the six-yard box thanks to some very lax defending from Spurs. He made it 2-0, which eventually secured the three points for Newcastle.

Takeaways

Two defeats on the bounce without scoring is hardly the way that De Zerbi would have wanted to start this season after a summer of heavy investment. His characteristic possession strategy is still finding its feet, and was unable to solve the problems posed by Newcastle on this occasion.

There were also clear defensive issues when dealing with the direct passes and switches of play from Newcastle, as the space behind the defensive line was exposed way too easily, and they struggled to establish pressure on the ball higher up the pitch.

For Newcastle it was another positive performance under Jaissle. His high pressing, direct, transitional style has built on the foundations laid by Howe while also managing to feel fresh thanks to some different structures with and without the ball.

Match plots to be added shortly.