Frustrated Tottenham legend tells Ange Postecoglou he must drop key tactic

Ange Postecoglou has been advised to drop one of his key tactics by a Tottenham predecessor.

The Australian made it seven defeats in his past 11 matches as Spurs boss, falling to rivals Arsenal in the north London derby.

Gabriel Magalhaes was the difference both in defence and attack, scoring from a corner in a 1-0 victory.

The result means Spurs have just four points from four games this season, and it appears Postecoglou may be feeling the pressure in his second season with a tetchy post-match interview.

The former Celtic manager has regularly been told he needs a ‘Plan B’ by pundits as an alternative to his attacking style, but Glenn Hoddle has been far more specific.

A Spurs legend as a player and manager, Hoddle joined talkSPORT to dissect the derby defeat, and singled-out one tactic that really needs changing.

Explaining what went wrong against the Gunners, he said: “The inverted fullbacks worked last season to a certain degree, but I look at Tottenham now and they’ve got some very good players, but if [Heung-min] Son’s not on fire they haven’t got an X-factor player at the moment. 

“I feel like the inverted fullbacks have been sussed out. They can out-possession most teams, probably only Manchester City [have more possession].

“I think Arsenal knew Spurs could out-possession them and they banked in and made it very difficult to break them down.”

Hoddle went into more detail on why the tactic is causing problems, as he continued: “What frustrates me is that unless you’ve got a [Kevin] De Bruyne or David Silva at his very best, people who can unlock a door, it’s very difficult. 

“They’re trying to go through the eye of a needle, they’ve got so many men in the centre of the pitch so it’s impossible to get through the centre. 

“They need that width, they need to try a different style to open teams up because as soon as teams bank against them [it doesn’t work].

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“If they go 1-0 up in games like against Everton [4-0 win] they can counter then and I think they look better when they’re shifting the ball quickly on the counter, but that’s where I feel the next step needs to go, they haven’t got enough quality in the final third even though they get in some wonderful positions, the crossing was abysmal yesterday.”

Rangers legend and talkSPORT host Ally McCoist then gave his thoughts, and pondered that James Maddison could be the man to unpick teams who defend deeply against Tottenham.

Hoddle agreed, but not if the inverted fullback tactic is persisted with.

“He’s got the ability,” the former England manager began. “But if I’m playing no.10 I’m looking around me and I’ve got so many bodies in there there’s no space with the two inverted fullbacks.

“It’s like Piccadilly Circus in the middle of midfield sometimes. These wide men, if they’re going past their fullbacks and getting great crosses or shots in that would be fine, but they’re struggling, they need movement off them, once Spurs go wide there’s not enough movement.

“You see it with City, they make these lovely little blindside runs into the penalty area and they use them and use the space, there’s none of that with Tottenham.”

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