‘Silly’ – Jermain Defoe believes Spurs must make two changes to make high line work
Jermain Defoe believes that if Tottenham Hotspur are going to persist with a high defensive line, they have to ensure Guglielmo Vicario is further out of his goal and the defenders have to change their body shape.
Tottenham Hotspur love a high line
With Tottenham not having the pace of Micky van de Ven to bail them out at St James’ Park, the Magpies kept trying to play the ball in behind the away side’s backline.
While a couple of timely last-ditch tackles saved Ange Postecoglou’s men, they were eventually punished, with Jacob Murphy and Alexander Isak both beating the offside trap in the 78th minute after a simple through ball by Joelinton, with the Swede tapping home into an empty net.
It was an extremely soft goal to concede and meant that Tottenham had nothing to show for their efforts despite dominating large parts of the game.
Defoe tells Tottenham to make a couple of changes
Jermain Defoe has now insisted that if Spurs are going to continue squeezing that high up the pitch, Vicario should be mopping up behind the defence while the centre-backs should also have a different body shape.
The former Tottenham striker told Premier League Productions (02/09/24 at 5:55 pm): “I think the only thing that could help is that, when teams do beat the press, I think the defenders, their body shape has to be different. You have to be ready to race and the goalkeeper has to be further out of his goal.
“You can understand it, dictating build-up and wanting to overload centrally, so you can win the ball back and you can dominate possession like Tottenham do most games.
“At the same time, I think the (defensive) line is, he wants the players to be brave, but there is being brave and there is being silly.”
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When Van de Ven is not available, it would make sense for Ange to drop the backline a bit deeper, even if it means surrendering some control.
However, we know that the Australian is not one to second guess his approach and is going to persist with the same tactics.
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