Tottenham Hotspur fans may finally be getting to see some ‘refreshing’ soccer. The frustrating defensive style of play under Jose Mourinho (60-Portugal) and Antonio Conte (54-Italy) has been replaced by an attacking style of play under new manager Enze Postecoglou (57-Australia).
Tottenham fans have felt like they’ve been eating sweet potatoes for the past few years. The tactics were overly defensive and there weren’t enough goals to quench their thirst. In fact, Mourinho often used a pattern of dropping completely back, defending, and counterattacking, and Conte is no different. Only the formation has changed from a back four to a back three.
However, Postecoglou, who took over ahead of the new season, is a far cry from his predecessors. The main difference is that he wants to play attacking soccer. For starters, he prefers to play as high up the pitch as possible, with lots of numbers up front and wide open flanks.
Postecoglou also asks his players to be aggressive, penetrate the space and create many chances to score. He also emphasizes creating threatening chances through build-ups. Naturally, Tottenham fans can expect to see some ‘cool’ and entertaining soccer.
In fact, the most noticeable change since Postecoglou’s arrival has been the number of shots and shots on target. Spurs have played three games in preseason this summer, and in all of them, they’ve been on fire when they play “shut up and attack” soccer.
In the first game, against West Ham United (2-3 loss), they took a whopping 32 shots. Of those, 13 were on target. Against Leicester City (5-1), they had 37 shots and 11 on target, and against Shakhtar Donetsk (5-1), they had 32 shots and 20 on target. That’s a total of 101 shots and 44 on target in three games.
Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that this was a preseason period focused on checking the players’ fitness, conditioning, technique, and tactics, and that the opponents were relatively weak. However, there is certainly a noticeable change and a sense of anticipation. This is especially true when you consider that under Conte last season, Tottenham had fewer shots on target, even against weaker opponents.
If Spurs continue to generate this many shots and shots on target heading into the new season, the focus will naturally turn to Son Heung-min, 31. He became a tactical ‘scapegoat’ under Conte last season, becoming less destructive and his goalscoring output plummeted. Nevertheless, he fought his way back into double figures in the English Premier League (EPL).
However, under Postecoglou, Son will certainly be more aggressive up top and will get plenty of chances. If that happens, he could easily surpass 10 goals in the EPL. Given his accuracy, it’s not unreasonable to expect him to challenge for the league’s top scorer with 20-plus goals once again. 꽁머니
Tottenham will kick off the first round of the 2023-2024 EPL season against Brentford at the G-Tech Community Stadium in Brentford, England on March 13 at 10 p.m. ET. It will be interesting to see if new coach Postecoglou can put on a “fireworks show” and get the win, and if Son Heung-min can start scoring from the first game.