Tottenham Hotspur tactics
Mauricio Pochettino had Ryan Mason operate in a more advanced number 10 position in the continued absence of Christian Eriksen. The Spurs boss retained his usual game-plan of pressing high for possession and patiently building attacks with the opponent pinned in their own half.
With Mason pushed up to the central attacking midfield position, Nabil Bentaleb and Eric Dier started as the central midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Bentaleb and Dier took turns to drop between splitting central defenders to collect the ball from Hugo Lloris and initiate attacks.
When Spurs had the ball in more advanced positions, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker pushed into Everton’s half from full-back positions looking to add width down the sides.
The wide attacking midfielders, Nacer Chadli and Mousa Dembele, drifted inside, with Chadli frequently attacking the inside left channel by making diagonal runs from midfield while Dembele roamed between the lines.
Mason dropped deeper to help the holding midfielders in linking up play centrally before the making clever, third-man midfield runs to support Harry Kane up top. Kane completed the offensive formation as a centre forward running in behind Everton’s defence. The young forward also occupied Everton’s back-four with his movement, which created space through the middle for Mason and Chadli to exploit.
When the Lilywhites were out of possession, they pressed very high, as usual, with Mason pushing forward from midfield to join Kane in leading the defending. Chadli and Dembele backed the high pressing by engaging Everton’s full-backs, while Dier and Bentaleb double-pivoted in front of the defensive line.
Everton tactics
Roberto Martinez kept the 4-2-3-1 formation he used last weekend against Manchester City. The Toffees boss restored Arouna Kone to the right and Tom Cleverley to the left flank after switching the pair last weekend to curb Aleksandar Kolarov’s threat.
The idea was to contain the hosts in a compact 4-5-1 formation, with Romelu Lukaku leading the defending from the halfway line. Kone and Cleverley tracked back with Spurs’ full-backs to neutralise the threat from the flanks, while James McCarthy helped Gareth Barry to deal with Tottenham’s attacking midfielders in front of the back-four.
When the Toffees had the ball, they had to bypass Tottenham’s high pressure with Tim Howard taking long goal-kicks directed at Lukaku and Kone. Ross Barkley converged on the strikers to feed off their knockdowns.
If Everton had the space to play out from the back, McCarthy and Barry started off patient attacks. Central defenders John Stones and Phil Jagielka held a high defensive line in order to push play into Tottenham’s half, while full-backs Seamus Coleman and Bryan Oviedo made runs beyond the halfway line to support attacks from the flanks.
Oviedo linked up with Cleverley down the left flank, with the ex-Manchester United midfielder looking to whip in-swinging crosses into the box as an inverted winger, while Kone made diagonal runs into the box to support Lukaku in attacking the crosses in the box.
Kone’s diagonal runs inside left Coleman as the only supplier of width from the right flank. Barkley worked as a number 10, roaming just behind Lukaku where he could run at defenders with the ball while also making runs beyond the striker to stretch play.
Key tactical changes
Both sides like to get the ball down and patiently build attacks and each side had periods of sustained possession. Tottenham were sharper with their ball work in the offensive half and they managed more than double Everton’s goal attempts, despite a 50 per cent possession share.
In the last quarter of the game, Pochettino tried to push for a winner with Alex Pritchard as a supporting striker to Kane, while Dele Alli and Chadli came inside from the flanks in a 4-4-2 formation.
While Tottenham tried to open up the game, Everton attempted the opposite, with their strikers making way to more defensive players. Steven Naismith completed the game as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 defensive formation, with Kevin Mirallas and Gerard Deulofeu tracking back with the hosts’ full-backs down the flanks.
Tottenham’s tactical changes and sheer endeavour allowed them to open up the game, but they could not get the goal they needed because of a combination of poor finishing and the superb Howard in Everton’s goal.
