Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea will battle it out in a crucial top-four clash today.
Frank Lampard thinks that Tottenham are going ‘a bit more direct’ under Jose Mourinho, whilst under Mauricio Pochettino there was ‘a lot of build-up play’.
Mourinho is slowly but surely beginning to get his ideas across to the Tottenham players, who have responded well since Pochettino’s sacking last month.
For large parts of Pochettino’s reign, it was rosy in Tottenham’s garden, but things did tail off in the end, as Mourinho is now hoping to guide them to a top-four finish at the end of the season.
Speaking to Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports News (21/12/19 1:15 pm), Lampard shared what has chaged with Tottenham in regards to their style of play under Pochettino and now Mourinho.
“With Pochettino I felt there was a lot of build-up play,” Lampard told Soccer Saturday. “Yes, they would try to play from the back. I think now there’s an element where these four [Son, Kane, Alli and Moura] can really hurt teams, so does it mean we go a little bit more direct into Kane and get runners off him?
“I think they scored a couple of goals against Bournemouth recently [by going direct]. Maybe going back to front a little bit quicker.
“They’ll still play because they have some good players. You’ll find Aurier tends to get quite high up the pitch and then they end up a little bit more stable, physically strong in these [defensive areas, with the back four and the two sitters]. That’s the kind of protection, he is building into the team.”
Tottenham’s biggest area of concern has been their defence, and their only clean sheet under Mourinho’s stewardship is where he will be hoping for progression.
With the games coming thick and fast, Mourinho joining mid-season and with no pre-season, it is that little harder for him to properly implement his ideas across.
But there has been some progression from the back and in midfield, as three points against Chelsea on Sunday would see Spurs move into the top-four.
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