A disappointing night for Tottenham Hotspur but do they need change their style? One ex player thinks so.
Brad Friedel has told talkSPORT that Tottenham Hotspur may have to consider tweaking their style of play to end their Wembley Stadium hoodoo and progress in the Champions League.
Spurs lost their opening match at Wembley 2-1 in front of over 85,000 spectators as AS Monaco sprang a surprise on the Lilywhites’ Champions League return.
The defeat at Wembley was the club’s fifth consecutive loss at the national stadium and it will be an issue that Pochettino will have to resolve if his side want to progress into the knockout stages of the competition.
“It was a disappointing result,” the former Spurs and USA glovesman told talkSPORT’s Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast.
“Coming off a really good result in the Premier League against Stoke, I thought the game here might have been different. Wembley is a much bigger pitch…and I’m sure that has something to do with it.
“Mauricio likes to set out his teams to press…when you step onto a bigger field there’s an extra five yards of space to cover. That’s something Tottenham are going to have to come to terms with. I can’t see CSKA Moscow coming to Wembley and pressing all over the field, and Bayer Leverkusen will be tactically astute too.”
Many believed that once the draw was concluded Tottenham had a genuine chance of potentially topping the group given the fact they missed out on faces the likes of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
However, the Monaco result is certainly proof in the pudding that there are no easy games in Europe’s elite club competition and Spurs will need to change their ways if they want to stay in beyond the group stages.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
