Are We Too Risk Averse?

[Syn_13]

Simple question really. Feel we need to take a few more risks. Probably the reason why our defence concedes the least but we score so few.

Our teams are set up so balanced when perhaps Poch needs to push a bit more by adding more attacking power. Although Dembele is a great player, I think we've been better when Alli has been played further back, because he's more attack minded than Dembele and Wanyama's holding has been good enough to allow the other 5 to push on.

Poch's lack of early substitutions in the 2nd half is incredibly frustrating. Again, is he too afraid to change things up?

I know a large part of it is that we lack creativity, but we need to take more risks in open play. Our players aren't making the runs or having a pop outside the box. Last year Alli was always trying to get on the end of a long ball and Kane was more than eager to just have a go, even if it wasn't a clear cut chance.

It's frustrating watching teams contain us for so long. We've become very predictable.

 

[stevensthfc]

We're playing a CM (Alli) and Eriksen who is neither a CM or an AM in the attacking 3 behind Janssen.
We're going to struggle against teams that sit deep until that changes.

 

[AnotherSpursFan]

Well, Son is making runs, but we just got too many idiots in the team

You can see that he almost stopped making runs because he knows it's futile

 

[glospur]

No.

We regularly create the most chances in games and last season scored close to the most amount of goals.

Today was the same, we hit the bar/post 3 times FFS.

Whatever risk averse-ness that does exist is more than made up for by our excellent defensive record that comes as a result of any risk averse nature that does exist.

 

[LexingtonSpurs]

We should be taking far more risks in the attacking end. Our best attribute - closing down and pressing - only works when the other team has the ball. We should be attacking the final third, attacking the opposing fullbacks, and getting the ball into the box, constantly. Then, looking to win the ball back to create more scoring opportunities.

When you put the ball in the box - either via a cross, or dribble, it pulls defenders out of position, and opens up chances. We do not take advantage of that - at all.

 

[dynamoSpurs]

No pace , no width, no crosses .

 

[Syn_13]

We're playing a CM (Alli) and Eriksen who is neither a CM or an AM in the attacking 3 behind Janssen.
We're going to struggle against teams that sit deep until that changes.

Alli's not really a CM though, he's always been an AM. I thought that us changing to a 4-1-4-1 was the way forward. Wanyama's good enough to hold and the 4 can concentrate on supporting the striker and attacking. However, we've gone backwards again. Today Dembele was playing as deep, if not deeper at times, as Wanyama.

Eriksen's got a good passing range but he's just not as creative as he could be. I think at Ajax he often played wide left out of the attacking mids and I can see why. He's good at coming in on his right and has good overall passing ability to hit crosses and link up the play.

 

[AnotherSpursFan]

We also like to play side passing to give the other teams time to set up their defences before we commence attack.
My grandma can play in the attacking third
,

 

[werty]

Were quality averse. Most of our attacking players are way too inconsistent, lack guile or vision and consistently lose the ball in tight areas or run into people. Eriksen aside we have no one with good vision or ability to pick out a difficult pass, and he's been playing pretty poor so far this season. We favoured hard workers over people who have technical ability because we're supposed to press teams, but considering we've been shit at pressing this year it's backfired massively.

 

[mpickard2087]

I think a lot of what we are seeing was evident last year. We were winning games but across 90 mins you'd see numerous players playing the ball too slowly, taking far too many touches, and standing and admiring a pass rather than moving again for it.

Now obviously we still did plenty of good things, and won games, but it was still there. Now, shorn of our key striker and with others a bit out of form and struggling to click as a team these 'bad habits' are magnified.

I think we need to speed up our play, both reduce the number of touches and quicken the pace of the ball getting zipped around, and have players moving and busy for work. I'd say it's more about intent than risk.

 

[yankspurs]

Yes. Dont create enough. Dont take chances. Sideways passing. Very AVB like.

And i am sick of hearing about thius fucking stupid god forsaken Unbeaten streak. Sick of it. Either fucking win or GTFO. 1 point down on last season where we had lost 1 at this point and still drew too many. Terrible.

 

[stevensthfc]

No pace , no width, no crosses .

Until N'Koudou came on.

Shame it wasn't earlier.

 

[Marty]

One of my pet peeves is that we too rarely throw the ball forwards. It doesn't signal positive intent to always throw the ball to Wanyama or the CBs. It's safe, it keeps possessions, but it's extremely risk averse.

Agree with most of the OP, especially Poch's subs. They are really grating.

 

[thinktank]

Yes.

Mainly with our passing. We need to play in between players more and more vertical. That takes guts and a progressive mindset that poch needs to instil in the players to give them the confidence to do it.

Also would help if Eriksen drops in the hole more and contributes to that extent.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Our counter attacks tend to be painfully slow.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

4-1-4-1 is complete ass and isn't working. Eriksen struggles to create anything in the final third of the pitch, letalone from the middle.

 

[Monkey boy]

Were quality averse. Most of our attacking players are way too inconsistent, lack guile or vision and consistently lose the ball in tight areas or run into people. Eriksen aside we have no one with good vision or ability to pick out a difficult pass, and he's been playing pretty poor so far this season. We favoured hard workers over people who have technical ability because we're supposed to press teams, but considering we've been shit at pressing this year it's backfired massively.

I must have missed that game. Genuine question, when was the last time you saw this good vision or difficult pass be made by Eriksen?

 

[Blake Griffin]

4-1-4-1 is complete ass and isn't working. Eriksen struggles to create anything in the final third of the pitch, letalone from the middle.

how was today 4141? i feel like i'm going nuts here but we (wrongly imo) switched back to 4231 a few weeks ago.

 

[ljinko888]

I'd happily lose a bit of balance in the team if it meant we had a bit more ingenuity and exuberance.

 

[Syn_13]

4-1-4-1 is complete ass and isn't working. Eriksen struggles to create anything in the final third of the pitch, letalone from the middle.

We didn't go 4-1-4-1 today. As I said earlier Dembele was playing too deep for that, as that's how he likes to play. It was a 4-2-3-1. It's difficult because Dembele was one of the keys to our success last season, yet he won't fit a 4-1-4-1 formation. Poch is trying to adapt to that but it's not working because he's either not got the right personnel, or he's playing them wrong.