Tottenham Hotspur’s season went further downhill when the north London giants slumped to a humiliating 7-2 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich at home on Tuesday. The Lilywhites were completely outplayed throughout the ninety minutes, with Serge Gnabry netting four goals.
Mauricio Pochettino deserves a lot of blame for Spurs’ defeat to Bayern. And in this article, we will discuss three mistakes the Argentine made against the Bavarians in midweek.
Playing out from the back
Tottenham Hotspur made the mistake of playing out from the back against a top team. Even though they had two well established and quality centre-backs in Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, the lack of a proper build-up play allowed Bayern Munich to create numerous turnovers even in the final third.
Harry Winks was initially given the job of dropping in at the centre and distribute possession. But, the young English midfielder was utterly overwhelmed by the attention he received from the Bayern Munich midfielders. As for the two centre-backs, they failed to pass in between the lines and ended up losing possession on multiple occasions.
Lack of diligence from the fullbacks
Tottenham’s inability to play out from the back leads us to our second point, which is the lack of discipline and organisation of the fullbacks.
Danny Rose, who was one of the better performers for Spurs in this new season, looked clueless with the ball at his feet. He and Serge Aurier, along with the two centre-halves failed to cope with Bayern’s first line of press consisting of the hard-working Robert Lewandowski and two pacy wingers in Kingsley Coman and Gnabry.
Aurier, in particular, arguably had the worst game of his career, being slaughtered by Gnabry on the right-hand side. The former Arsenal starlet ran rings around him and bamboozled him with his pace and trickery.
Starting Dele Alli over Christian Eriksen
It was a shock to see Dele Alli get the nod ahead of Christian Eriksen in the number ten slot for Tottenham. The English international didn’t play enough football, and it was never a good decision to give him a starting berth. And unsurprisingly he struggled to influence the game, thus leaving both Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane isolated.
Although Alli was the one who put pressure on Corentin Tolisso for the opener, the ex-MK Dons prodigy wasn’t involved as much and was rightly subbed off later in the game.
Eriksen, in contrast, made quite an impact after replacing Tanguy Ndombele around the hour-mark. The Dane attempted a couple of shots on goal, one of which went really close to finding the back of the net.
