Tottenham 3 West Ham 3 – Premier League Sunday 18 October 2020

When it comes to defending in football, if you haven’t got pressure on the ball you haven’t got control.   Pressure means not giving the opponent freedom on the ball to do what they like including the playing of long passes.   It doesn’t matter what system you play: if you like to play offside with a flat backline and there is no pressure on the ball, the backline is extremely vulnerable.

In theory, backline players should be able to see there is no pressure on the ball and make the decision to drop-off to safeguard against the ball over the top.   In other words, abandon the backline.   In practice, it is a very different matter.   Coaches would have a fit if they saw one of their backline players doing that.   You could argue that this might be the only way to get the point across of the importance of putting pressure on the ball-carrier for backline players to do just that.

It is not possible to exert this kind of pressure all the time, but it is about sensing those moments when an opponent is about to get free on the ball, their head is up and looking to make the crucial pass.   This is why playing a form of team man-to-man defence helps to satisfy this most fundamental of defensive principles.   It provides a refreshing alternative to keep switching markers and running from one player to the next, chasing the ball type of defending.   Once you can be reasonably assured of providing pressure on the ball-carrier, the flatness of the backline and the playing of offside becomes much less of an issue as the killer pass will become far more difficult to execute.   It is then just a matter of players learning good individual man-to-man defensive technique.

This is why formations are only the starting point when it comes to defending.   From within the formation players have to match-up with opponents respectively.   According to your position on the field, the opponent you take responsibility for has to be in consideration that fellow teammates are appropriately positioned to mark other key opponents.   This awareness comes primarily from playing man-to-man.   It doesn’t come from playing zonal.   In fact, there are not many facets of good defensive technique that do come from zonal defending.   But, when you have learned those individual techniques, zonal defending can be very effective.   It’s the little things that you may think aren’t particularly significant that can make the difference.   Often, it’s trying to win the ball instead of saying to the opponent “you beat me”.   Diving in can be extremely costly if you don’t win the ball cleanly, not least because you lose goal-side position.

Tottenham were 3-0 up in the first sixteen minutes of this encounter.   The first goal scored inside the first minute was one that seems to catch defences out time and again.   It was a long ball from Harry Kane who seemed to be playing in a much deeper role, collected the ball from just outside his own penalty area.   Looked up and played a sixty-yard ball over the top of West Ham’s defence to the on-running Son Heung-min.   This was a set move and fully explained why Kane was playing so deep.

From a defensive perspective there are various discussion points.   West Ham’s backline being pushed up to half-way, nothing unusual there.   The main factor being when Kane collected the ball, he was completely unmarked.   This is where defensive instincts have a part to play.   Often it is said that the defender didn’t react or when they did it was too late.

The defender, Fabián Balbuena, should anticipate the ball over the top.   But, in anticipating it, he has to predict this possible play by Kane almost before Kane has!   The red lights on the dashboard should be flashing for the defender as it is apparent Kane has the freedom on the ball to do what he likes.   If Balbuena doesn’t react until Kane has looked up and spotted the pass, it will be too late.   With Son already up to speed and the defender static and facing the opposite direction, it is no contest as to who is going to get to the ball first.

If there had been pressure on the ball when Kane received the ball, this would be a different scenario altogether.   But there wasn’t.   What then was Balbuena supposed to do?   Herein lies the other major difficulty for central defenders.   Contrary to received wisdom of how defenders should behave in these situations, he ought to have abandoned the defensive line.   As soon as he saw the ball being played to Kane and before Kane had even touched the ball, the defender should have made a quick retreat.   He could see that Kane was completely unmarked.   By taking this action, Balbuena is now stealing a march on Son, rather than the other way around.   If Kane looks up and sees a defender already retreating and, crucially, maintaining a goal-side position on Son, he may not even make the pass.

This kind of behaviour goes completely against the grain of the modern central defender.   It is akin to the days of the ‘sweeper’ in football.   The defensive line is sacrosanct.   The only negotiation is whether the line is high, middle or low.   The ability of a player to be able to predict and then anticipate the play in this way is a highly sophisticated skill.   It is part of good individual technique.   The fixation of having to play with this defensive line requires closer scrutiny.   At the precise moment when Kane receives the ball, what is the point of having a flat defensive line?   What is it achieving?   There needs to be a good reason because you are offering a very appetising stretch of land between the backline and goal for opponents to exploit.   If the answer is compressing play, think again.

Kane wasn’t being compressed at all.   This is because he wasn’t being marked.   Wanting to pursue and playing with a flat backline is a desirable tactic but it needs to be supported by the most basic of defensive principles – pressure on the ball-carrier.   Receiving the ball in the area he did, it is sometimes difficult to exert the necessary pressure on the ball.   Quite often during the transition phase the organisation of players higher up the field is not always up to scratch.   Under these circumstances, adjustments may have to be made in other areas of the defensive shape like the backline.

Spotting and anticipating the play by Kane is not easy.   A possible solution is to just position a defender in this withdrawn position behind the backline while the ball is still in the opponents own third.   Son may want to push up onto this defender into the space created by such a position.   It reduces the target area but more importantly it enables the defender to have a goal-side position on the attacking player.   Balbuena wasn’t marking anybody while he was holding his position on the half-way line.   Now, he can at least mark Son from a good defensive position.   The problem for central defenders generally is that they are not allowed to adopt such an unorthodox position.   This is not how football is played.   It is important that a regimented flat backline is maintained at all costs.   Seemingly if that cost is conceding a goal.

Balbuena was able to chase and offer some defence against Son, the nature of which was also questionable given that he was in a one-versus-one situation and should really have been steering Son down the line.   Son just cut inside and despatched the ball into the far corner.   Individual technique once again being brought into the spotlight.   Having set up the first one, Kane scored twice to go 3-0.   After eighty-two minutes, Spurs were still 3-0 up.   Balbuena was then on the scoresheet with a header followed by an own goal from Davinson Sánchez.   The stage was set for what might well become the goal of the season.   A blistering shot, by Manuel Lanzini who hadn’t long been on the pitch, from just outside the box.   The ball swerving away from the keeper Lloris’ reach as the ball ricocheted around the stanchion before nestling in the bottom of the net.   The playfulness of the ball just added greater effect to the occasion and was the final drama of the match.