The Technical Area – Assessing Tottenham’s Front Four

Reduced to 10 men before the half-hour mark of their opening league match under Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham’s attacking assets were given little chance to shine as they ground out a gritty 1-0 win at West Ham. Last weekend, however, the north London club faced QPR in the first home fixture of the Argentine’s tenure and turned in a display that immediately raised hopes of their Fantasy potential for the season ahead.

In this week’s Technical Area piece, we cast an eye over the performances of the Spurs front four in the 4-0 win over the R’s.

As the average position map from Sunday’s match highlights, attacking midfield trio Christian Eriksen (number 23), Erik Lamela (number 11) and Nacer Chadli (number 22) along with Emmanuel Adebayor (number 10, hidden by Eriksen and Chadli) all seemed to interchange positions in the final third, a sign that they are adapting to the new manager’s tactics, with the Togo international dropping deep to gain possession and linking up with midfield.

Eriksen saw most of the ball in the final third –the Dane made a total of 42 touches against Harry Redknapp’s side, with Lamela equalling Adebayor’s 38 and Chadli less involved on 24. Amongst midfielders, this placed Eriksen and Lamela fifth and seventh in the Gameweek, underling just how both could benefit from the new manager’s approach.

When it comes to distribution, Eriksen’s underlying stats again highlight he was a little unlucky not to pick up any returns. The Dane made 26 successful passes in the final third – mirroring Adebayor, but double Lamela’s 13; the latter was far more erratic in possession and managed a 72.2% pass accuracy in the final third compared to Eriksen’s 89.7% and Adebayor’s 96.3%.

Impressively, Chadli completed 100% of his 12 passes in this area, showing that, aside from Lamela, Tottenham’s attackers rarely played a stray pass high up the pitch. So far this season, only Chelsea have registered a higher percentage of successful passes in the final third than Spurs’ 88.6%. Elsewhere, Lamela’s nine attempted dribbles – with five successful – is indicative of a player whose confidence is quickly on the rise under Pochettino; he made just nine successful dribbles in 361 minutes in 2013/14.

In spite of his impressive distribution, Eriksen was overshadowed by Lamela, who grabbed a pair of assists from three key passes against the R’s. Adebayor was the main creator, though, carving out four goal-scoring opportunities (top for forwards in Gameweek 2), which led to a single assist. In terms of passes received in the final third, Adebayor’s tally of 27 was not only top for Tottenham (Eriksen 22, Lamela 18 and Chadli 16) but was also greater than any forward in the Gameweek – indeed, an average of 1.8 minutes per pass received was quicker than any starting striker in Gameweek 2 and also shows how involved he will be in build-up play.

All four players impressed when it came to goal threat. Encouragingly for Pochettino, the quartet produced a combined 26 touches inside the penalty area and fired 16 shots between them. Intriguingly, Chadli’s eight touches in the area was top for Tottenham, with Adebayor (seven), Eriksen (six) and Lamela (five) all close behind – Adebayor and Eriksen led the way in the 4-0 rout with four efforts apiece, while Lamela mirrored Chadli’s trio of attempts, with the latter notching twice.

Clearly, then, the stats underline the variety of options on offer for Fantasy managers if Spurs continue to play in the same fashion. Chadli’s average of 23 minutes per shot thus far is more than double the speed of last season’s 46.2 minutes and hints he could be a real mid-price contender at 6.0 in the Fantasy Premier League if he can shrug off the challenges of Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend.

The stats also suggest Eriksen owners will be content to hold in spite of his blank – the Dane is up for shots (3.5 to 2.0) and efforts in the box (1.5 to 0.8) under Pochettino and remains a solid alternative to Lamela, while Adebayor has also improved his key passes (2.5 to 1.6) and minutes per attempt (40.8 to 42.9) since the new manager’s arrival. Promising for Pochettino, then, but potentially frustrating for Fantasy managers as the stats back up Sunday’s showing that, on any given day, any of the front four look capable of bringing home the points.

*The Technical Area is put together using the statistics and maps available in our members area. For access to such data and tools on every player, team and match of the 2014/15 season, and for exclusive members articles like this, click here for details.