Tottenham Hotspur appears to be spiraling out of control, with the players, the interim coach, and the fans all seeming to have lost their grip on the club.
The team’s default setting has been to drop back, inviting pressure and opposition goals before fighting back to get a point or three.
When questioned, the current interim coach, Cristian Stellini, mentioned why the players sit back as their primary instinct, stating, “It’s the mindset; the mindset has to change absolutely because it was not our intention.
“We need to go strong. When we scored the first goal, immediately we dropped back. We have to keep the ball, not waste it and play strong. This is the only thing that’s important to analyze because today we played two different games.”
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Stellini abandoned all compactness towards the end of the match against Bournemouth, turning to a 4-2-4 formation, which confused the players.
Tottenham had 24 shots on goal to Bournemouth’s nine but only managed to put eight on target.
In just over two months, Tottenham has lost to Bournemouth, Leicester City, and Wolves and drawn against Southampton and Everton.
According to Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil, “We largely dominated the ball; Spurs’ main threat was just the counter-attack,” which Tottenham fans have noted many times in recent years.
They often seem like the visiting team when playing at home. Individual errors did not help Tottenham, but dismissing the players’ tendency to sit back as having nothing to do with coaching is a hard sell.
Tottenham’s preference for a more compact formation has drilled a mindset to hold back into the players, despite coaches telling them otherwise.
