Once you’ve recovered from the shock of seeing two matches scheduled for 7pm, today’s Premier League schedule features some highly intriguing fixtures.
Manchester City against Manchester United is a derby. Crystal Palace versus Brighton and Hove Albion is a slightly geographically-challenged derby. Brentford versus Chelsea is definitely a derby in terms of geography, although obviously the clubs traditionally have other major rivals. Meanwhile, Southampton versus Tottenham Hotspur is not a derby at all, but could be considered the derby of the division’s two most tactically-stubborn managers.
In modern football, managers are expected to have more of a defined philosophy more than ever before, but they’re also expected to place more emphasis on scouting the opposition and varying their tactics every week. Once, there was very much two schools of thought. For much of his time in charge of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger used to deploy the same system every week and barely mentioned the opposition to his players. Jose Mourinho, on the other hand, often unashamedly looked at the opposition first and foremost, and worked backwards when deciding his own approach.
Today, managers are expected to provide a bit of both, so the chief criticism of Southampton manager Russell Martin and Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou this season has been their insistence on sticking to Plan A.
Southampton have become a laughing stock for their tendency to play themselves into trouble on the edge of their own box. Despite the consistent approach, Martin has chopped and changed in terms of personnel. Southampton have used 31 players this season, at least three more than any other club, a number which includes three different goalkeepers, all of whom have been the fall guy in misguided passing sequences.
(Michael Steele/Getty Images)
The statistics are bad: Southampton have made mistakes leading to opposition shots 26 times (heading into this weekend no other Premier League side had done so more than 16 times), and 10 of these have ended in goals (six is the maximum for any other side). But the most damning thing is that you don’t really need the statistics to realise how problematic Southampton’s approach has been.
Postecoglou’s approach is less about playing out from the back, and more about the all-out-attack, high-pressing approach which often means his side lack control, particularly when they found themselves 2-0 up against Chelsea last weekend, as Jamie Carragher highlighted on Monday Night Football.
Analysis of Spurs pressing when 2-0 up on Sunday, that eventually leads to Chelsea’s first goal!
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) December 9, 2024
Tottenham have recorded the most ‘high turnovers’ in the Premier League this season, but the better measure of their lack of tactical acumen is a simple comparison of goal difference and points. Before yesterday’s games had have the fourth-best goal difference but only the 11th-highest points total. They sometimes blow the opposition away, but also regularly lose matches.
Despite having different approaches, in many ways, the managers are kindred spirits. Although they change details from week to week — Martin has used 5-4-1 and 5-3-2, while Postecoglou has sometimes used a more cautious midfield trio recently — they fundamentally believe in their Plan A.
“When I see Ange, I see a man with conviction in values that he won’t compromise on, which I admire,” said Martin in his pre-match press conference on Thursday. “I have a lot of respect for him. Every manager has some form of belief — but the ones who are criticised are the ones who are a little different from the norm. If we all believed in the same thing it would be boring, but (we’d be) less open to criticism.“
Managers often speak about risk and reward. Perhaps the difference, though, is that from Tottenham’s perspective, it’s easy to see some moments of reward. At times, they play exceptional football. Dominic Solanke links play well, the use of James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski has produced some wonderful passages of play, particularly in the thumping 3-0 win at Manchester United, and Brennan Johnson — on paper, a somewhat limited player — has been in great goalscoring form from the right.
The benefit of Southampton’s patience is more difficult to detect. At times, they move the ball infuriatingly slowly. Some of their key attackers seem more suited to playing directly on the break.
(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Where both managers have struggled this year is in terms of communication. Being wedded to your ideas is perfectly fine, but selling them to the fanbase is crucial. Postecoglou, after some of Tottenham’s defeats, has actually not worn his side’s philosophy as a badge of honour or passionately made the point that he can accept negative moments as he strives to build something long-term. Instead, he often appears downcast, personally defeated, and speaks about his determination to produce entertaining football as a burden as much as a virtue.
After a honeymoon period at the start of last season, his relationship with Tottenham fans is in a difficult place, particularly after he struggled to understand the concept that some might want the side not to defeat Manchester City late last season, which could have enabled Arsenal to win the title.
Martin, while espousing a ‘trust the process’ approach, has not shown great faith in his players. After a 1-0 home defeat by Nottingham Forest, he frankly said his side didn’t have the individual quality of their opponents. He said his side’s poor set-piece defending in a 3-0 loss to Manchester United was ‘a mentality problem’. After a 3-1 loss to Bournemouth, he was hugely critical, saying they lacked “fight and aggression and spirit and togetherness and courage”.
Interestingly, after that Bournemouth defeat, Martin made a point of saying how much he’d spoken about Southampton’s opponents that day. “I thought I made enough of a deal about Bournemouth and the way they approached the game and how good they are at certain things,” he said in his post-match press conference. “Obviously, it wasn’t enough because we looked like we were unprepared for that, which, considering the work we’ve done, is crazy.”
Ultimately, a manager’s job is to work with the players at his disposal. Showing exasperation with the players involved does little to inspire confidence in them, and communicates to supporters that a manager is thinking about their own brand as much as the side’s performance. Postecoglou’s criticism of Timo Werner’s display against Rangers on Thursday night might have been entirely reasonable analysis, but it’s unusual to see a modern manager be so blunt about a player in public.
The funny thing, ahead of this weekend’s game, is that while both managers probably need to demonstrate more flexibility and caution at times, this weekend is a time for their Plan A. Tottenham’s heavy pressing seems likely to reap rewards against Southampton’s nervy playing out from the back.
At the same time, Martin will look at that Tottenham approach and believe it makes sense to commit to playing out. As Jadon Sancho said after his Chelsea side had defeated Tottenham last weekend, “We knew we’d catch them out if we broke the lines when they pressed.” They did, and he scored the goal which got Chelsea back into the game.
So it makes sense for Tottenham to press more heavily than ever, and it makes sense for Southampton to play out more than ever. The results could be spectacular, and depending on which team triumphs, one of the post-match interviews might be particularly downbeat.
(Top photos: Getty, Ian MacNicol, Lee Parker-CameraSport; design: Dan Goldfarb)
