Glenn Hoddle highlights one clear problem with Tottenham’s defensive shape

Tottenham’s defensive issues reared their ugly head again on Sunday evening during the defeat to Brighton, and now, Glenn Hoddle has picked out what he thinks is going wrong with the Spurs backline.

Porro and Udogie are too advanced

While Spurs were comfortable in the first half at the Amex Stadium last weekend and went into the break 2-0 up, they were obliterated by Brighton after the restart and ended up on the wrong side of a 3-2 scoreline.

A large portion of the blame has landed at the feet of the Tottenham defensive line, in particular the full-backs, Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie.

Speaking to Premier League Productions (07/10/24 at 5:25 pm), Glenn Hoddle explained how the advanced positions of those full-backs can be brilliant at times, but leaves the Spurs defence exposed.

He said: “The full-back is advanced of [Werner]. If you lose that ball now, then you are in trouble. Udogie is trying to get back. He gets back, fortunately, and they win the ball again. But that happened quite a lot in the second half.

“Then they have handed the ball over again and your full-backs are all out of position – for me, the two full-backs going in works when the ball is further up the pitch, in the middle third and the attacking third. I can understand how that catches people out.”

Making things difficult for Romero and van de Ven

While the benefits of the inverted full-back system are clear to see, Hoddle has picked out further drawbacks of this more narrow approach on the pitch when it comes to the options available to the likes of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero in finding a progressive pass.

He added: “When the ball is at the back with your centre-backs, the centre-backs, at times, they have to go back to the goalkeeper. They have no width because the full-backs are inverted in the centre. The wingers are wide coming back towards their own goal.

“It’s tough for those boys to pick out a pass. It has to be a spot-on pass. So, the percentages are tough, but when it’s going well, it looks fantastic. But there are times in games when your experienced players have to say, ‘Hang on a minute, let’s get through this five-minute period here.'”

High-risk, high reward

Unfortunately, we simply have to take the rough with the smooth on this front. The full-backs getting up the pitch certainly helps Spurs create more opportunities in attacking areas, and I would argue that outweighs the defensive frailties it leads to.

However, Postecoglou and his players need to work on finding a balance, and having a firmer plan in place to combat the fact we are left vulnerable at the back, and have less scope for the centre-halves to move the ball forward with a pass.

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