In a previous article, I looked at Tottenham’s rate of successful tackles in the opposition half (OTs). I described how OTs are a key component of Mauricio Pochettino’s pressing “philosophy”, I crunched the numbers from the past three seasons to demonstrate that there has been a marked increase in OTs this season, and I looked at the extent to which individual Tottenham players were contributing to OTs, to gain a sense of who has – and who has not – adapted to the Pochettino press.

While I received some excellent feedback on that article, a common complaint was that my omission of the figures for attempted opposition half tackles, opposition half interceptions and chances created by the opposing team had prevented me from achieving a truly holistic view of Tottenham’s pressing style this season. I completely agree with these criticisms and have spent the past few days collating the relevant data. The results are below.

One of the most pertinent criticisms came from Michael Caley, who noted that Opta defines tackles as:.

“…where a player connects with the ball in ground challenge where he successfully takes the ball away from the man in possession. All tackles are really a successful event.

‘A Tackle Won is deemed to be where the tackler or one of his team-mates regains possession as a result of the challenge, or that the ball goes out of play and is ‘safe’.

‘A Tackle Lost is where a tackle is made but the ball goes to an opposition player.”

I suggested before that the rate of successful tackles in the opposition half is an extremely important metric, not least because successful OTs are one of the most efficient ways of creating attacking chances. However, it could be argued that unsuccessful OTs are also an extremely important measurement for the pressing system. As Morgan Schneiderlin made clear in an interview I referenced in the previous article, at the heart of the Pochettino system is the attempt to “leave the worst passing option possible to the opponent… [and] not to give the opponent the choice.”

In this context, even an unsuccessful OT would indicate that the opposition defenders and midfielders are coming under the kind of severe pressure that makes it difficult for them to pick out effective offensive passes.

I have included graphs below showing the rate of Spurs’ attempted tackles (both successful and unsuccessful) in the opposition half (henceforth, AOTs) for the past three seasons, and I have also compared the Tottenham team of 2014-15 with the Southampton team of 2013-14.



Tottenham’s AOTs 2012-15



Tottenham’s AOTs 2014-15 and Southampton’s AOTs 2013-14

Two initial conclusions can be drawn from a cursory examination of the two graphs:

(1) Tottenham have steadily increased their rate of AOTs each season from 2012-13 to 2014-15. This impression is reinforced by a look at the overall totals. Thus, for example, in 2012-13 Tottenham performed 175 AOTs at a rate of 4.6 per game, in 2013-14 they achieved a huge increase in their overall total to 334 AOTs at a rate of 8.8 per game, and in 2014-15 this figure rose again to an overall total of 379 (after only 36 games) at a rate of 10.5 AOTs per game. In this case then, the AOT numbers partially correlate with the OT numbers, and it is clear that the Pochettino pressing style has had a demonstrable effect on Tottenham’s tackling statistics this season.

(2) There does not appear to be a huge difference between the AOTs of the Spurs team of 2014-15 and the Southampton team of 2013-14. Once again the overall totals largely support this impression. Thus, for example, while, as I mentioned above, Tottenham are currently achieving a rate of 10.5 AOTs per game this season, that Southampton team managed 10.6 AOTs (when rounded) in 2013-14.

The importance of this marginal difference lies in the fact that I claimed in my previous article that Pochettino’s Tottenham team is significantly outperforming his Southampton team in terms of OTs. In fact, it seems that while the Tottenham players are more likely than their Southampton counterparts were to successfully recover the ball following an opposition half tackle (at a rate of 4.7 per game compared to 4.1 per game), they are very slightly less likely to make an opposition half tackle in the first place.

I now want to present the statistics for Tottenham’s interceptions in the opposition half (henceforth, OIs). Once again I have included graphs below which show Tottenham’s rate of interceptions over the past three seasons, and comparing the 2014-15 Spurs team with the 2013-14 Southampton team.



Tottenham’s OIs 2012-15



Tottenham’s OIs 2014-15 and Southampton’s OIs 2013-14

As can be seen in the first graph, Tottenham’s rate of OIs is impressionistically superior in the 2012-13 season to that achieved in 2014-15. This is somewhat surprising, because the ability to press forward and intercept the ball – and, consequently, the ability to put the opposition on the back foot in their own half – should be a key component of the pressing game. The overall numbers would appear to back up the impression gathered from the graph: in the 2012-13 season Tottenham achieved 187 interceptions at a rate of 4.9 OIs per game; in 2013-14 the rate is slightly lower at 145 and 3.8 per game; and, in 2014-15, Pochettino’s team have managed 151 OIs thus far, at a rate of 4.2 per game.

Interestingly, Pochettino’s Southampton team only managed 136 OIs in 2013-14 at a rate of 3.6 per game. This might suggest that, for whatever reason, Pochettino’s tactical set up – or perhaps personnel deployment – is failing to maximise the potential for OIs.

Indeed, Tottenham’s current OI rate appears to be subpar. While I do not have the figures for the entire Premier League, I have run the Spurs numbers against those achieved by Leicester – a relegation-battling team, and one not renowned for a pressing style. The results are presented in the graph below, but I should state for the record that Leicester have achieved 164 OIs so far this season at a rate of 4.6 per game. The difference with Tottenham’s rate of 4.2 OIs per game is not particularly stark, but it is somewhat surprising that the Tottenham pressing system is achieving less opposition half interceptions than Leicester City.



Tottenham and Leicester’s 2014-15 OIs

In my new analysis of AOTs and OIs, I have once again looked at the contribution of individual Tottenham players. I do not have the time to present all of the relevant numbers, but I would suggest that my initial findings support the conclusions I drew in my previous article: namely, that Harry Kane, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Danny Rose are the most effective pressing players in the Spurs squad (closely followed by Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason), while Nacer Chadli and Kyle Walker in particular are not achieving anywhere like the numbers one might expect. The charts below give some idea of the disparity between players in similar positions.

Of course, it will be suggested that the comparison of total actions between Rose and Walker in particular is an unfair one due to Walker’s lack of minutes this season. However, even when adjusting the figures to take into account the differing game time between the two players, Walker only achieves an opposition half defensive action every 100 minutes, while Rose manages one every 48 minutes. Danny Rose then, based on simply these metrics, has been more than twice as effective as Kyle Walker this season as a pressing full back.

The disparity is just as striking among the attacking midfield regular starters. Erik Lamela is clearly the presser extraordinaire with an opposition half tackle or interception every 33 minutes. Christian Eriksen then follows with an admirable rate of an opposition half defensive action every 54 minutes. Nacer Chadli, on the other hand, only achieves a rate of one AOT or OI every 102 minutes. It is clear then, that Chadli is not currently performing his pressing duties well in Pochettino’s system.

In this article I have attempted a more nuanced look at Tottenham’s opposition half pressing metrics, and the results would suggest that the Pochettino revolution has not been as successful as I previously concluded. While Spurs’ rate of AOTs has undeniably increased under Pochettino, the rate of OIs is probably not where we would expect it to be (more analysis should reveal what an effective OI rate should generally be for a successful pressing team).

Moreover, another area in which Pochettino’s philosophy is not being implemented properly is in the rate of shots conceded to the opposition.

If half of the point of the high press is to deny the opposition team the time on the ball to create attacking chances (the other half, of course, is to create attacking chances for your own team by dispossessing the opposition in dangerous areas), then one should see a fall in the rate of chances and shots conceded. While I do not have access to all of the relevant raw data, the rate of shots against Tottenham season-by-season is a pertinent metric. As can be seen in the chart below, Tottenham are conceding over 4 more shots to the opposition team per game this season than they were in 2012-13 under AVB.



Shots against Tottenham per game 2012-15

This all suggests then, that the Pochettino press is proving less effective than I previously thought. I would suggest that much of this is due to the fact that, as my analysis shows, some of Tottenham’s current personnel are proving particularly ineffective at contributing to the pressing game. Mauricio Pochettino and Paul Mitchell – the Head of Player Recruitment at Tottenham – have a great deal of work to do this summer.