Spurs are likely going to face an Everton side deploying a defensive 1-5-3-2/1-5-4-1 formation without the ball upon their season opener away at Goodison Park. Koeman’s tactical acumen mixed with his openness to resort to a back 3/5 offer Spurs an interesting obstacle next weekend. Koeman will likely employ this defensive formation so as to provide greater protection to the half-spaces of the pitch thus to limit Eriksen’s potential in possession. Below is a rough image highlighting how Eriksen may stuggle to penetrate Everton’s shape if we don’t adapt our tactics.

You can see how this particular shape capably protects the centre and half-spaces whilst funnelling the oppositions possession towards the flanks.

How can we combat this?

Eriksen should be given specific instructions to, at first, restrict his movement inside the left half-space, instead he should remain out wide, with Vertonghen and Rose offering close support on the left flank like below.

This triple width approach will entice Everton’s midfield to shift over to the left side of the pitch, so as to prevent a 2v1 situation down their right side thus weakening their control over the right half-space. The above image roughly illustrates how this approach opens up the half-space on the other side of the pitch. Once Everton’s midfield are lured over, Spurs would need to quickly switch the ball through their midfield in order to exploit this temporary weakness. For this reason I’d employ Tom Carroll as one of the ‘2’ in midfield as I trust him to move the ball on quicker in possession and play at a higher tempo than Dier or Dembele (at the risk of losing something in our offence to defence transition). This approach can also be employed on the other side with Lamela staying wide thus opening up space for Eriksen in the left half-space.

This image roughly illustrates how Everton risk leaving their near-side half-space open if the wide midfielder isn’t supported if he presses Eriksen. If Everton’s midfield doesn’t react at all, then this presents a 2v1 situation down the flank and I’d be encouraged to deploy Trippier and Davies if this was the case.

With minor changes Spurs shouldn’t face too much of a challenge breaking down this Everton side if the players apply themselves correctly. I predict Mason will start in Dembele’s place as we haven’t seen Dembele this pre-season and Pochettino trusts Mason over Carroll in most cases. I seriously doubt Poch will start both Wanyama and Dier in midfield as this will severely limit Spurs’ potential in possession and make for a very depressing passing network illustration.

Edit – I realise Dembele is suspended, the numbers in the image aren’t my predicted XI, I just threw them in when making the images to help visualise the situations presented.

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