Harry Winks put in a solid shift against Aston Villa last week.
Whilst it was Christian Eriksen that got the plaudits, it was Pochettino’s shake up in the formation that was the true game changer.
Mauricio Pochettino has considerable form for causing frustration with his rigid belief in team systems that patently aren’t working.
In fact, it’s a curiosity of Poch’s pre game management that he so frequently picks a layout that doesn’t suit Tottenham, let alone the opposition of the day.
Winks [8] had a 96.9% completed pass percentage, but he couldn’t make the killer passes he needed to, because Villa frequently had 11 men behind the ball.
Spurs needed to sit a little deeper to create space to operate effectively within.
Sissoko [17] and NDombele [28] were both far more effective dropped back a little onto the edge of the D.
City will obviously be a tougher gig, and the thought of going 0-1 down to them in the 9th minute doesn’t bear thinking about.
I’d play Winks [8] over Eriksen [23] today, but in the spot the Dane excelled in, during the second half of that game.
The logic being that LATELY Winks works harder and achieves more than Eriksen.
