Tactical analysis: Newcastle 2 Tottenham 2 in 5 key points
16.10.11 – Sunday 4pm
Barclays Premier League
Newcastle 2
Ba 48
Shola Ameobi 86
Tottenham 2
Van der Vaart (penalty) 40
Defoe 68
Newcastle welcomed 6th placed Tottenham to St James’ Park on Sunday and twice had to come from behind to extend their unbeaten start to the season with a well earned point in a 2-2 draw.
The game’s opening goal came on the 40 minute mark when Rafael Van der Vaart converted a Spurs’ penalty; referee Lee Probert rightly having awarded the spot kick for a Steven Taylor trip on Emmanuel Adebayor. However, Newcastle were back on level terms only 3 minutes into the second half when Jonas Gutierrez showed some neat wing play to evade his marker before sending a left footed cross to the back post for Demba Ba to convert – the goal taking the Senegalese International’s tally to 5 for the season and an impressive 12 in his last 15 starts.
Spurs regained the lead with just over 20 minutes left to play when substitute Jermain Defoe received the ball on the edge of the Newcastle area before turning and drilling a low left footed shot into the corner of Tim Krul’s net. Newcastle pressed for an equaliser and were rewarded 4 minutes from time when Shola Ameobi fired a low left footed shot from the corner of the 18 yard box across Brad Friedel and into the Spurs’ net. Both sides had chances to win the game in the 5 minutes of injury time, with Defoe and Fabricio Coloccini going close, but the points were shared as the final whistle blew on an entertaining game which finished 2-2.
Here we take a look at the 5 key points from a Newcastle perspective:
1. Team selection and tactics
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, presumably a believer in the adage that ‘if it’s not broke, don’t try and fix it’, was able to name the same starting 11 that won 2-1 at Molineux against Wolves a fortnight ago with initial injury concerns over Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye not restricting their participation as earlier feared. In fact, it was the 4th consecutive game that Pardew named this line-up, as Newcastle again set up in a 4-4-2 formation. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp was able to call on Adebayor, having gaged the front man’s participation as 50-50 earlier in the week, but did make 1 change to the side that had defeated local rivals Arsenal 2-1 at White Hart Lane in their last outing with Jake Livermore replacing Jermain Defoe who dropped to the bench. Livermore slotted into central midfield alongside Scott Parker which allowed Van der Vaart to play in a more advanced role between midfield and attack in Tottenham’s 4-4-1-1 formation.
Both sides adopted different strategies – Newcastle generally played a possession game and looked to gradually build chances and exploit their opponents on the flanks, while Spurs tended to sit deep and looked to catch Newcastle on the counter using the abundance of pace that they possess – crucially, both sides, although using different approaches, played for the win which made for an end to end, enthralling and entertaining spectacle.
2. Gareth Bale-d out by Ryan Taylor
From one by-line to the other: Ryan Taylor heat map
The most notable aspect of Harry Redknapp’s team selection was the usually left sided Gareth Bale deployed instead as an inverted winger on the right of midfield, presumably with the intention of using his pace to exploit Newcastle’s out of position Ryan Taylor at left back. However, whereas Ryan Taylor had a torrid time against the pace of QPR’s Sean Wright-Phillips last month he coped admirably well, supported ably by the willing Gutierrez, against the 2010/11 PFA player of the year.
Taylor’s positioning and understanding of the left back role is improving with each game as is his confidence in getting forward to support Gutierrez in attacking situations, underlined by the fact that he completed 8 passes in the final third and gained an assist with his pass to Shola Ameobi for Newcastle’s late equaliser. It is testament to Ryan Taylor’s performance that after half an hour, and with Spurs getting no joy out of Newcastle’s utility man, that Bale was switched to his more natural left side to instead go up against Newcastle’s right side pairing of Danny Simpson and Gabriel Obertan.
3. Tiote tasked with thwarting Tottenham’s threat through the centre
With Bale stationed on the right and looking to cut inside onto his favoured left foot and Luka Modric regularly drifting inside from his left midfield berth, Tottenham’s attacking threat, and indeed both their goals, originated from the central midfield area – although they utilised their left side better when Bale moved there after half an hour – and the responsibility to break up Tottenham’s attacks through the centre lay with Newcastle’s midfield combatant Cheik Tiote.
Tiote's 5 tackles in his own half
Tiote was excellent in central midfield and covered the ground in the midfield third very well, regularly pressing his Tottenham counterparts and breaking up play while also using possession sensibly and with a high level of accuracy. Tiote’s domineering performance is highlighted by the fact that he had more touches than any other player on the pitch (91), completed more passes (60), while no other player made more tackles (5) or more interceptions (5). Tiote is fast returning to his form of last season and is proving a complimentary foil to the more attacking nature of his midfield partner Yohan Cabaye.
4. Newcastle persist with width
While Tottenham looked to build through the centre, conversely Newcastle looked to create opportunities from wide areas – a feature which has been prominent thus far in Newcastle’s season and which seems to be a preference of Pardew. Newcastle’s persistence in width and crosses into the box against Tottenham is highlighted by the fact that they attempted 28 crosses in normal play in comparison to only 10 attempted by Tottenham.
Tottenham's dogged defensive display: 49 clearances
Newcastle’s 21% cross completion rate could be looked upon unfavourably, but it’s worth considering that they were up against a resilient Tottenham back line that combined to clear the ball no less than 49 times. The 6″3 Laurence Fishburne and The Rock hybrid – Younes Kaboul – played the role of chief deflector with 15 clearances, while defensive compatriots Kyle Walker, Sebastien Bassong and Benoit Assou-Ekotto combined to produce 20 clearances. However, undeterred, Newcastle continued to pump the ball into the box and got their reward on 48 minutes when Gutierrez provided a peach of a ball from the left for Ba to convert.
5. Substitutes make their mark
Both managers made offensive changes in the final half hour to change the shape of their team and both were rewarded for their attacking intents. With the score level at 1-1 and just after the hour mark, on 64 minutes, Harry Redknapp was the first to act and withdrew Van der Vaart, replacing him with Defoe who lined up alongside Adebayor as Spurs switched to a more offensive 4-4-2 formation. And Redknapp reaped the benefits of his substitution only 4 minutes later when Defoe, who had more shots on target (2) in 26 minutes than Adebayor did in 90 (0), put Spurs ahead and seemingly on course for all 3 points.
Hard to track: Ben Arfa's nomadic movement shown through his passing
However, only 3 minutes after conceding Alan Pardew made a reactionary double substitution and replaced his starting strike force of Ba and Best with Hatem Ben Arfa and Shola Ameobi as Newcastle changed to more of a 4-4-1-1 formation with Ben Arfa just off the most senior of the Ameobi clan. The introduction of Ben Arfa, in what was almost a free role, gave Newcastle a new dynamic as he moved from left to right to link up play, occupying the thoughts of the Tottenham defenders and freeing up space for his teammates. Meanwhile, his fellow substitute Shola Ameobi was at his enigmatic best, drifting to the left to find space, running at the Tottenham defence and causing problems with his movement and direct approach – a fine 24 minute cameo that was capped by a superb equaliser.
At the end of the day…
The general consensus in the run up to this fixture was that, in Tottenham, Newcastle would be facing the sternest challenge of their season so far as they looked to protect their unbeaten run. And this proved to be the case with Tottenham only 4 minutes away from taking all 3 points. However, Newcastle more than held their own against the Champions League hopefuls, matching their 13 shots on target and were deserved of their late equaliser and share of the points.
The openness of the game played to the strengths of both sides’ flair players – Modric and Gutierrez in particular, who were both outstanding – and with both sides going for the win it was a joy to watch live, if not slightly tense in injury time… Well done to both sides for playing their part in a thoroughly enjoyable fixture.
Newcastle’s collective team spirit and determination to remain unbeaten is a pleasure to watch and it’s to Pardew’s credit that he has his team playing in such a committed fashion, long may it continue. Notable mentions, to those not mentioned above, must also go to Tim Krul, Yohan Cabaye and Captain Fabricio Coloccini who all played their parts – the latter oozing class in the heart of Newcastle’s defence.
The point extended Newcastle’s place in the select club of 8 teams in the top 5 European leagues – alongside Man United, Man City, Barcelona, Levante, Sevilla, Juventus and Udinese – yet to be defeated this season, and kept them in 4th place in the Premier League table with 16 points attained from the 24 available so far this season. A truly wondrous start from those in Black and White.
Next up for Newcastle is another home fixture against struggling Wigan on Saturday, 3pm kick off – realistically as good an opportunity as any to keep the unbeaten record going. Pardew has created healthy competition throughout the squad with the likes of Davide Santon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Sylvain Marveaux and the returning Shola Ameobi all pressing for first team places, the knowledge that there’s a willing replacement waiting in the wings should hopefully guard against any complacency – something that has plagued Newcastle in recent years.
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As always fantastic analysis! Great work, keep it up.
The lads looked good against a decent team.
What was even better was the fact that ‘arry had to monkey with his usual formation.
Respect is growing!
We gifted the goals to spurs, whilst carving out 2 very good replies.
Bale was neutralized by Raylor, then Simmo, then santon (good debut for the lad).
Tiote & Cabaye got hold of midfield, even in a 442.
We kept them quiet.
Great analysis lads!
i was encouraged by what was a very spirited display yesterday and thought it was great to see us battle back despite a few silly mistakes by some of our players. no surprises that i thought stevie taylor was rash in his tackle on adebayor for the penalty but cabeye, who was as quiet as i’ve seen him, was caught in possession in a very dangerous area in the build up which probably put taylor in a tough spot he wasnt expecting to be in.
stevie was fortunate not to play adebayor (when he shot narrowly across goal) onside after the break by staying far too deep. but he took his chance to make a mends towards the end with that block on defoe before krul made yet another important stop. i think stevie has made a couple of rash decisions of late, wolves springs to mind, but he works very hard and he and coloccini have built a promising relationship. they should be given time to work on it rather than reverting back to williamson when fit as i think taylor has a great spirit and is a strong influence in the team, the importance of which should not be underestimated.
as the stats above show, tiote was immense with his tackling, blocking, running and overall reading of the game. the amount of ground he covers is impressive and his engine is a real asset to the team. the same goes for jonas, who put in a late sliding challenge on his wing to sum up another great performance. his run and delivery for ba’s goal were further positive signs that he may be getting it together at the offensive end too.
i think obertan has done fine for the most part but wouldn’t mind seeing marveaux given a chance against wigan. im not sayinig obertan should be dropped but it’s perhaps a good fixture to try him out from the beginning.
i was glad to see ben arfa get a run yesterday. a few nice flashes but he was a bit wasteful at times too, perhaps trying that little bit too hard. he’s obviously going to be an important player and will need to be kept happy but where and into what system do people see him ultimately fitting in and when will that happen?
I think VDV would have played at Right Midfield yesterday but he has complained in the press about being used there so with no other fit RM Spurs were forced to use Modric on the flank instead of in centre midfield. Instead Spurs gave VDV the exact position he has asked to play off Adebayor from the start. However VDV/Adebayor failed to work as a pair and Modric was far less influential on the wing than in his usual central role. So in short we were not at our best in the first half and only really sparked into life when Defoe came on in the second half.
Unfortunately by that time Newcastle had improved from the first half and had the crowd roaring and each part of your team playing with passion and unity of purpose. I don’t know the names but you have some skillful players too and they combine to a team greater than the sum of its parts. All in all a game that had the TV guys smiling and honours shared and although we led late on it was no injustice to finish a draw. Good luck for the season.
Excellent technical coverage of an excellent game of football. You have managed again to collect all the relevent details that it is not possible to get into your own head while watching the game. Brilliant.
Cheers for the comments, all. Much appreciated as always.
Stavros – the Jonas tackle that you mentioned; I was raving on about that post match to anyone that would listen. If anything summed up what he brings to the team and his defensive awareness it was that. With Modric about to launch a counter and Newcastle over committed in attack, Jonas won back possession with a slide tackle and then won himself a free kick in the final third to relieve pressure and create an attacking opportunity for his side. Class. Thought he was excellent and he also looks to be forming a good understanding with Ryan Taylor on the left.
I don’t think it will be long before the likes of Santon, Marveaux and Ben Arfa are given a start in the first team, possibly against Wigan on Sat but if not then I’d imagine in the cup against Blackburn next week.
Pardew has spoken of playing Ben Arfa off a striker but he also seems to favour a 4-4-2 formation so will be interesting to see how he fits him in. I’ve a feeling that Best may be sacrificed with Ben Arfa playing off Ba, but Pardew could well have different ideas.
aspur – nice to have some insight from an opposition fan. I was surprised to see Modric start out wide with the less experienced Livermore in central midfield but what you’ve said about Van der Vaart voicing his concerns about playing out wide and preferring to play off Adebayor explains why Redknapp set his side up the way he did.
I agree with you that VDV didn’t really seem to click with Adebayor and Tottenham posed more of a threat when Defoe came on to line up directly alongside Adebayor – they seem to have the basis of a good partnership, as they showed against Liverpool at White Hart Lane, and I was happy, as a Newcastle fan, to see him remain on the bench for the majority of the game. I was also glad to see Aaron Lennon absent from the team, he caused Newcastle no end of problems in the fixture at St James’ last season.
It was a great game, with both fans seemingly agreed that a draw was a fair outcome. Good luck for the rest of the season, see you in the Champions League next year…
Great write up. I thought it was interesting that Santon came on and played right back!
Good stuff as always RD.
I agree with the points you made especially Tiote’s contribution however the interesting aspect of Arry’s formation was maybe a sign of his recognition that we have a strong midfield pairing, some would argue the best in the BPL ?
He could have kept faith with 4-4-2 which he played against the Gooners last week but maybe thought Modric wouldnt be tough enough to match up and VDV had thrown his toys out about playing wide right last week so I agree with aspur that they were unbalanced for a large part of the game until Defoe came on and they went two up front.
Our subs also changed the game for us. Beforehand we had some threat up front in Ba but Best was rarely involved in anything too offensive. Which is a conundrum. Two forwards play regularly up front and at least one of them scores in almost every game we play. Sounds like a recipe for success yet I cannot help think we’d be better off if we just played one of them and provided that one player with a little more from both wings and from the player in the “hole”. Yes we played crosses into the box but cross completion was pretty poor as you mentioned.
Thankfully the clueless one has finally decided that HBA is ready for a starting place and providing he doesnt play him behind two forwards we should be able to move forward with a flexible, dynamic “front four” which will give opposition teams much more to think about rather than the standard 4-4-2 which, it has to be said, can look very predictable at times. Fortunately although we dont have a top class striker we do have three pretty similar forwards who can easily fit into the forward role.
As you said top marks must go to Tiote for a typical Tiote performance plus mentions for Krul once again and Colo as usual
I’d also rather have Jonas’s honest endeavour every time than the sporadic touches we get from Obertan who is yet to convince. In addition to which I’d much prefer Santon to play as a specialist full back and have Raylor and Sammi on the bench Sammi for his ability to run at teams in the last ten/fifteen minutes and Raylor because he deserves to remain in contention for his positional flexibility.
If only Pardwho could release himself from the shackles of “if it aint broke dont fix it” 4-4-2 we could very easily go into the stiff test games in a solid top four place.
Time perhaps for a little credit to “Pardwho” maybe, Andy? Line-up was good, subsitutions were timely and sensible, the man might not be everyone’s favourite but you can’t argue with the results he has this season…
Smith says:
Time perhaps for a little credit to “Pardwho” maybe, Andy? Line-up was good, subsitutions were timely and sensible, the man might not be everyone’s favourite but you can’t argue with the results he has this season…
AndyMac says:
Line up was good if you removed Obertan, subs were much needed and good they came on reasonably early………..If only Pardwho could release himself from the shackles of “if it aint broke dont fix it” 4-4-2 we could very easily go into the stiff test games in a solid top four place.
Smith also says:
Nothing say’s we can’t though. Should be looking for a win at home to both Wigan and Everton, Stoke away is an incredibly tough proposition to even the best PL sides. If Pardew maintains the 442 layout and we gain 6 from from the next 3 games (putting us on 22 points out of a possible 33) will he then gain some credit? Or at least be elevated from the level of ‘clueless’?
AndyMac replies :
I agree “Stoke away is an incredibly tough proposition to even the best PL sides” and we all remember the b*llsup he made last season when we looked like rabbits caught in the proverbial ?
To quote .com “Alan Pardew employed a baffling 3-5-2 system with Sol Campbell looking way out of his depth. If Pardew’s intention was to make Steve Harper’s penalty area a no-fly zone, it failed miserably and despite what the manager said after the game, picking Campbell ahead of Taylor was misguided. To our eyes Campbell retired at least two years ago….”
As stated elsewhere today the Stoke game will be the acid test for us. If we’re as good as we think we are we should be able to take something from the Britannia ? Then maybe I’ll elevate him to Greenhorn
Good write up once again.
Agree with the majority of what everyone has said so far. Considering pundits galore consider Spurs to be a top 5 certainty I feel a draw was a very good result and would have taken it before the game, however i couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at the end that we didn’t sneak the win, especially with the chance Coloccini had at the end.
I think the overarching aspect that allowed us to succeed was hard work. It would be interesting to see the ground covered by some of our players as we were outpassed for large spells within the game. Ba and Best were constantly chasing down the defenders as Spurs attempted to play the ball out from the back and Jonas and Obertan were helping out as well. I have no issue with Obertan’s work rate but his decisions and lack of bottle show through. He’s not keen to go into tackles and will often come inside and pass rather than take the full back on when in a 1 on 1 situation.
No idea who came on in the 2nd half wearing the number 23 shirt but it can’t have been Shola, I’ve never seen him play like that, he was confident, enthusiastic and able to beat defenders with skill. Just not what we’ve come to expect over the last 10 years.
Also, as much as Bale is an excellent player and has proved so in the past, i’m wondering about his pre-match preparation. I would expect that attacking players would research who they are up against. On a number of occasions when in the 1 on 1 position with Danny Simpson, who was doing his standard backing off from 20 yards away, Bale chose to cross. If he’d watched some clips of Simpson’s defending he would have known that if he runs at him, Simpson will back off and let him into the box. With his pace, Bale should have been able to exploit that. Don’t know if that’s lack of preparation on Bale’s part or the fact that Redknapp tends to focus on what his team should do in games rather than what the opposition are made up of.
Pleased that Santon got a run out, he looked quite tidy in his cameo appearance, he’s also quite tall which makes me think he might get a start against Stoke. Comment from NUFC.net about Santon playing right back. My understanding is that he’s a right-footed left back, so can play on either side. I think Simpson had a bit of a hissy-fit when he came off so it may be that he’s replaced by him long term rather than Taylor, which i’d personally prefer.
On the Stoke issue – it is a tough game, but I think we stand a good chance if we play a 5 man midfield and try and outpass them. Don’t think it’s worth trying to outmuscle them with 2 big forwards so i’d play Ba up front with Ben Arfa behind. The two games they’ve lost this season (Swansea and Sunderland), they were up against a 5 man midfield.
Now very confident about the next 3 games, hopefully we can pick up 6 or 7 points, just got to hope Pardew can keep complacency out of the team. Full credit to Pardew, to get to this position following the unsettled nature of the start of the season is little short of a miracle.
Quite a bit of reticent & begrudging respect slowly growing for our manager.
Disingenuous snideness is always a canny good measure of that!
Howay the Lads!
All of ‘em.
Really insightful analysis of the game! I was going mental watching it at home, and have never seen a better strike coming from Shola’s left foot than the equaliser.
I was at the Stoke game last season, and truth be told, we weren’t that bad (though we were definitely poorer than Stoke). Stoke just seemed more confident, interested and inspired, in front of their home crowd. Their first goal was duly deserved, but Pardew had set up the team to come out guns blazing and to level the scores soon after the break. Unfortunately, it was Stoke that scored straight after, and that seemed to take the confidence out of the whole team entirely. That left us to chase the game the whole way through. I would say that the Stoke fans were pretty loud, and impressive as well. We’ll need our own to continue backing the team all throughout the 90 minutes, and I believe we can win this game. Perhaps Pardew should set up his team to NOT foul Stoke within our third of the pitch to prevent any chance for Stoke to send their centre-halves forward, to add to their already tall forwards. Our players aren’t exactly the tallest lol. It’ll take a lot of discipline, and concentration to not give silly balls away.
I wish I had the chance to catch some of our Reserves’ team games this season (I’m an overseas fan, so to have managed to catch the 8 Toon games in 4 months last season was a dream come true), because I think exciting things are happening there, especially to check out Vuckic, Sa.Ameobi, Ferguson, Abeid, Richardson etc. Great that we’re doing well across all levels! Howay the lads!
As a slight aside to the above RD, I noticed that your first draft of this analysis had Tottenham playing 4-2-3-1 then sunsequently changed to 4-4-1-1. Was that influenced by football-lineups.com by any chance as they too had Spuds on 4-2-3-1 then later changed to 4-4-1-1 ?
I ask because from the kick off it looked like Parker and Livermore were the two “deepest” midfielders but one man’s 4-2-3-1 can be another’s 4-4-1-1 I guess
http://www.football-lineups.com/lineup/241167/
Andy – sorry, I’m not sure what first draft you are referring to? I thought Spurs were playing a 4-4-1-1 formation (which could be interpreted as a 4-2-3-1 when the wingers advanced) which I mentioned in point 1 and the diagram. I haven’t changed the piece since putting it on the site on Mon night
Senior moment probably RD
Maybe it was the diagram that set me off on that train of thought ?
Like you say, one man’s 4-2-3-1 is another’s 4-4-1-1. Guess they are interchangeable depending on defending/attacking situations, but I thought they took up more of a 4 than 5 man midfield