The Arsenal centre-back Gabriel’s winner in September’s north London derby triggered an all-too-familiar sense of frustration for Tottenham Hotspur fans.
In 2023-24, their first season under Ange Postecoglou, they conceded 16 times from set pieces, nine of which were from corners, the sixth-worst figure in the league.
They also generated just 6.6 expected goals from their own corners across the entire season, ranking 15th.
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That, along with Arsenal’s massive improvement from similar scenarios, meant Postecoglou was questioned repeatedly about his side’s fragility from dead-ball situations, much to his frustration. After a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal in April, where his team conceded twice from corners, Postecoglou stated he did not “see it (Spurs’ set-piece defending) as an issue”.
Gabriel’s goal, which came from a Bukayo Saka corner after Cristian Romero’s lapse in concentration, brought those questions back.
Postecoglou’s response in the post-match press conference was similar: “I know for some reason people think I don’t care about set pieces, and it’s a narrative that you can keep going on for ages and ages… Like I said, we work on them all the time, like we do with every other team.”
Importantly, Postecoglou added that “for the most part, we handled them really well today”, which was true and provides reason to believe Spurs will be better at defending set pieces — specifically corners — this season.
What caused Spurs’ struggles while defending corners last season?
Spurs’ problems from defensive corners were threefold.
The first issue was their organisation. Far too often, Spurs packed the six-yard box, possibly to counter inswinging corners — understandably so as they faced a league-high 143 inswingers across the 2023-24 season.
However, this left them vulnerable to runs from the penalty spot and further behind. Spurs also largely used zonal marking, which meant their players were focused on the ball far too often. The players struggled to escape blockers and were often unaware of runs made behind them. All of these are evident in the goals below that they conceded against Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton, and Newcastle United last season.
In the case of Arsenal, Everton and Newcastle, a Spurs player lost his assigned opponent and allowed them to get into a great position while failing to recover. Due to Spurs’ insistence on defending the six-yard box and their on-the-ball focus, the other defenders were unable to alter their positioning to defend the threat behind them.
In the Wolves example, Maximilian Kilman holds on to two Spurs players (Romero and Son Heung-min) to ensure Joao Gomes has the freedom to leap and place a header past Guglielmo Vicario with ease.
Vicario also contributed to Spurs’ struggles. An excellent shot-stopper from open play, the Italian looked flappable and indecisive from corners and set pieces last season. He often stayed rooted to his spot or mistimed his punches, further exacerbating Spurs’ problems.
The second reason for Spurs’ struggles was directly related to their frequent inability to track a player running behind them. Given their preference to play high up the pitch, their midfielders were slow to track back to help when teams overloaded the wings with underlaps or overlaps.
As neither Pedro Porro nor Destiny Udogie are particularly great defenders of space, this meant Spurs were vulnerable to cutbacks, which, while low in volume due to Spurs’ average possession of around 62 per cent per game, were frequently of high quality. Tottenham conceded eight goals from cutbacks last season, with only Sheffield United (12), Burnley and Crystal Palace (both 10) letting in more.
It meant situations like the ones below occurred more often than Postecoglou would have liked. Spurs’ unsettled defence were forced to clear the ball out in a hurry, often resulting in them giving away a corner.
The third and final aspect was Spurs’ tendency to give the ball away in dangerous areas.
Using data from Footovision, we can see that Spurs conceded possession in build-up more than any other team in the league last season — which led to dangerous opposition transitions.
Additionally, their opponents won possession in Spurs’ defensive third 6.5 times per match, the second-highest figure in the league.
Many of these were in wide areas, as the graph below shows, and a sizeable proportion resulted in shots or goals.
Spurs also conceded 25 shots from fast breaks last season, the joint third-worst figure in the league.
When Spurs spread out in build-up to help the team escape the opposition’s press, they can often be left scrambling to get back into position when they lose the ball — particularly in wide areas when they are defending transitions. When they are forced to close down space in these transitions, it can often result in rushed clearances that drift behind for a corner.
Where have they improved early on in 2024-25?
It is far too early to definitively determine if Spurs’ issues in transition have reduced, but Postecoglou’s second seasons usually bring improvement. If Spurs can be smarter with the ball in their own defensive third while still leaving space between their players in build-up, they will reduce opportunities for opponents to sting them.
Their defensive work in wide areas, however, has improved. Having allowed 10.3 open-play crosses per match last season, they have let in just 7.6 per game in their first five games in 2024-25. This has contributed to marginally improved numbers in most set piece and corner-related metrics as well, albeit in an extremely small sample size.
Prevention is better than cure and conceding fewer corners is the first step Spurs have taken towards improvement. For instance, Fabian Schar’s goal for Newcastle last season came from their 16th corner of the game. Tottenham also conceded eight or more corners in 10 other matches.
Spurs have also improved in defending the few they have given away as well. Nick Montgomery, who joined Postecoglou’s coaching staff this summer after leaving Hibernian, is playing a part in their set-piece organisation and the early returns are promising.
In the sequences below, including one against Arsenal, we notice more players instructed to stay tighter to the players they are marking, while multiple Spurs players are also focused on an opponent, monitoring their movement, rather than the ball.
Spurs’ physicality and communication from these situations has improved and they seem less prone to falling prey to the blocking tactic Kilman used while at Wolves in one of the examples above. Additionally, Vicario has been more proactive in stepping out and punching the ball. He has seven crosses claimed and five crosses punched away after five matches, having managed 33 and 15 respectively in 38 league games last season, though he has had a few unconvincing moments as well.
However, that is not to say they are completely invulnerable from these situations.
As Gabriel’s goal for Arsenal showed, they are still prone to the occasional lapse in concentration. Though Spurs dealt better with Everton’s set pieces during their meeting in August this season compared with their 2023-24 clashes, James Tarkowski’s runs to the far post enabled him to nod the ball back across goal on three occasions (including the two you can see below).
Spurs’ improvement, though, cannot be understated and has reflected on the offensive end as well. They are among the top five teams in the league in multiple set-piece metrics after recording middle-of-the-pack figures last season.
While it is too early to say Spurs have put their set-piece woes behind them, the seeds for improvement seem to have been sown and there are reasons for optimism.
(Alex Dodd – CameraSport via Getty Images)