Former Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal defender William Gallas compared Ange Postecoglou’s tactics to those of Marcelo Bielsa, and warned it could have negative effects on their Champions League aims.
Bielsa was famous in Marseille, Leeds and Bilbao for his hard-running approach, but at each of those sides they have impressed with their commitment to attacking play, while ultimately suffering from fatigue.
Postecoglou has taken Spurs high up the table this season and they face a battle with Aston Villa - and potentially from Manchester United after their recent resurgence - for the last Champions League spot this season.
Tottenham’s last match was a home defeat to Wolves, which has led to suggestions that the Londoners might need to adjust their approach for the rest of the season.
Speaking to Gambling Zone, Gallas suggested that they are playing a risky game.
He said: “I think Tottenham’s defeat against Wolves has shown me that Tottenham must be careful if they want to finish in the top four. I think they need to be careful with the way that they play. We all know the system – the high line – and they were playing so well at the beginning of the season playing high and pressing the opponent with a lot of intensity.
‘Physically, it’s hard to [do] that in every game. Maybe Tottenham have to make some tactical changes because all of the teams in the Premier League know how they play.
“When you look at the goal that Tottenham conceded on the counter-attack, that is not good. They concede the goal on sixty-three minutes. If Tottenham keep getting caught out, they will give away a lot of chances and they will drop a lot of points.
“It takes a lot of effort to play Ange Postecoglou’s brand of football. It is a very demanding strategy physically. It’s not easy to play very high and you lose a lot of energy. I think that Tottenham can still surprise teams this season, but they may need to make some minor tweaks going forward to do so.
“I hope that the Tottenham manager is going to change things a little bit. I think they are capable of changing things and that would surprise their opponent. It will be hard for them to play like this until the end of the season.”
He then suggested that he would encounter a similar problem as Bielsa has in his last few jobs, explaining: “Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou’s demands remind me a little bit of Marcelo Bielsa. Bielsa’s football was physically exhausting for his players eventually. When he was the manager of Marseille, in the French league everyone was crazy about how Marseille were playing, and it was unbelievable. It was the same at Leeds.
“He asked the Marseille players to make a lot of effort for him to execute his game plan and, after the first part of the season, Marseille were top of the league. For the second part of the season, he kept his tactics exactly the same and the team dropped because the players were so tired.”
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