What does the switch to 4-4-1-1 mean for Spurs?

Article by Ashley Caparelli

Sherwood changed his formation for the first time in the 3-1 victory against Swansea on Sunday, but how much of a change was it? The scoreline certainly suggested little with Spurs continuing to score more than two goals per game on average highlighting a new attacking mentality instilled by Sherwood.

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Possession had dropped from an average 54% from Tim's previous games in charge to just 45% at Swansea. This shouldn't surprise anybody with Swansea's impressive passing style being often spoken of which, may have in fact prompted Tim to play an extra midfielder and not the apparent tiredness of Soldado. Many had criticised Tim for his use of the 4-4-2, especially after a disappointing performance against Arsenal where Spurs were clearly outnumbered in the middle of the park and struggled to make possession worth while. Yet the addition of an extra man in midfield actually decreased our possession. Eriksen played his role brilliantly against Swansea, helping us back the midfield when they had the ball and being on Adabayor's shoulder in attack. This role could be taken up by one of the strikers in the 4-4-2, in fact we saw Ade do this quite often and a lot at his heat map against Manchester United shows this. In this respect nothing has really changed although it is clear that Eriksen is a central player, and while he isn't exactly wasted on the flank, he doesn't reach his full potential there.

The actual passing didn't change much with average pass length remaining at around 20 meters with the vast majority of passes going forwards. Tottenham's chance creation didn't even change, sticking to the average 10 per game but importantly shot accuracy improved from an average 32% to 50%. In a game where we saw much less of the ball than in previous games this became paramount to a victory. The fact that we were still able to create 10 chances with less possession showed our attacking intent had not changed. Our aim was still to get the ball forward as quickly and as often as possible and at times it was difficult to pinpoint our exact formation with all in sky blue given permission to roam and express themselves in this game as they have done in the 4-4-2 formation.

As expected from a formation with an extra midfielder, pass accuracy has improved, but only by 3%, rising from 82% to 85%. This change isn't really significant, and since its changed by such a little amount, you can't really say that this was a direct result of the formation and even if it was it's only a small improvement and will not have a huge effect on the game. This is yet another indicator that the formation change had not actually changed the way Spurs player, only the way that they set up.

The stats show little change, but more importantly from watching the game against Swansea it is difficult to see any real difference in how Tottenham played. The only real change was the influence of Eriksen, considering the talent and ability the young Dane has, I would be tempted to stick to the 4-4-1-1 or find a formation where Eriksen can play centrally behind two strikers.

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