FEEL THE POWER
STOPPING the Manchester City juggernaut might appear hopeless, like one insignificant fighter pilot searching for a tiny, intrinsic flaw in an impregnable Death Star. But Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham have to hope and use all the resources available to them. Or, as Hugo Lloris put it, they need to ‘feel the power’ of their new stadium.
It may be a vain hope. It’s hard to argue against the fact that the best players usually win games and City have more of those than almost anyone. But Spurs do have an amazing new home with a very good team. In addition, they have 62,000 fans high on homecoming euphoria. And they have that extraordinary South Stand, a 17,500-capacity single tier block of noise at one end.
It is the outstanding architectural statement of the stadium and, judging by Wednesday, an acoustic marvel as well. ‘At some moments in the game, we feel the power,’ said Spurs captain Lloris after the inaugural game against Crystal Palace. ‘I think this can be a help for the team. We will need the crowd for every game. Of course, this is a big moment for the club. To be part of a quarter-final for the Champions League is a great opportunity.’
Yet in the week in which it was revealed that their wage bill was half that of City’s last season, they know that they can’t match their squad depth or financial firepower. ‘We try to create a great future but cannot build this in one or two seasons,’ said Lloris. ‘We need time.’
But the stadium is a start and Harry Winks touched on the same point as Lloris on Wednesday. ‘It was amazing, the atmosphere was electric,’ he said. ‘ From what I gathered it can be a daunting place for the opposition. If they [the fans] can recreate that [ against City] hopefully it can be a good night.
‘Of course, the fans play a massive role in creating that atmosphere and helping us. But the most important thing is how we play. If we perform like we did [against Palace] and press like we did, it can be a difficult night for them.’
Winks is right. A marvellous stadium and cacophony of noise won’t help if Spurs don’t play well. And even if there is a unique atmosphere, in the age of analytics it might seem naive to suggest such a phenomenon could make a difference with seasoned pros like Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne.
Except that City imploded twice last season when faced with the intensity of the Anfield effect. At Spurs, there will be no repeat of the shameful ambush that the City team coach ran into at Liverpool. But that aside, the atmosphere within the stadium for the Premier League and Champions League games was legitimately passionate. And that seemed to have an effect.
‘The target is to make City’s life harder,’ said Lloris. ‘To be ready to compete from the first minute. We know we’re going to have the help of the crowd and so we have just to enjoy the moment. When I say to enjoy, I mean to enjoy running, defending, attacking, to enjoy everything that can be decisive.’
There is no doubt that Spurs can mimic Jurgen Klopp’s team in terms of pressing. That, of course, is more important than crowd noise and yet the two have a symbiotic relationship: an aggressive press creates an intense atmosphere.
In the Premier League at Anfield last year, City conceded three in a
nine- minute spell, effectively putting Liverpool out of sight, though a late comeback saw the score cut to 4-3. Then, in the famous Champions League quarter-final, again at Anfield, City effectively lost the tie by conceding three in a 19-minute spell in the first half.
And intriguingly those results weren’t huge outliers for Guardiola in Europe. When he was at Bayern, in the 2014 semi-final against Real Madrid, his team conceded three in 18 minutes in the first half at home, also effectively ending the tie.
Again with Bayern in the 2015 semi-final and against his old club Barcelona, his team conceded three in the last 13 minutes at the Nou Camp. They lost 3-5 over the two ties but were 5-1 down on aggregate at home and never in the tie.
Guardiola himself conceded that there is a fragility within his philosophy. ‘I’ve thought about that many times,’ he said. ‘I’ve dropped a lot of Champions League games in the space of 10, 15 minutes. Maybe it’s my fault. I have to think about it.’ He said this after City had conceded three goals in 16 minutes against Manchester United to lose 3-2 at the Etihad last season.
Guardiola does play an incredibly offensive style, committing players forward and pressing high up, so the risk- reward scenario is ratcheted up to an extreme degree. When it clicks, it works wonderfully. When it goes wrong, his side seemingly have no defensive shell into which to retreat. Perhaps once confidence is dented and they’re still expected to play in the same bold way, mistakes are exacerbated and a setback becomes a crisis.
Naturally i t tends to happen against the top sides in Europe. And there are enough parallels between Spurs and Liverpool’s style to suggest they could try something similar. It’s as if Guardiola sides are so used to dominating, they forget how to manage when under attack.
Disconcertingly for Spurs, Guardiola seems to have addressed the point. Against Liverpool in January, you could argue he did what he said he would never do and changed his style. Liverpool had 50.4 per cent possession at the Etihad in a 2-1 defeat. In Guardiola’s entire coaching career, only once before had he lost out in possession stats.
In fact there has only really been one occasion this season when they appeared to be vulnerable in that same way, when Crystal Palace scored in the 33rd minute and 35th minutes at the Etihad in December, before adding a third after half time on 51 minutes in their 3-2 win. Yet though it seems unlikely that anyone other than Barcelona will be able to disrupt City this season, Spurs and their 62,000 supporters should at least believe that theirs in not a hopeless cause.