Outscoring the opposition was the mentality at Tottenham final season however now the main target is on protecting out targets on the different finish of the pitch.
Tuesday’s 1-0 win against Villarreal in Spurs’ Champions League opener was the fourth clear sheet that they had stored in 5 video games up to now this season beneath Thomas Frank.
In distinction, that they had stored only one on the identical stage of final season, when the extra attack-minded Ange Postecoglou was in cost.
“We talked rather a lot about ‘clear sheet mentality’ this yr as a result of we conceded rather a lot final yr,” Tottenham midfielder Lucas Bergvall instructed Amazon Prime.
“They [Villarreal] didn’t have a shot on course, so we did a extremely good job.”
Defender Micky van de Ven added: “I believe we’re a tough crew to play towards, for positive. Construction-wise we’re standing actually good and everyone knows what to do, so we’re a tough crew to beat.”
The model of Frank’s Tottenham facet towards Villarreal was in stark distinction to the swashbuckling soccer performed beneath Postecoglou.
They have been way more cautious, even after being gifted a fourth-minute opener because of a calamitous mistake by Villarreal goalkeeper Luiz Junior.
However their defence was wonderful, with Van de Ven in significantly halting most of Villarreal’s assaults.
Regardless that the guests had 10 pictures, Guglielmo Vicario did not have a save to make all through.
The value for that degree of pragmatism was that Tottenham themselves solely had one shot on course – little or no for the house followers to get enthusiastic about.
“We defended very well and gave little away all through the sport towards a extremely good Villarreal facet,” Frank mentioned.
“I believe offensively we did not hit the very best degree. There was positively a spell second half the place we determined let’s give it to the Villarreal guys after which we’ll dash again, that is an excellent enjoyable factor.
“It was a really even recreation that we simply edged.”
