The moment James Maddison darted into space to score his first goal against Manchester City on Saturday felt familiar.
Under Ange Postecoglou, Tottenham Hotspur’s attacking patterns have been clear — from narrow full-backs adding unpredictability in the final third, to timely roams of their No 8s creating overloads on one side of the pitch and the winger-to-winger goalscoring move which complements their passing combinations in the wide areas.
Maddison attacking space in the opponent’s defensive line when Spurs are attacking down their right side is another.
The England midfielder’s well-timed runs put him in the right position at the right time, but the movement of his team-mates create the space in the first place.
Maddison’s runs behind are usually complemented by an opposite movement from Tottenham’s centre-forward to manipulate the opponent’s defensive line.
Here, against Everton, Son Heung-min is in that central role, with Dejan Kulusevski and Maddison as the No 8s. As Spurs attack down their right…
… Son drops to present himself as a passing option between the lines, which forces Everton’s defence to react. Meanwhile, Maddison is making a run in the other direction to catch out the rest of the visitors’ defensive line, which is being stretched in two different directions.
Cristian Romero’s looped pass finds Maddison behind the Everton defence…
…but his shot is saved by Jordan Pickford.
The positioning of Tottenham’s wingers under Postecoglou means the opposition’s full-backs are constantly occupied, which prevents them from supporting their centre-backs to defend Maddison’s runs from midfield.
These runs have been part of Spurs’ attack since the beginning of last season, Postecoglou’s first as their head coach. In this example, from the Australian’s third Premier League match against Bournemouth that August, Yves Bissouma is supporting Tottenham’s right wing, while Richarlison is positioned towards that side and being marked by Lloyd Kelly.
As the attack progresses, Richarlison moves away from Kelly and drops deeper. Bissouma then plays the ball to Pape Sarr, with Maddison readying himself to attack the space from the other side.
The movement of Bissouma and the positioning of Richarlison grabs the attention of Bournemouth’s centre-backs, Kelly and Illia Zabarnyi, and with Son pinning the right-back, Sarr manages to find Maddison’s run behind the defence…
…and he scores the game’s first goal.
In another example, away to Aston Villa in March, Kulusevski and Pedro Porro are combining down the right while Sarr, Son and Maddison are occupying the back three.
Once Kulusevski and Porro perform a one-two that gets them past their markers, Son drops to drag Clement Lenglet out of position and Sarr attacks the central space to put Pau Torres in a difficult situation.
If Torres, Villa’s left centre-back, moves with Sarr, Kulusevski can dribble into the vacated space, and if he holds his position, the Senegal midfielder can freely attack the central area.
Torres chooses the second option and his attempt to block Kulusevski’s pass is nearly successful, but the ball deflects towards the right wing, where Sarr manages to collect it.
The importance of Sarr’s central movement in the first place is to force Ezri Konsa into a situation where he has to defend either him or Maddison.
Despite Tottenham’s move being sidetracked by Torres’ deflection, Konsa moves towards Sarr before trying to return to his initial position, which slightly distances him from Maddison.
As Sarr controls the ball down the right wing, Maddison surges forward to attack the central space…
… and connects with the midfielder’s cross…
… to score yet another goal from one of his midfield runs.
The reason Maddison’s first goal at the Etihad on Saturday felt familiar is because his run and the movement of his team-mates have become one of Tottenham’s favoured attacking solutions under Postecoglou.
In the build-up, Porro makes an underlapping run after Kulusevski controls Radu Dragusin’s long pass. The right-back’s movement grabs the attention of Manuel Akanji, leaving John Stones as the sole centre-back up against Dominic Solanke with Kyle Walker focusing on Son.
As customary when Spurs are attacking down their right, Maddison makes a late run into the box to provide them with an additional attacking option.
Ilkay Gundogan signals for Stones or Walker to pick up Maddison’s run, but the problem for City is their defenders have been dragged in other directions — Son’s wide positioning prevents Walker from being in place to cover that central area, and Solanke holding his position instead of making a run forces Stones to react late in fear of Kulusevski finding the centre-forward in space.
The result is Stones being in between Solanke and Maddison, and not in position to defend the latter’s run. In addition, Maddison has an advantage because he is attacking the cross with the momentum of the run, while Stones is still trying to adjust his body shape from a near-static position.
Kulusevski then finds Maddison with a cross towards the far post…
… and he scores from close range.
In search of consistent positive performances, Maddison’s late runs from midfield could come in handy for Tottenham in their upcoming matches.
