Eight Premier League games into their 2024-25 season, Tottenham Hotspur have an unusual top scorer: fast breaks.
Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson have three apiece, the most of any Tottenham player. In total, seven of the team’s 18 league goals in those matches (including two own goals) have been from fast breaks. (Opta defines these as a goal attempt created after the defensive team attacks quickly following a regain of the ball in their own half of the pitch.)
It means Tottenham, with 30 of their 38 league games remaining, already have over twice as many fast-break goals in this season as they got in the whole of the previous one (three). In fact, the last time they scored more than seven such goals in one campaign was 2019-20 (nine) — when Mauricio Pochettino was sacked in the November and Jose Mourinho replaced him.
Tottenham’s first and third goals in the 4-1 home win against West Ham United on Saturday were from counter-attacks after the away side had played long passes.
There was notable aggression in Spurs’ ‘rest attack’ — where their forwards, specifically the wingers, were positioned while defending.
Here, as striker Dominic Solanke beats West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek to the ball and pokes it into No 10 James Maddison’s path, wingers Son (highlighted left) and Johnson (right) are in advanced positions ready to run in behind.
Maddison now carries the ball half the length of the pitch, which is another feature of Tottenham’s counter-attacks: they do not rush passes early and maximise overloads, consistently getting four players attacking the opposition defence, with runners on the outside of the widest defender.
This pins defenders, who cannot risk going tight to the runner and letting the man in possession (Maddison in this case) dribble through. Likewise, if they jump forward and apply pressure, it opens a simple pass to the runner.
Maddison bides his time, only passing to Dejan Kulusevski once Johnson has made an inside run to take away West Ham centre-back Maximilian Kilman.
Kulusevski’s finish is precise, going in off both posts, though really Tottenham should have worked a better quality position from the four-v-four situation.
The responsibilities of Tottenham’s wingers showed on the West Ham goal that opened the scoring, as neither Son nor Johnson got back to support their full-backs Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro properly. Udogie struggled to defend Jarrod Bowen one-v-one, while Porro was sucked in centrally. This left Mohammed Kudus spare at the back post, and he finished from Bowen’s cutback.
The touch maps for Spurs’ starting wingers in the game highlight how advanced the pair were.
There was a similar move for Tottenham’s third goal of the game.
Son picked up a loose ball after West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola kicked long and Lucas Paqueta miscontrolled and curled a pass through to Kulusevski, then overlapped him. The Sweden international returned the ball, Son’s shot was saved but it then hit Jean-Clair Todibo and rebounded in — own goal.
Accessing their wingers early, when opposition teams have overcommitted their full-backs, has been key down Tottenham’s right side. Johnson’s goals this season against Brentford and Coventry City (the latter in the Carabao Cup) were almost identical finishes across the goalkeeper after quick passes into his feet from midfield-third regains.
Likewise, driving runs out from the back by Micky van de Ven — see his assists for Son in August’s home against Everton and for Johnson at Manchester United last month — following regains have been essential in creating overloads and gaining yards while the opposition’s defensive structure remains disorganised.
Playing a more transitional style fits the profiles of Tottenham’s forwards. Son thrived alongside Harry Kane in Mourinho’s counter-attacking system, while Johnson is at his best running into open spaces and driving at defences.
Operating with Kulusevski as a No 8 means Spurs keep their pace out wide while also having a conductor and left-footed balance. Kulusevski is also particularly press-resistant. He repeatedly took the ball well on the half-turn between the lines in the first half against West Ham.
Last season, incoming head coach Ange Postecoglou switched between Richarlison and Son as the No 9 following Kane’s move to Bayern Munich, and had them play low-touch roles that really amounted to waiting to tap in cutbacks. This season, summer signing Solanke is a more versatile presence up front — he can be a focal point and let midfielders run beyond him, and also offers Tottenham more out of possession, which helps force turnovers.
Their opening goal at Brighton & Hove Albion two weeks ago and their second at Old Trafford are examples of this.
Here’s the latter. From Cristian Romero’s deep regain and clearance upfield, Solanke beats Casemiro in the aerial duel and immediately heads a ball in behind for Johnson.
He carries the ball the length of the United half, and his deflected cross sits up perfectly for Kulusevski to poke it home.
Note the spacing of Tottenham’s three runners (plus Johnson) to maximise the four-v-two overload.
Improvement in attacking transition is important considering where Tottenham were last year.
According to sport analysis and data service footovision, they ranked third for total expected goals (xG, a measure of chance quality) from counter-attacking shots, underperforming by about five goals — scoring eight times from counter-attacks worth 13.4xG. Only Manchester City scored a lower proportion of their goals in 2023-24 from counter-attacks. Footovision’s definition of counter-attacks is slightly different to Opta’s for fast breaks, hence the numbers are not identical, but the point holds: Tottenham were not electric in transition.
Postecoglou said before the West Ham game that “there isn’t a style that suits us or doesn’t suit us. When we play well we can play against most systems and styles — as we’ve shown”.
However, Tottenham have reached something of a glass ceiling in their organised build-up, increasingly reliant on Udogie underlaps to try to create cutback situations.
West Ham tracked runs and blocked crosses particularly well in the first half on Saturday, with the only real opening for the home side being a Udogie cross for Johnson, who made a diagonal run across goal, though the ball came off his shoulder rather than his head.
Tottenham’s profligacy at set pieces (only two shots from 13 corners) increased the importance of their counter-attacks being good, in what Postecoglou described as an “arm-wrestle” of a match.
Including this victory against West Ham, Spurs have won 18, drawn five and lost 15 of their last 38 Premier League matches — a season’s worth of football — and they have earned as many points (59) as Manchester United and Newcastle United in that time. Notably, they still have not drawn a home league game under Postecoglou, and are second to Liverpool (28) for points won from losing positions since the start of last season, when he was appointed.
Postecoglou’s pride in style and “principles” means they will never rely on counter-attacks, as happened under Mourinho, but Tottenham should use them more.
They have the individual profiles and the collective balance, and, as more Premier League teams try to dominate possession, a counter-attacking threat is becoming increasingly valuable.
