Alan Shearer could not believe his eyes during Tottenham’s win against Burnley in the Premier League.
Tottenham dominated against Burnley on Saturday to bag a comfortable 3-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Richarlison’s spectacular double fired Spurs in front while Brennan Johnson’s no-look finish sealed the deal. But Mohammed Kudus stole the show for Tottenham with his precision and creativity.
Thomas Frank will be pleased with the victory after a marginal defeat to PSG in the UEFA Super Cup final. But like most things in life, you must get back up after falling, and Frank has done just that.
Shearer praises Frank’s tactics vs Burnley
Frank has switched up his formations regularly since becoming head coach at Tottenham.
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Against Bayern Munich, Frank opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation with Pape Matar Sarr behind the striker and Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha as double pivots. While he switched to a back five for the Super Cup final against PSG.
Frank was questioned for his choice to start Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray in the midfield against Burnley. But the two ended up forming a solid partnership, which did not escape the notice of Shearer.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football Podcast about Frank’s tactical flexibility on 18 August he said: “But did you notice how, I mean, I did the analysis on Spurs last night, how Thomas Frank has gone straight away, what he did at Brentford in terms of getting balls up a lot earlier to the forward players, getting balls into the box a lot earlier in terms of crosses.
“I mean, they had three crosses in the first 90 seconds of the game Spurs yesterday. And I think that puts a marker down to say, this is how we’re going to play this year.
“And they adapted, because if you remember in midweek against PSG, they played five at the back. They went to four at the back and they played young Gray and Bergvall in the midfield yesterday, which that was a change around from PSG. So I think he perhaps may do that when they’re going in at home against teams they would expect to beat.
“They might play four. When it’s a tougher match against bigger clubs, they might just switch and play five at the back.”
How will Frank line up against Manchester City?
Tottenham face one of their biggest challenges yet when they take on Manchester City on Saturday, 23 August at the Etihad.
Frank switched up his formation quite a lot while at Brentford. His preferred formation in the Championship was 4-3-3, but 3-5-2 became more frequent in the Premier League against top-tier opponents where midfield control was essential.
Last season in the Premier League, Frank deployed a 5-3-2 against City at the Etihad. This resulted in a 2-1 defeat, and he switched to a 4-3-3 for the game at Gtech Community Stadium, which produced a 2-2 draw.
This demonstrates that Frank is keen to switch between attacking and defensive formations depending on his opposition. A more conservative approach did not work the first time around, which forced the Dane to reevaluate his options.
However, with a new team and the success against PSG for the first 85 minutes, there is reason to suspect that he would revert to the 5-3-2 for Saturday’s confrontation.
Attempting to control the midfield against City with new additions Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders could prove futile. As such, Frank could choose to sit back and defend before hitting them on the counterattack.