Automatic, systematic: Tottenham’s attacking apparatus

Tottenham are a machine.

The North London side— led by crafty, third-year head coach Harry Redknapp— has been amassing cogs to their attacking, adventuresome machine of a side for some time now. But it’s this season where their goal scoring has become systematic.

No, make that automatic. Indeed by evidence thus far, they might be the best attacking team in the world besides Barcelona.

Spurs currently sit in fifth in the Premier League and on Tuesday they ensured themselves first place in Champions League Group A after battling to a— you guessed it— thrilling, if not entirely enthralling, 3-3 draw with reigning Dutch league champions FC Twente. And barring a goal scoring bonanza when the final four groups take to the pitch Wednesday, Tottenham should finish the Group Stages as the highest scoring team with 18 tallies. That’s only two short of the all-time record set by Manchester United in 1998-99, when they won the cup.

Beautiful Barcelona only scored 14 and the comparison becomes more concrete when considering Spurs’ group was perhaps the most difficult of any. And Arsenal— the perennial benchmark for any team aspiring to be attacking— could pass Spurs in goals scored if they finish four past Partizan Belgrade; even if they do, Spurs have made their intentions known.

They are going to attack like a machine. Their defense ensures they’re not the best team in Europe; just the best attackers.

It’s ironic to a degree, though, that. In terms of their enemies, they remain their own worst. A mere three clean sheets in 25 games in all competitions this season leaves them with one of the poorer clean sheet ratios in the league.

But with that said, a third of the team’s dropped points in the Premier League this season came in matches following midweek Champions League games. One could surmise they may, like many other teams, suffer from the Champions League hangover that often comes when teams not accustomed to playing in the Champions League; teams who are thus not as accustomed to its rigors. Spurs themselves haven’t been in European Cup competition since 1962.

Yet as much as they may get criticized for it anyway, if a team is suffering in form in their domestic league at the expense of success in the Champions League, shouldn’t that be the point? After all, Tottenham are employing a system so systematic, it’s beginning to click like clockwork.

 by Guardian Chalkboards

As the Chalkboard (above) shows, Tottenham got off half as many shots vs. Wigan in their 1-0 loss to the Lactics this season as they did in their 9-1 obliteration of them last season.

What does that translate to? All-out attacking football, win lose or draw. Almost like a machine.

There’s the engine room— the center of the park— where central midfielders Wilson Palacios, Tom Huddlestone and Niko Kranjcar control the flow of their game by distributing on offense and breaking up play enough defensively to allow fullbacks Beniot Assou-Ekkoto and Alan Hutton to marauder forward.

There are the flanks, where Welsh wizard Gareth Bale has been a renaissance man for the increasingly extinct position of the traditional winger who utilizes width and crosses to stretch defenses and then pounce on their superior aerial ability.

Then there’s the captain’s room, where the team’s cutting-edge catalysts come into play. Jermaine Defoe is too speedy and skillful to not score a goal about every other game. Peter Crouch is turning into a walking guarantee of goals because teams can’t deal with his knock down abilities, try as they may. Of course, that’s before taking into account his technical skill on the ball, of which many people say he’s better at then in the air. And last but not least, there’s the Premier League’s best new player— hands down— in Dutch dandy Rafael van der Vaart. The Holland international has proved the vital link to everything that runs through Tottenham, using weaving runs from midfield to connect the team.

Van der Vaart has already tallied five assists this season, combined with Crouch’s astounding seven, the pair is now tied for second most in the EPL. They’ve shipped three goals or more in five games this season; they’ve scored three goals or more in nine. Tottenham scores more than they let in, then they win the game.

Tottenham are a machine.