Tottenham's first win of the Premier League season undoubtedly came as an immense relief. Not only because five games without a win would have been an unthinkable predicament, but also because their 1-0 victory against Sunderland was a pedestrian performance until the very end.
This performance was in stark contrast to the previous display against Everton when Spurs had done enough to win, and illuminated the problems with the way Spurs are setting up away from home.
Going forward Spurs looked laboured and predictable, and struggled breaking down Sunderland throughout. In defence, Spurs' presence in midfield was lacking and had it not been for man of the match Eric Dier and the woodwork, the North London outfit could have left the Stadium of Light with nothing.
But why is this? Indeed at home, after a rocky start, Mauricio Pochettino had Spurs playing an exciting brand of football which saw them defeat the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal. However, away from home they too often relied on the exploits of the currently injured Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane. This was reflected in an array of scraped wins by one goal margins, where Spurs were not in the game for sections of it.
The story is similar this term is similar, but with Eriksen unavailable and Kane not firing in the league they are finding it even more difficult to get results.
Structural issues
The way Tottenham are set out currently, in a 4-2-3-1 system with two deeper midfielders with three attacking midfielders and a striker ahead of them, is a fundamental cause of vulnerability going forward and in defense.
The gap between the bank of two and the bank of three is too large. Going forward this makes it even more difficult to feed the ball into the wide men for them to run onto. If they do receive the ball, they receive it static mainly because it would be nigh on impossible to play a ball in behind due to the sheer length of pitch between the two sets of midfielders, and as a result the midfielder playing the ball has to hesitate while the more advanced player makes a run towards his own goal to receive the ball. As a result, the attack is slowed down giving the opposition more time to organise.
This is made more difficult by the starting position of these forwards. More often than not, they start with body facing towards the ball, instead of making attacking runs looking over their shoulder to see where the ball is coming. This is vastly contributing to Spurs' squallid attacking creativity.
In an ideal world, the attackers are vastly varying their position on the pitch, but are always looking to get in behind the oppostion back four. Ideally, one attacker would drop slightly deeper to receive the ball and then look to swiftly feed one of the other two attacking midfielder or the forward.
This happens more frequently at White Hart Lane, but without home support geeing them on Spurs look a team bereft of energy.
Furthermore, as a consequence of this enormous gap between the two banks, Harry Kane is often forced to drop in very deep to come and get the ball and start attacks. This initiative is something which the others should follow, however this is ultimately leaving Kane out of position and Spurs often without a forward in the box.
Defensively, it is even more of an issue. Spurs' slow build up play is attritional and ultimately sucks their own players in to the final third to try and force an opening. As a result, when teams with pace win the ball and counter, the massive space in midfield is exposed, giving the opposition plenty of space to pose a menacing attack.
The presence of Eric Dier in central midfield is helping to solve this issue as quite often on Sunday he was the only midfielder left to deal with the counter attacks led most often by Jeremain Lens.
Ultimately, Spurs must close this void so that they are less easily exposed on the counter attack but also so they can play at a higher tempo. More reactive positioning from the midfield will make the attacks they launch less laboured, giving them a greater opportunity to break the opposition down, which will leave less players out of position should they be subject to a counter attack.
Stagnation
Often as a result of the difficulties of the two banks of midfield connecting, the attacks are left devoid of pace and imagination. This gives the opposition plenty of time to get bodies back and organise themselves in order to shut Spurs out. This has been a persistent theme of the last few seasons particularly away from home.
The aforementioned Kane and Eriksen have bailed Spurs out several times with spectacular efforts from far out, however this has led to worrying consequences centred around the taking of ambitious efforts from distance. One or two ambitious efforts per half are healthy, as it can catch the keeper off guard. However, currently Spurs are shooting too often from too far out and this is something that must be reigned in, especially as often better options than a shot are presented to the attacker winding up an ambitious effort.
Confidence issue
A source of the attacking frustration and inpotence away from home seems to stem from a lack in confidence. Several times on Sunday, players in purple were clearly afraid to pull the trigger in the box instead opting to delay the shot, most often until it was too late, or lay off a hospital pass to a teamate.
It is coached from an early age that shooting early gives the attacker a better opportunity to score as it gives the goalkeeper and defenders little time to react. However, Spurs have clearly been failing to do this simply because every chance seems crucial. This partially explains Harry Kane's indifferent form in front of goal at the start of this season.
When the chances aren't coming and there isn't confidence that they will players are often afraid to shoot or will snatch at chances, which after a four game winless run goes some way to explaining Spurs' struggles in front of goal against Sunderland. Creating more chances, relaxes the forwards,as they believe more chances will be coming, and gives them a better chance of converting them, similar to slip catching in cricket.
Tottenham's forwards need to be more bold. The likes of Nacer Chadli and Son should be persistently trying to beat their opposing full backs, as Andros Townsend did when he came on as a substitute in the Sunderland game. And if not attacking in a direct fashion like this, their passing must be more daring.
They should be looking to unlock the defences with passes threaded through to Kane. Positive energy and attacking flair was demonstrated in exemplary fashion as Spurs scored the winner against the black cats. The build up play was fantastic as Ryan Mason drove forward through Sunderland's midfield, trading passes with Erik Lamela as he did so, before Lamela threaded him through on goal.
At home, this doesn't seem to be an issue as the North London faithful urge them forward, and it can be a joy to watch at times. Translating this into similar daring attacking relies on the Spurs forwards having more confidence in their abilities and being prepared to take more risks. After all, to dare is to do.