The appointment of Ange Postecoglou as Tottenham's next manager will see the Lilywhites line up in a new formation from the 2023/24 season onwards. During Antonio Conte's 17 months at the helm, Spurs' opponents knew exactly what they were coming up against as 3-4-3 was the Italian's system of choice, with the 53-year-old only occasionally switching to 3-5-2.
Ryan Mason did tinker with the setup during his tenure as acting head coach as Spurs finished the season playing 4-2-3-1 after previously persisting with a back three before playing 4-4-2 against Crystal Palace. Just like Conte, Postecoglou is known for his formation after lining his sides up in a 4-3-3 at both Yokohama F. Marinos and Celtic.
It has brought the best out of his players, thus seeing the Australian earn plenty of plaudits in the process for his attacking approach and the attractive and entertaining football his team has played. A switch to a back four at Tottenham will raise questions over a number of transfer deals that Fabio Paratici completed for Conte over the past couple of transfer windows.
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Needing to upgrade in both wing-back positions to try and take the team to the next level, Spurs brought in Ivan Perisic, Destiny Udogie, Djed Spence and Pedro Porro to the club. The issue now facing the Lilywhites is that they have a number of players to play in a specialised position that Spurs are very unlikely to operate with from next season.
Postecoglou in turn will have to work with the aforementioned players and either transform them into full-backs or play them further forward. Perisic, providing he is still at the club next term, will be a further attacking option for the club given his experience there, with Porro displaying in the 4-1 win over Leeds United that he could have a future on the right-wing.
The full-backs in Postecoglou's system do have a specific role to play. Whereas traditionally in a back four they will push up and look to overlap the wingers ahead of them to offer a further attacking option, they instead play as inverted full-backs for the 57-year-old.
This sees Postecoglou's side create an overload in the middle of the pitch and cause their opponents a real headache in the process. Having two extra bodies in the middle allows the two attack-minded players in the midfield three to push upfield and exploit the space in and around the striker, while it can also leave the wingers in Postecoglou's side one-on-one with the opposition's wingers coming inside to mark the full-backs.
Another advantage of the inverted full-backs is that Postecoglou's team have two extra bodies in the centre of the pitch if they lose the ball when attacking. This allows them to immediately press and suffocate their opponents to win back possession of the ball extremely quickly and get back to attacking.
A big change for Celtic's full-backs following Postecoglou's arrival at the club two years ago, the players took on his instructions and continued to work extremely hard every day in training to perfect their key roles in the team. It even led to Arsenal full-back Kieran Tierney asking his Scotland teammate Greg Taylor for tips on playing as an inverted full-back.
Taylor finished the 2022/23 season with three goals and four assists to his name from his inverted full-back position, with Alastair Johnston, who had only joined the Hoops in January from CF Montreal, registering one goal and two assists in 20 appearances from right-back following his move to the east end of Glasgow. Speaking after Saturday's Scottish Cup final, Inverness Caledonian Thistle boss Billy Dodds hailed the Celtic duo for causing his team so many problems due to their advanced play.
“I think you see the type of product that he [Postecoglou] brings,” he said. “You see Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool when he plays those inverted full-backs. I had to handle them on Saturday. [Greg] Taylor at times was playing as a centre-forward. So was [Alistair] Johnston, maybe not as high as Taylor," said Dodds, as reported by The Herald.
“It is good for me to learn and try and combat that and try and be a threat as well. That is why I was saying before the game that I knew they would pin us back at times, I knew they would try and get their full-backs forward, but I didn’t just want to camp in. I wanted to get the balance and be a threat. But we just fell short.”
Such a key part of Postecoglou's vision, players such as Emerson Royal, Spence, Udogie, Porro and Ben Davies will be given new instructions when they return to pre-season training and the Australian sets out his blueprint to his Tottenham squad. A change that did wonders for his Celtic team, it can have the same impact at Spurs if the players buy into his vision.
If that is the case, Premier League clubs will not fancy coming up against Postecoglou's Tottenham team next term.
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