How Ange Postecoglou changed his Tottenham tactics vs Manchester City to thrash Pep Guardiola’s team 4-0

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Ange Postecoglou tweaked his tactical set-up against Manchester City to stun Pep Guardiola’s side as Tottenham Hotspur ran riot at the Etihad Stadium.

Spurs sent shock waves around the Premier League as they produced one of the most stunning results of the season by defeating the English champions 4-0.

The North London club emphatically ended City’s 52-game unbeaten run at the Etihad Stadium as Postecoglou’s team once again got the better of Guardiola.

Now it has been revealed the two changes the Australian manager made to his system which helped Spurs to secure a second consecutive win over City.

Ange Postecoglou’s instructions to his full-backs

Alasdair Gold has revealed that Ange Postecoglou made two key changes to his tactics against Manchester City. The first tweak was instructing his full-backs to stay wide which in turn allowed Pape Matar Sarr and James Maddison more room to operate in the middle and stretch the champions’ midfield.

Meanwhile, Destiny Udogie probably had his best game of the season and looked more defensively sound and Pedro Porro added to his goal-contribution tally. Gold said on his YouTube channel: “Both full-backs spent less time in their more natural Postecoglou ways, not inverted as much, leaving that room for Maddison and Sarr to really roam and pull City all over the place.”

Postecoglou’s Son and Kulusevski’s message

Postecoglou’s other change was instructing his team to get the ball quickly into the two wingers, Heung-min Son and Dejan Kulusevski. City’s full-backs struggled to cope with Spurs’ two wide men with Kulusevski causing them serious issues.

“He was also asked about getting the ball quickly to the wingers during the game and he said, ‘Yeah I thought that was going to be important for us, we knew we were going to have to defend at different times,” Gold added.

“‘With Deki and Sonny out there, I thought if we got the ball out to them really early City are pretty aggressive with their approach they like to defend almost man-to-man because they have outstanding defenders, but with Dom [Solanke] there we like that sort of setup where we can get the ball to them early’.”