The Tigers were forced to retreat and then opened up in the left back zone as it finished Hull City 1-7 Spurs at the KCOM stadium.
After six goals at the King Power Stadium, Spurs went one better at the KCOM. The Tigers were simply powerless to stop a swift and clinical Tottenham side. The score ended a brutal Hull City 1-7 Spurs and it could’ve been more.
Tottenham went about destroying Hull in three ways. Firstly, Spurs used long passing to force Hull’s attempt to squeeze up the pitch backwards. Once driven towards their own goal, Tottenham could go about the second part of the plan. Spurs used pressing of their own to hem Hull in and then short, neat passing to open them up. The third and most clinical part was to attack Hull’s left back zone. Eighteen-year-old Josh Tymon was starting here and Tottenham wanted to exploit him.
Long ball Spurs
Hull opened the game by playing a 3-5-2 formation. The Tigers tried to use their front two, Oumar Niasse and Sam Clucas, to push up on our centre backs. Behind the pressing strikers, Hull wanted to move up the pitch and condense the playing area.
In response to this tactic, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, played long passes in order to force Hull backwards. Alderweireld was unerringly accurate in his passing and switches of play. The centre back completed a ridiculously good 52 of his 59 total passes. Spurs an obscenely excellent 40 of 55 long balls overall.
Attacking the left back
The next port of call was to attack the space around stand-in left back Josh Tymon. Spurs would hit this space and then often press to try and win the ball back.
Eleven minutes were on the clock when Toby Alderweireld played a long ball across the deck in to feet of Harry Kane.
Press, recover, counter
Pressing has been our calling card under Mauricio Pochettino and it played a huge part in three of our goals. The reason it was so effective in this match was that at the time of recovery, Hull had too many men in advance of the ball. This proved to be the case on our first goal and again on our third.
Eric Dier was our presser in chief on our opener. Dier proved to be once again on number three. Recovering the ball just inside the Hull half, the Tigers were caught with all but their three centre backs ahead of the play.
Hull formation change
Receiving a battering on Thursday night, Leicester changed their formation at half time. Hull also adapted at the interval. The Tigers went to a back four, but after a brief response, continued to get mauled.
Sloppy Spurs
Three up and cruising, Spurs started the second half very casually. A number of loose touches and passes short of their intended targets indicated a loss of focus.
Ben Davies had a moment of concern in our penalty area that almost led to a goal. Jan Vertonghen was then caught on the ball and it did. Sam Clucas robbing him as he pondered and then finishing from Niasse’s back heel in the box. Hugo Lloris’ chance of a share of the golden glove was frustratingly gone.
Left back attack response
The goal slapped Spurs back in to action. Immediately we went back to attacking the space around left back Josh Tymon.
Three minutes after conceding, the three-goal advantage was restored. A long pass up the line to Harry Kane got him in to the left back zone. Kane then laid the ball off to Christian Eriksen who was fouled by Tom Huddlestone.
We’d looked at Hull’s zone marking in the Hull City vs Spurs match preview. Untracked Victor Wanyama had a free run straight through the zone to the back post. Eriksen’s delivery found him for the simplest of headers.
Seeing Dele with the ball, Harry Kane wheeled off in to the space that Tymon had originally been occupying. Seconds later the ball was in the back of the net from another neat left foot finish.

Left back change makes no difference
Down 5-1 and with his left back under relentless attack for four of the goals, Marco Silva brought him off. Andrew Robertson replaced Josh Tymon, but Spurs went straight at him.
Robertson conceded the foul that saw Ben Davies score a well-deserved goal. Again at the set piece, Victor Wanyama ran untracked straight through Hull’s zonal marking.
The rout was complete at Hull City 1-7 Spurs with Toby Alderweireld getting on the score sheet. The goal was created through the left back zone once again. Andrew Robertson was attracted by Son Heung-Min’s inside run. Kieran Trippier was thus left in acres of space to receive the pass from Christian Eriksen and deliver the cross.
Hull City 1-7 Spurs overall
A remarkable performance to finish the Premier League season. Following Thursday night’s blistering show at Leicester, Tottenham were absolutely breathtaking in sweeping aside Hull.
Putting back-to-back performances like this together in three days is quite simply astounding. The only blemish was conceding a sloppy goal to deny Hugo Lloris a share of the golden glove.
Harry Kane won the golden boot. However, withdrawing Kane with ten minutes to go so that he couldn’t get to the landmark of 30 Premier League goals this season was disappointing. Finishing on 29, maybe this is Pochettino’s way of keeping him hungry to break this barrier next season?
The Tottenham tactics were perfect in this game. The use of the long ball to push an initially resistant Hull team back was adept. Once Tottenham had gained ground and forced them back, the pressing and through balls took their toll. The left back was our key target. Spurs battered the zone around stand-in full back Josh Tymon and subsequently Andrew Robertson.
Final score: Hull City 1-7 Spurs.
MOTM: Toby Alderweireld.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t four days.
10pm Thursday to 5pm Sunday is five hours short of three days ! ?
Even more impressive then!
Thanks for this season, Mark! Great job. Are you going to continue writing during the summer?
Hi Reinert. Yes i’ll be doing a few pieces across the summer on new signings as they happen and other stuff. New posts will go on the Twitter and Facebook pages as well as email.
Thank you Mark and your community for delivering even greater enjoyment from a wonderful season.
Your pre and post match analysis has been superb – as have our lads.
Can’t wait for next season.
Let’s get..
Veltman
RB/RWB?
Sessegnon
Barkley
Schick
Funded by
Sissoko
Walker
Wimmer
Bentaleb
Onomah
N’Jie
Lamela and Rose are de facto new signings.
Hugo
Vorm
Pau
Toby
Verts
Veltman
CCV
Davies
(Dier)
Trips
KWP
New RB/RWB
Rose
Sessegnon
(Davies)
Wanyama
Dier
Dembele
Winks
(Erikssen)
(Barkley)
Dele
Erikssen
Son
Barkley
Lamela
N’Koudou
Kane
Schick
Janssen
Suddenly seems like a lot of depth.
12 weeks of madness beckons!
COYS!!!!!
Thank you Toby4eva. Very much appreciate all the comments.
It will be weeks of madness, especially with the media trying to sell all our players. You’d think they were in for an Mino Raiola size agent’s cut of any deal done!
Veltman is an interesting one that has popped up recently. He certainly looks the part as a right back, and can stand-in at centre back, so offers that positional versatility that Pochettino likes. It means he could play on the right of the back three or play as a wingback. Although this does appear to limit Cameron Carter-Vickers progression if he comes in more with a focus to play as a right-sided centre back. I will be watching him during the Europa League Final with interest.
Schick has reportedly just signed with Juventus so he’s a no go now. Although, if these rumours are true then Poch must be shopping in this area. I’m still a fan of Josh King. He offers that positional versatlity Poch likes as he can play either as a striker or in the Dele Alli role. The only stumbling block maybe price as he’s scored a ton of goals this season and reports are in the £15-£18 million bracket.
I do wonder if Poch can do for Ross Barkely what he did for Adam Lallana. He has gone stale at Everton, but does have plenty in his locker for Poch to work with. Again price may be the biggest stumbling block.
Sessegnon is a no brainer for me and needs snapping up before someone else gets him and we end up missing out. Just as we did with the other Moussa Dembele when he was at Fulham and who has now a massive transfer fee to move away from Celtic.
With no Euros or World Cup for the media to cover, let the silly season begin!