Bournemouth 0-2 Spurs | Maddison on beating the high press: “It’s about staying calm”
Ange Postecoglou and James Maddison both spoke about the importance of playing through Bournemouth’s high press as we secured a 2-0 win in the Premier League at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
Ange highlighted Bournemouth’s aggression in that press under new boss Andoni Iraola pre-match and was pleased with how the players handled it. “I really liked how we looked in those moments,” he told SPURSPLAY afterwards.
‘Madders’ was often the beneficiary of our bravery playing out, particularly in the first half, with space opening up once the likes of Yves Bissouma, Pape Sarr or our full-backs Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie had played out.
He also opened the scoring – his first goal in a Spurs shirt - with 16 minutes on the clock as we opened the home side up on numerous occasions in the first half - we’d racked up nine efforts at goal by half-time.
Bournemouth came back into it at the start of the second half but Deki Kulusevski’s goal on 63 minutes put us 2-0 up and back in control.
In Focus | James Maddison vs Bournemouth
Speaking to SPURSPLAY’s Review Show on beating Bournemouth’s press, Madders told us: “It’s about staying calm. Teams are going to press us. That’s the Premier League - managers now all want their teams to press high, so, you’ve got to find a way to bypass that.
“You do that by staying calm, just passing, two-touch, it comes from the goalie, the full-backs, centre-halves all wanting the ball, all brave enough to take the ball under pressure.
“Then the lads who are higher up, myself, the wide men, Richy, Pape, we get the benefit of them being composed and finding a lot of space in-between their line and off the back of their midfield, so, that’s when you can create chances.
“That’s my job (making the most of receiving the ball in that space), that’s why I’m in the team, to find that space and utilise that space, but it comes from the build-up.
“We’ll get better. We’re not perfect yet, but the lads are trying.”