Nathan Clark has been speaking on the latest edition of The Extra Inch podcast about all things relating to Tottenham Hotspur.
One of the topics that he spent some time on was Jose Mourinho’s decision to start Steven Bergwijn against Manchester City.
The Dutchman lined up on the left, and Heung-min Son moved over to the right, despite playing most of this season on the left.
Clark revealed that he thought this was because Kyle Walker’s pace would have made Son pretty useless, so Bergwijn was played there instead to allow Son the freedom away from Walker.
He said: “What you saw in this game and what is shockingly still very, very present for him at his current age – his recovery pace is just absurd.
“The number of times you would have thought Bergwijn – who is not a slow player – should have been in behind, and Walker has just turned in a full circle, sprinted all the way out and then still made it all the way to the ball with enough time to turn around again.
“That would have really nullified Son’s running in behind if he had been up against Walker.
“So yeah, I think it [Bergwijn playing on the left] was just about getting Son in behind and not really much else.”
Do you think Clark is right?
Yes, this seems like something Mourinho would do
No, he had another reason
TIF Thoughts on Bergwijn’s positioning and Clark’s thoughts on it…
Before the City match, the 23-year-old Dutchman had only played four Premier League games and only made one start, so it does seem odd that Mourinho would play Bergwijn from the start against a team like City if there was not a specific plan.
Mourinho’s supposed tactic turned out to be a bit of a genius move, as Son scored a goal from running in behind City’s defence (0:09) and slotting the ball through Ederson’s legs.
However, Bergwijn did score last season on his Tottenham debut against Pep Guardiola’s side, so maybe that was in Mourinho’s thinking?
Either way, whatever the reason was, we believe that playing Bergwijn on the left instead of Son worked perfectly as the South Korean international scored from his position on the right, and the goal came from him running in behind the defence.