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To dare is to do: the Tottenham Hotspur motto.

It is a belief that Spurs should play audacious, attacking football — they epitomised this under Mauricio Pochettino, culminating in a Champions League final and a Premier League title charge — yet more recently, under Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo, and Antonio Conte, they failed to fulfil it.

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Ange Postecoglou is the personification of that mantra, entirely uncompromising about how his Spurs side have played, and will play, this season.

“The beauty of football is that there are so many ways you can have success, so many ways you can set up your team, so many ways you can counteract the opposition,” said Postecoglou in September. “I’m probably at one extreme, and there are others at the other extreme, and we can both have success”

Postecoglou’s extreme: always press high, want possession, attack expansively with rotations and commit full-backs into advanced, central attacking positions. “Every season, I want my team to score more than anybody else. We’re not that concerned about keeping a clean sheet,” he said in 2020 when coaching Yokohama F Marinos.

Spurs’ 3-3 draw away to Manchester City was a perfect encapsulation. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario played just nine of his 48 open-play passes, and two of his nine goal kicks, more than 40 yards. Bournemouth and Newcastle United, who lost 6-1 and 1-0, are the only teams to go to the Etihad this season and have their goalkeeper play short more frequently in open play.

“My track record isn’t up there with the best in the world but I don’t feel that that’s representative of who I am. I will back myself against anyone,” Postecoglou said in the summer upon taking charge. “I’ll back the football club against anybody. It doesn’t always mean you’ll be successful but from my perspective, I’m not going to go into any contest feeling inferior or like I’m trying to mitigate disaster. I’m going in there to make an impact.”

Spurs’ early efforts to break the press led to more chances for City than them — even if Son Heung-min did score the opening goal with their first attack after seven minutes. City pressed aggressively, sliding into a man-for-man shape when Spurs went wide, keen to target Emerson Royal — Spurs’ right centre-back, but one of four nominal full-backs that made up the defence.

Their struggles led to harsh criticism from some pundits, but the system is high-risk, high-reward. No team has made more errors leading to shots in the Premier League than Spurs’ eight, and they have allowed the most opposition ‘high turnovers’ (open-play sequences starting within 40 metres of Spurs’ goal), but rank joint-third (with Brighton & Hove Albion) for open-play sequences of 10-plus passes that end with a shot or touch in the opposition box.

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If Bryan Gil wriggling past Phil Foden on the edge of the Spurs box to start the move that led to Son’s opener was an example of the upside of their risk-taking, within five minutes, we saw evidence of their vulnerability when the execution isn’t precise enough.

Here, Julian Alvarez forces Royal into an error and Bernardo Silva pounces on the loose ball. His cutback is precise, but Erling Haaland shoots wide with almost the whole goal to aim at.

“We were lucky to be in it at half-time, City could have blown us away,” said Postecoglou. “I have asked players to play in unfamiliar positions but we still played some decent football.” There was a near-30-minute spell in the first half when City had eight unanswered shots.

Immediately following Haaland’s chance, Spurs built up short again down the right, and when the ball came back to Vicario, they went the same way against another City press.

This time, Royal opens his body and finds Dejan Kulusevski, but he is tracked closely by Manuel Akanji, who tackles him as he tries to control.

Postecoglou was not disappointed afterwards: “Yeah, we did give the ball away a lot and far too easily, but it wasn’t due to pressure. In this arena, against that team, it is easy to make mistakes.“

Before Sunday, Pep Guardiola’s side had won 24 of 25 home games in all competitions in 2023, only dropping points against Liverpool, and had conceded just 14.

Spurs are only the second team to avoid defeat and the first to score three. Their first goal came from a set-piece breakaway and their second was a shot from distance — typically, if City concede, it is those types of goal. But Spurs’ third, a 90th-minute equaliser, was a wonderful passing move.

Spurs played through City, from Royal — not pressed this time — to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who set it across to Oliver Skipp.

The central midfielders, both on as substitutes, combined nicely before Skipp wriggled away from Rico Lewis and found Son in space.

Here is the trademark of Postecoglou’s systems; Destiny Udogie’s penetrative run takes Bernardo away and opens up the pass from Son to Brennan Johnson.

With him one-v-one against Kyle Walker, Spurs can attack the box. Udogie joins Richarlison and Kulusevski.

It becomes a three-v-three in the box, and Johnson makes enough space to dig out a cross for the optimal aerial duel — Kulusveski (6ft 1in/185cm) versus Nathan Ake (5ft 11in).

Kulusevski rises highest, heading the ball onto his shoulder, and it loops it in via the crossbar.

If Spurs want to become a top-level possession side, and reach Postecoglou’s goalscoring “utopia”, then trying to go toe-to-toe with City — even without first-choice centre-backs — is a worthwhile risk. Most teams lose there anyway, and without European football this season, there are fewer chances for Postecoglou’s side to embed their style against top-quality pressing teams.

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Kulusevski’s goal to open the scoring against Chelsea, in what ended as a 4-1 defeat, is another instance of Spurs successfully executing their build-up strategy.

They bait the press, and Vicario plays left to Micky van de Ven. He plays forward to James Maddison, who has rotated left and dropped down from his No 10 position.

Chelsea are man-marking so, again, Spurs’ full-back runs become the pick-lock. Udogie’s sprint through midfield pulls out Enzo Fernandez, and, as Moises Caicedo is defending Maddison, Chelsea have a gaping hole in central midfield. Maddison can play a long ball across the pitch to midfielder Pape Matar Sarr — Spurs are out.

Sarr finds Kulusevski, who can take on Levi Colwill one-v-one, cut inside and score, aided by a deflection. In just two passes, Spurs went from their own box and under pressure to a six-v-five in Chelsea’s third.

It was a similar story for their opener at home to Liverpool, where they worked rotations in the opposition half to put Maddison into a position to play the killer pass for Richarlison…

… and Richarlison squared it to Son for a tap-in.

Kulusevski’s equaliser in Manchester prevented a run of four consecutive defeats, and Spurs would have been the first team in the Premier League era to lose that many when scoring first in all of them. From one extreme to another, as that trio of losses before their Etihad visit came immediately following Spurs’ best start to a Premier League season. Those 26 points (eight wins, two draws) were the most accrued by a manager in their first 10 games in the Premier League.

They rank in the league’s top four for average possession, field tilt (share of final-third passes in a match), shots and pressing intensity (measured by ‘PPDA’, opposition passes allowed per defensive action). More in-depth definitions of the graphic below can be found here.

Postecoglou’s stamp on the team was clear from matchday one, away to Brentford. Spurs’ full-backs, Udogie and Royal, made the infield movements that have become so important, with the side dominating possession and trying to work wide combinations.

It was not perfect — they drew 2-2 — but it was an important first step. “You look at the top teams and there is one common trait among them. They all have a plan, they invest in that plan and stick to it,” Postecoglou said after the draw against City, specifically referencing Manchester United, Arsenal and City — all at different stages of ‘trusting the process’, but all with silverware under their current head coach.

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Spurs have taken eight points from five games against ‘Big Six’ opposition this season, with home wins over Manchester United and Liverpool, and an away draw against Arsenal — ending a run of three straight defeats at the Emirates. That is as many points as in 10 games last season against the same opponents, and puts them joint-top of the ‘Big Six’ mini-league with Arsenal.

Barring City at home, when Spurs almost always incredibly find a way to win and not concede, they have historically struggled against top opposition. For the past six seasons, they have been collectively outscored in games against the ‘Big Six’. If they can replicate their results in the second half of the season, they will take 16 points off those opponents for the first time since 2008-09.

It has quickly been forgotten that Spurs’ early season success has been achieved without Harry Kane, who was sold to Bayern Munich in the summer after scoring 30 of their 68 league goals last season. Postecoglou’s adaptability, moving Son into the striker role, has succeeded, with nine goals in 14 appearances, just one off his tally from last season.

It is a young and fairly inexperienced Spurs side; only Arsenal, Burnley and Chelsea have a younger average age than Spurs (25.6 years). Postecoglou views himself as a coach capable of moulding players to his footballing ideals.

There is a clearer picture than ever as to the type of player Spurs need in different positions and roles, which creates a more effective blueprint for their recruitment staff and for the development of academy players (an area where Spurs have underwhelmed in recent seasons).

Spurs are nothing if not daring. They have adapted without Kane and are stylishly competing against the best in the league. It brings to mind a quote from Manchester City assistant coach Juanma Lillo in his The Athletic column last year: “I sometimes think that the 90 minutes of a game are almost an inconvenience to some people who just want to praise the winners and talk shit about the losers.”

(Top photo: Getty Images)

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