Interesting stat shows how Thomas Frank is perfecting the press at Tottenham this season

8 hours ago 24

DataMB have now revealed that Tottenham Hotspur are outperforming every other Premier League side in one very surprising area.

Spurs have made more than a steady start to the Thomas Frank era, with the club currently sitting in third place in the Premier League table.

Tottenham have the joint-second-best defensive record in the Premier League, having only conceded five times in their seven league games so far.

However, the criticism of Spurs has been that they do not create chances with regularity, and the perception is that the Lilywhites are happy to sit back and counter-attack this season.

In fact, some pundits have even accused Frank of parking the bus at Tottenham, but one stat flies in the face of that perception.

No team in the Premier League has pressed as intensely as Tottenham

DataMB have now revealed that Tottenham Hotspur rank first when it comes to their passes per defensive action (PPDA), which stands at just 8.72.

PPDA refers to the number of passes an opposition side is allowed to make on average before they encounter a defensive action, and is a metric that measures the intensity of the team’s press.

Contrary to popular perception, Frank’s Tottenham side allow opposition sides to complete the fewest passes before they try to win the ball back.

Spurs are pressing more effectively under Thomas Frank

Tottenham may be set up in more of a mid-block under Frank as opposed to a very high-block under Ange Postecoglou, but the PPDA numbers paint a clear picture.

It suggests that while Spurs may be happy to allow certain players (some centre-backs, for example) to have the ball, they have much clearer pressing triggers and are very intense as soon as the ball enters certain pockets.

This was in evidence in Tottenham’s 2-1 win at Elland Road, where, although Leeds had 57 per cent of the possession, they rarely got the ball to threatening areas.