At the Vitality Stadium, goals from James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski either side of halftime helped Postecoglou’s team extend their perfect start to the season.

After their 2-0 success over Manchester United a week earlier, Neville voiced his worries over Postecoglou’s deployment of Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro as inverted full-backs despite their excellent start to the season.

ANALYSIS: Can Ange Postecoglou do it on a wet afternoon at Bournemouth? The answer is clear

“I do believe there is a flaw in the way they set up, but it does come with some reward,” he concluded.

What I didn’t like about the way Spurs used this system was that when these two center-backs were on the ball, I felt as though they didn’t have that simple pass wide in any manner, shape, or form. What you have here are the two full-backs in midfield, Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro.

“I can understand this system’s advantage; you can isolate your wingers one on one. The wide players from United have been brought in. So I can see the benefit from that perspective. But in my opinion, your athletes are in a very awkward situation.”

Another manager who has recently employed a similar tactic is Postecoglou, who did so before joining Spurs at both Celtic and Yokohama F Marinos. It’s been a fairly successful move that has already paid off in his first weeks with the North London team.

Joe Cole, a TNT Sports analyst and former England international, questioned Postecoglou about his use of inverted full-backs after the victory over the Cherries: “Is that something you’ve worked on? They seem to be flirting with freedom. Not that I’m attempting to steal any of your secrets.

There is no secret; I’m just copying Pep, Postecoglou retorted.

Cole and another former England international Peter Crouch laughed out loud at the remark.

We put a lot of effort into it. While a lot of it is based on instinct, Postecoglou noted, “we’re trying to build a system wherever I’ve been that is as fluid as it can be.

“Forget that you’re a full-back; you’re a football player; get in that space if there is one. Our responsibility is to ensure that we fill up the gaps that remain.

On Saturday night (AEST), Udogie and Porro both played significant roles once more, with the former assisting Kulusevski in the second half.

The Australian expounded on how the pair were used as a sort of midfield complement.

“I believe players stop second-guessing themselves once they realize they have the ability to do that, even if the game is still quite regimented. They are aware that if there is space, it doesn’t matter if they are a left full-back; they will enter it.

When they have the ball and are sprinting with it, Pedro and Destiny are both quite challenging to stop. It improves effectiveness and is a crucial area.