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A lot happened on Saturday. Most notably for me was hearing my unborn child’s heartbeat for the first time before kick off so while I was disappointed we dropped two points and look to have made getting a top 4 spot once again an improbable, but not impossible task I don’t really care. For once I may have found something more important than Spurs!! That being the case I didn’t really feel I’d be able to give a good account of the game so today’s match report has been written by Adam Nathan. Adam’s a season ticket holder and can be found on twitter here.

Former Spurs and Wimbledon player Terry Gibson tweeted on Saturday afternoon about how much it annoys him to hear the same old clichés banded about in relation to certain players and teams. Our game against West Ham provided an excellent example of when Spurs fans dip into the cliché hat and pull out the one that defines a game where we have plenty of chances but just cannot score, ‘Ah well, it’s just going to be one of those days isn’t it?’ Although a brief glance at the statistics and highlights would lead anyone to that conclusion, it seems particularly unfair to tar the majority of the team with the same brush that stained them after games against Wigan, Hull and Wolves to name but a few. Whilst the result was of course a disappointment, we were excellent for 90 minutes on Saturday and it is a real shame that the rest of the team’s good work has again been overshadowed by the profligacy of our so-called hitmen.

As many had predicted in the lead up to the game, we started with a 4-4-1-1 formation with Defoe spearheading the attack. Looking back at the last 3 games against West Ham, this seemed a logical choice. Even in the defeat at Upton Park in September, the Hammers looked extremely susceptible to pace, a point clearly noted by Harry who, apart from Defoe and the returning Gareth Bale, started with the same side that guided us into the last 8 of the Champions League last Wednesday. As expected, the visitors lined up in a 4-4-2/4-3-3 hybrid formation with Gary O’Neill supporting Carlton Cole and Demba Ba in attack but filling in as a right-sided midfielder alongside Mark Noble, Scott Parker and Tomas Hitzlsperger when West Ham were without the ball. To me, the first half was, Inter Milan aside, the best forty-five minutes of football the Lane has seen this season. With West Ham also intent on attacking, we were afforded plenty of space in midfield and took full advantage whenever possible. Modric, Bale and Van Der Vaart combined on a number of occasions that often resulted in good chances, namely Dawson’s strike against the bar, Defoe’s flick that beat the far post and Aaron Lennon’s ‘Newcastle away’ impression as he cut inside from the left and arrowed a shot against the woodwork. We were fairly untroubled at the other end although Carlton Cole should have done better when sent clear but could only find the grateful arms of Gomes.

The second half continued in much the same manner. Defoe again squandered good opportunities to break the deadlock but was foiled either by some excellent goalkeeping or a visible lack of self-belief, too often cutting inside and trying to create the perfect opportunity for himself when a clean strike at goal would have been the better option. As the game opened up due to our persistent attacking, West Ham grew in stature and began to create chances for themselves. Both Cole and Ba were denied by good saves from Gomes, whilst Mark Noble’s attempt at an overhead kick flew just passed the near post. Pavlyuchenko’s introduction for the flagging Van Der Vaart added some much needed impetus to the attack, but he and Bale from an outstanding free-kick were denied by more good work from Robert Green, the much maligned keeper continuing his infuriating knack of playing superbly against us. As the game drifted into injury time, Defoe was again guilty of wasting a couple of half chances that you felt he may have done better with had he been in a richer vein of form, and West Ham held on for a point that will be celebrated in East London with far greater joy than in N17.

After such a good performance, it is disappointing that there obviously has to be a negative slant on this report due to the result, so let’s get that out of the way now. We all knew we needed a striker in January, if not last summer. In both windows, our transfer team failed to deliver. Personally, I’m done moaning about it now and would rather focus on what we have at our disposal. Sure, the uber-cynic will point fingers at Levy and Redknapp and cry that we would have won yesterday had we invested in a big name front man, but for my money, the fingers of blame should be aimed at Jermain Defoe, a man who lest we forget scored 23 goals in all competitions last year. To back up our old friend Terry, I am fed up of hearing ex-pros like Ian Wright harp on about how JD is a ‘natural goalscorer.’ There are two reasons why this simply isn’t the case. Firstly, ‘natural goalscorers’ actually score. A lot. Take away the fact that Defoe has only notched 2 goals in the Premier League this season, he has actually never managed to score 20 league goals in a season which isn’t the kind of stat that anyone given the label of a poacher would be particularly proud of. The second, and perhaps more important reason however, is that Defoe is no longer thinking and acting like a top predator. Watching him play yesterday had a sad air of inevitability about it; as soon as he missed his first chance, you just knew he wasn’t going to score. As many have mentioned in the past few weeks, JD really needs to start playing with a sense of freedom again and stop letting the missed chances get to him. He spoke recently about how he watched some Jimmy Greaves goals, and whilst that may have been a useful exercise, it may have been more helpful for him to have a look at the chances Jimmy missed before he scored in big games-as with truly great goalscorers like Raul and Van Nistlerooy, Defoe must stop letting the misses play on his mind when on the pitch, otherwise we will have do get rid of him. I like him a lot, but we really needed our front man to stand up and be counted on Saturday, not shy away when things weren’t going right for him. The rest of the squad have all played to their potential and more in a number of games this year, and if we are going to get back into the Champions League we will certainly need the little man to do the same in the coming months.

In spite of the result however, I have no shame in admitting that at full-time I rose from my seat and applauded every player off the field, safe in the knowledge that I had seen my team put in a really good performance. Although largely untested, the defence stood firm for the majority of the game and Ekotto in particular put in a stand-out performance, combining graft with guile and acting as an excellent outlet for Bale and Modric. In front of the back four Sandro was again terrific, shielding the back four with great strength and in general used the ball well. He is beginning to make that position his own and it will be extremely interesting to see how Huddlestone is utilised when he returns from injury. The real positive for me however was the way in which we moved the ball, picking spaces in and around the West Ham midfield and waiting for the right opportunity to play the key pass as opposed to attempting the impossible and surrendering possession. One argument that has come out of the game was that Van Der Vaart was dropping far too deep which left us light up front. I think I’m going to sit on the fence on this one as yes, he was often found picking the ball up off the back four –a trait I am fairly certain has increased since Huddlestone’s injury-but we still had twenty-four efforts on goal which certainly doesn’t suggest that we struggled to create things in the final third. In terms of his performance, Rafa had a far better game on Saturday than against AC Milan but still seems to be lacking that spark that carried the team through the first half of the season. He was clearly flagging around the 60 minute mark and whilst I am always delighted to see him on the team sheet, both he and the coaching staff need to accept that until he has a proper pre-season under his belt, he is unlikely to have the legs to last more than an hour in the Premier League, a point highlighted by our increased tempo with the arrival of Pavlyuchenko.

I do have a slight issue with the length of time that the wingers spent playing on opposing flanks however. Whilst it has been a successful experiment at times to move Lennon to the left, it only really works when we win possession in midfield and can hit a side on the break, as with the shot that rebounded off the post yesterday. In general play however, it can leave us a touch narrow, especially when Gomes has the ball, which limits the space around Modric and Rafa and usually sees us look for a longer pass which is obviously risky. In addition, whilst Lennon often has an impact on the left, Bale usually looks slightly lost when shunted to the right flank which seems like a waste of our most explosive asset. Overall however, I felt that Harry got the majority of his decisions right yesterday, and without wanting to harp on about the strikers too much, had we put any of our chances away we could have spent Sunday eulogising about the performances of Modric, Sandro and Ekotto as opposed to ruing what might have been.

In conclusion, as we reach the business end of the season it is natural that the focus of the fans shifts away from how you play in exchange for how many points you get from the game. Whilst of course fourth place should be the number one priority for us from now until May, I find it very difficult to be negative towards the team when they put in a performance to be proud of as they did against West Ham. Yes, we do have our issues; Van Der Vaart still doesn’t look totally fit, our strikers aren’t anywhere near as prolific as they should be and we are at times still a bit open at the back, but I don’t agree with criticising the players for sticking to a footballing philosophy in search of goals and points. With City’s defeat to Chelsea yesterday we are potentially one point away from our nearest rivals and I have every confidence that we will finish fourth at the end of the season if we all pull together and get behind the team as we did after the Portsmouth semi-final last year. My biggest fear is that we become obsessed with qualifying for the Champions League for the second season running, as I can only see that increasing the pressure on the players and overshadowing what is turning into a truly thrilling season to be a Spurs fan. Keep enjoying it, keep believing in it and we will reach our goals, especially if we continue to play at the same level as we did on Saturday afternoon.

COYS

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