Head Coach Graham Potter felt his West Ham United team put their gameplan into action but were unable to complete it in Sunday’s 1-1 Premier League draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
Potter’s Irons had success with their high press, enjoyed more possession and created more and better chances than Spurs, but were left to rue the mistake which led to the visitors going in front, and a lack of execution after winning the ball back in potentially fruitful positions.
A bright start was nullified when Maximilian Kilman’s clearance was blocked by Mathys Tel, who crossed for an unmarked Wilson Odobert to put the visitors in front on 15 minutes.
To Potter’s satisfaction and his team’s credit, they regrouped and levelled on 28 with a goal of real quality that started with Alphonse Areola and flowed through Lucas Paquetá, Kilman, Aaron Cresswell, Emerson, Mohammed Kudus, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and finally Jarrod Bowen, who calmly slotted his tenth Premier League goal of the season through Guglielmo Vicario’s legs.
The Hammers had opportunities to win in the second half, most notably when Bowen fired across goal and saw a flicked header pushed aside by the Spurs goalkeeper, and finally late on when James Ward-Prowse’s free-kick curled narrowly past the angle.
Potter had words of praise for the consistency and combination play shown by Wan-Bissaka, Bowen and right centre-back Jean-Clair Todibo, and also words of support for Paquetá, who was visibly emotional after being booked for a sliding challenge on Tottenham substitute Mikey Moore.
Here is what the Head Coach had to say to West Ham TV…
I think [I was satisfied] with aspects of the performance for sure, especially first half. I thought we started well, on the front foot.
We tried to press, we disrupted their build up, which is what they’re good at, and we made the game into duels. We missed some passes on the regain which is what you’re trying to do it for, to try and attack an unorganised defence.
But generally in the first half we were really good. I felt for the players because we conceded the goal from nothing with a mistake and that can be a challenge, especially with the results we’ve been having.
I thought everybody stuck together, which is a big ‘thank you’ to the supporters for that because it wasn’t an easy moment for us. But I thought they recognised the team were playing well, recognised the team were on the front foot and giving everything and we scored a really good goal to get back into the game.
Second half we were a little bit disappointed we weren’t able to sustain the level of performance from the first half. But again I think that’s a little bit understandable. We didn’t attack as well as we’d like in the second half but nevertheless we still had opportunities, we reduced Tottenham to not many. So [there are] things to be happy with but things to of course always be better.
I thought down that right side, we did well.
J-C [Todibo] has had a tight hamstring this week so we were worried about him towards the back end of the game. I thought he was doing well. Him, Aaron and Jarrod have got a nice relationship down there I think.
It was a good goal, I think it came from ‘Phonse. Spurs are not easy to play through because their physicality and how they press, they go pretty much man for man. So you’ve got to be brave with how you find your spare man and create some space and we did that well and it was a really good goal.
We’re in a tough period in terms of results for sure.
You can talk about fine lines and fine margins. We’ve had performances away at Liverpool or Brighton that you think you could have got something more from them. So [more] points [from those games and others] then make things a little bit better than what it is now but we are where we are.
We have to stick together as we’ve tried to do all through and the players have done that. It isn’t easy when you haven’t won for the time that we haven’t won at a Club like this, with the expectation that it is, to keep things moving forward or to keep things solid and together.
But at the same time we want to try and win, we know that, [both] in front of our supporters and home or away so that’s what we have to do.
We have to try and have a good week again and prepare for Manchester United.
Lucas is fine.
I think he’s given everything. Football is football. Sometimes it’s not perfect. Sometimes we criticise players when they care and when they don’t care.
It is just an action or reaction from him that once the dust settles and the blood (heart rate) gets down, he’s fine.
He’s gone through a lot, in fairness. We support him, of course, as always.
