Another long night at the London Stadium was on the schedule for West Ham who did more to ensure their loss to Spurs than try for a win. With plenty of defensive errors and a disjointed frontline, West Ham’s strong side couldn’t beat a limping Spurs team.
On paper the team looked strong for West Ham. Chicharito started with Antonio and Diangana on his wings. Anderson was behind the striker and atop a midfield three that included Rice and Obiang. Adrian started in goal while Masuaku, Fredericks, Ogbonna, and Diop made up the back four.
What quickly became evident was that Chicharito doesn’t seem to care anymore or have his characteristic finishing abilities in the box anymore. Also, Antonio has lost all finishing and football sense, and a backline that includes Ogbonna and Masuaku is one that cannot be trusted.
The first goal came off of a horrible turn over that ended up on Heung-min Son’s boot, who was in alone on Adrian. The winger cooley finished by putting the ball in the top corner of the net with emphasis. West Ham were actually dominating the game at this point (16 minutes in) but couldn’t seem to figure out moving possession forward once the ball went back to Adrian.
Adrian is also a point of concern. With Fabianski playing so well for the first team, Adrian has become an afterthought and relegated to Cup duties. However, he has become such a liability in net that if Pellegrini wants to take the only competition West Ham have left to look forward too, the FA Cup, seriously then he cannot trust his back up keeper anymore.
Twice Adrian gave away the ball to the Tottenham attack, throwing or kicking the ball past his centre-backs but short of his midfielders. As well, Adrian is still reluctant to come off of his line on crosses or passes that he can claim. Again, the context of seeing Fabianski play week in and week out has us Hammers’ fans expecting more from a keeper than what Adrian put forward against Spurs.
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Arthur Masuaku also coughed up possession to Son on the second goal with an inexcusable error on a back pass. The ball was elevated and instead of directing the ball away from the goal or just clearing his lines, Masuaku essentially sent Son in on a through ball which allowed him to walk around Adrian and slot the second goal.
Like Masuaku, Angelo Ogbonna was hard to watch defensively in this match. His sloppy, loose, non-physical coverage on Fernando Llorente allowed for him to easily convert a corner kick that Snodgrass also fell guilty of poor defensive play on. Ogbonna’s performances have dropped off a cliff since last season and if West Ham want to make strides forward it will not be with him in the team.
The only starting player who seemed up for the game for West Ham was Grady Diangana. Ill remove Declan Rice from this conversation because he was as impressive as always and showed grit and heart in his play which is the norm for him now. But, Diangana showed he has the mental toughness to continuously press forward and try to create until the dying minutes of the game.
Diangana looked tricky down the wing and meshed with Ryan Fredericks really well in the game as both players like to play at incredible speeds. He didn’t press up on the Spurs fullback as much as desired, but he is young and still learning how to be an effective Premier League forward away from the ball.
The biggest condemnation on the starting team’s efforts was how potent and attacking West Ham looked with Arnautovic and Lucas Perez on the pitch. Arnautovic linked up with Diangana immediately as he manned the right side striker position. Eventually, West Ham connected on one of their many corner kicks that landed back post for Perez to put home. West Ham carried the momentum forward from the double change that saw Perez and Arnautovic come onto the pitch.
Llorente’s goal would end this pressure and allow Spurs to see out the match and see out West Ham from the Carabao Cup. I don’t fault Pellegrini for his team selection in this match, I mean how could he anticipate such disrespectfully uninspired performances from players who call themselves professional footballers?