How Tottenham go marching on following that hammering by the irons

Although an international break has been and gone, Tottenham Hotspur’s fans won’t have forgotten what happened at White Hart Lane nearly two weeks ago. It’s no exaggeration to say Andre Villas-Boas’ men were humiliated by West Ham in an embarrassing 3-0 defeat that checked the progress Tottenham had made so far this season.

This weekend Tottenham travel to Aston Villa, a game that will test whether Spurs have the will power and mental strength to put their previous defeat behind them and concentrate on earning three points against an in-form Villa side who are unbeaten in their last three Premier League games.

Barring the away supporters’ corner of White Hart Lane, the rest of the old, famous ground fell into stunned silence when Ravel Morrison‘s superb solo effort gave the Hammers a three-goal lead and a kick into the teeth of all Tottenham fans that thought they would stroll to a third home win of the season. It’s very hard to pick out exactly what went wrong for Tottenham in terms of statistics; Spurs had a higher percentage of pass completion, tackle success and possession, yet still came out of the game without scoring a goal and conceding three.

So, what went wrong against West Ham and what can the Lilywhites improve on when they take on Aston Villa on Sunday?

Firstly, Paulinho. He was hardly seen all game. This is mainly due to West Ham’s defence closing him down before he could be as effective as he normally is. So far this campaign, many people have commented on how powerful and dangerous the Brazilian looks when he’s running at opposition defences. He didn’t do that at all during that game. You can see from the 25-year-old’s Action Heat Map – he never really picked up a position, he was neither forward nor back. He floated around the midfield – this isn’t what Villas-Boas bought him for. The former Corinthians midfielder was purchased to run at defenders in a Yaya Toure-esque manner and cause the opposition problems. If Tottenham are to get back to winning ways they need Paulinho back doing what he does best.

Paulinho’s Action Heat Map v West Ham

Kyle Walker hasn’t been at his best so far this season; his performance against West Ham a fortnight ago encompassed this. Walker is well-known for his surging forward runs which put the opposition on the back foot, but during Spurs’ defeat to the Hammers the 23-year-old looked tired and not at races. Many Spurs fans suggested pairing Vlad Chiriches and Michael Dawson in the centre of the Tottenham defence withKyle Naughton at right-back and Jan Vertonghen positioned at left-back. This would’ve been vastly effective as Spurs would’ve remained packed defensively but been more effective going forward from wide positions. As you can see from Walker’s passing accuracy below, he was very average. With one of every five passes he made being misplaced, it put Tottenham at a constant disadvantage down the right-hand side. Walker should be fully fit and back to his best against Aston Villa after being suspended during England’s second match of the international break against Poland, meaning the Englishman has had nearly a week’s rest and a chance to reflect on a display he won’t have been pleased with.

Walker only completed 78% of his passes against West Ham

After Jermain Defoe‘s superb performance against Anzhi in the game previous to Tottenham’s 0-3 defeat to West Ham, many fans were calling for him to be started over Roberto Soldado. I to be a dreadful call. Firstly because Defoe had hardly no impact whatsoever on the game and secondly, it meant Christian Eriksen‘s game was slightly hampered as he found it tough to link-up with Defoe. Although Soldado’s two goals so far this season came from the penalty spot, Eriksen and the Spaniard have developed a partnership that simply wasn’t there when Defoe took Soldado’s place. The Dane’s passing accuracy towards the West Ham area was almost non-existent; this again shows Eriksen’s partnership with Defoe wasn’t to be seen.

For once Eriksen’s passes in the final third weren’t accurate

The last point about what Tottenham did wrong against West Ham is how their lack of play on either wing shows there’s next to no versatility within the Spurs team when things aren’t going to plan down the centre of the pitch. If you look at Tottenham’s action areas, it shows that there was a severe lack of width against The Hammers. This will need correcting when Tottenham play Villa this weekend. The Villians are a very physical team and will try to nullify the threat of Paulinho and Eriksen down the middle, therefore it will be up to Tottenham’s wingers to create and carry the side when play down the middle breaks down. Playing down the wing doesn’t just mean pumping crosses into the box neither, it means attacking their opposition’s penalty area. Spurs crossed the ball 24 times against The Irons – only four of them found their target; this is a measly 17%. This, once again, against a tough, strong team like Villa will need correcting.