Saturday 3rd May 2014
12:45
Boleyn Ground
West Ham United vs Tottenham Hotspur
Analysis
They say that lightning doesn't strike twice, but it has against Spurs this season. Now we get to find out if it ever strikes thrice.
I don't think it will, just so we're upfront about everything.
Spurs have been in very decent nick recently. Since they lost three on the trot against Chelsea, Benfica and Arsenal, Tottenham have only lost once in seven games, and have won three of their last four Premier League games.
Key Player
If I'd been writing this in August 2013 I might have had a tough time picking a key Spurs playing, such is the strength of their squad on paper.
The likes of Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli and Mousa Dembele were meant to propel Tottenham to a title challenge that hasn't really worked out.
One major signing that has worked out for Spurs though, is that of Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen. The midfielder has been a joy to watch this season, and has been one of the few Spurs players to live up to his hype.
In his 23 Premier League appearances this season, Eriksen has created 60 goalscoring opportunities for his team, notched up 8 assists, has a shot accuracy of 67%, and has managed to net himself 7 goals of his own.
On top of that, he has also managed a pass accuracy of 82%, completed 22 take ons, and been successful with 50% of his 36 attempted tackles.
Possibly the most impressive thing about Eriksen's performances is his desire to work for the team. The Dane has performed all over the park for Spurs this season, racking up 16 appearances in his favoured centre midfield, 13 from the left wing, and another 7 times from the bench (all competitions). And it doesn't matter where he plays, he is still just as effective and consistent for the side.
The images below show some of the qualities that Eriksen possesses.
The first two images are from the recent win over Fulham. First up, is Eriksen's heat map from that day. What you can clearly see, is that he puts himself about. He was massively influential in the Fulham half of the field, popping up on both wings and in the middle of the park. But what you can also see is that, despite his licence to drift all over the park, he is still committed to tracking back to help out his left back.
The next image shows the chances that Eriksen created during the same game. Eriksen created 5 chances for his team mates during the game. No other Spurs player created more than one.
The final image shows the goals that the Dane has scored in the league this season. Whilst he has bagged a fair few tap ins from in and around the six yard box, you can also clearly see that he is capable of scoring from distance if given the time and space.
If West Ham want to make it a trio of wins over Spurs this season, Eriksen is the man they will need to stop.
How do you stop them?
The last two times Spurs have failed to score away from home were their visits to Stamford Bridge and Anfield. It's unlikely that West Ham will play like either of those sides, so we'll need to look a little further back.
In February, Spurs lost 1-0 at Carrow Road. Norwich had a clear plan for that game that their players stuck to admirably.
What they did very effectively was stop Spurs widemen from getting down the flanks and putting balls into the box. Tim Sherwood likes his side to play a traditional 4-4-2, with Harry Kane and Emmanuel Adebayor two forwards who enjoy an aerial battle, and poaching inside the box. For this approach to work well, the wingers and fullbacks need to offer regular service from the bylines.
Look at the average positions below. What Norwich did, was ensure their own wingers (Snodrass #7, Redmond #22) tucked in tight with the attacking midfielder (Fer #10) and striker (van Wolswinkel #9), to occupy the Spurs fullbacks. This meant the Norwich fullbacks (Martin #2, Olsson #23) were vary rarely left to deal with two oncoming Spurs players.
This meant that Spurs struggled to create any decent chances for Adebayor throughout the game, despite their widemen having a lot of possession.
This is demonstrated by Aaron Lennon's performance. The sometime-England winger completed a fantastic 98% of his passes on the day, as you can see below. However, he rarely got into the dangerous positions wide of the penalty area.
And this point is further illustrated by his heat map. Lennon may have been excellent in possession, but he vary rarely got into the positions from which he can hurt a side.
Weakness
Spurs main issue this season has been defensive frailty. There have been a number of times this season that they have lost heavily - home defeats to West Ham (0-3), Liverpool (0-5), and Manchester City (1-5), and away defeats to Manchester City (6-0), Chelsea (4-0) and Liverpool (4-0) spring to mind.
The biggest problem that Spurs have, is that their defenders have made a huge amount of individual errors. In 36 games this season, Spurs players have made a whopping 30 errors leading directly to a shot on goal for the opposition - only Arsenal (35) and Liverpool (40) have made more.
However, where Spurs have perhaps been more unfortunate than the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool, is that 66.7% of those mistakes have actually led to goals. Of the 40 errors Liverpool have made, 12 have led to goals. Of the 35 Arsenal have made, 10 have led to goals. But for Spurs, 20 of those mistakes have resulted directly in conceding a goal.
Incredibly, that means 41% of the goals Spurs have conceded this season have come directly as a result of a defensive error.
Surely we won't beat them three times in a season? Surely.
God, I hope we do.
Head to Head
36% Head to Head Win % 40%
69 Won 77
48 Drawn 48
77 Lost 69
271 Goals Scored 304
304 Goals Conceded 271
Recent Form
W W L L L L Last 6 W L W D W W
6 Goals Scored 15
9 Goals Conceded 11
W W L W L L Home/Away Form L L D L D W
8 Goals Scored 6
7 Goals Conceded 14
Form Player (excl. GK)
(Last 6 League)
Stewart Downing - Christian Eriksen
6 Appearances 6
493 Minutes Played 535
101 Sum Squawka Performance Score 277
17 Average Squawka Performance Rating 46
182 Passes Attempted 303
147 Completed 250
81% Success Rate 83%
12 Chances Created 26
0 Assists 5
7 Attempts on Goal 13
2 On Target 8
0 Goals 4
22 Take Ons Attempted 12
13 Successful Take Ons 5
59% Success Rate 42%
4 Tackles Made 6
1 Successful Tackles 2
25% Success Rate 33%
3 Interceptions 5
17 Clearances 6
1 Blocks 5
4 Defensive Actions Per Game 0
12 Aerial Duels 7
2 Won 2
17% Success Rate 29%
0 Defensive Errors 0
0 Leading to a Goal 0
Last Meeting
18 December 2013
1-0 Emmanuel Adebayor 67'
1-1 Matt Jarvis 80'
1-2 Modibo Maïga 85'
4-2-3-1 Starting Formation 4-2-2
Adrián - Hugo Lloris
Joey O'Brien - Kyle Walker
James Collins - Etienne Capoue
George McCartney - Vlad Chiriches
Rǎzvan Raţ - Danny Rose (62')
(79') Alou Diarra - Aaron Lennon
Matthew Taylor - Gylfi Sigurdsson
(70') Joe Cole - Mousa Dembele
Jack Collison - Andros Townsend (73')
Matt Jarvis - Jermain Defoe
(65') Carlton Cole - Emmanuel Adebayor (78')
Subs
Jussi Jääskeläinen - Brad Friedel
Guy Demel - Zeki Fryers (62')
Leo Chambers - Ryan Fredericks
(79') Ravel Morrison - Lewis Holtby (78')
Mark Noble - Nacer Chadli (73')
(70') Mohamed Diamé - Christian Eriksen
(65') Modibo Maïga - Roberto Soldado
Absentees
Injured/Doubtful
West Ham United: James Tomkins, Marco Borriello
Tottenham Hotspur: Jan Vertonghen, Jyle Walker, Etienne Capoue, Mousa Dembele, Andros Townsend, Erik Lamela
Suspensions
West Ham United: n/a
Tottenham Hotspur: n/a
Opposition Last Time Out (League)
vs Stoke City
Goals Scored: 1
Goals Conceded: 0
Starting Formation: 4-4-2
Hugo Lloris
Kyle Naughton Michael Dawson Younes Kaboul Danny Rose (69')
Aaron Lennon (78') Paulinho Nacer Chadli (73') Christian Eriksen
Harry Kane Emmanuel Adebayor
subs:
Brad Friedel
Zeki Fryers (69')
Gylfi Sigurdsson (73')
Sandro
Nabil Bentaleb
Andros Townsend (78')
Roberto Soldado
Best Player: Hugo Lloris(SR: 41)
Worst Player: Aaron Lennon(SR: -14)
Top 5's (Min 5 Apps)
Goals Scored
Kevin Nolan 7 - 10 Emmanuel Adebayor
Carlton Cole 6 - 7 Christian Eriksen
Mohamed Diamé 4 - 6 Roberto Soldado
Joe Cole 3 - 5 Paulinho
Ravel Morrison* 3 - 5 Gylfi Sigurdsson
Assists
Kevin Nolan 5 - 8 Christian Eriksen
Andy Carroll 4 - 5 Roberto Soldado
Mark Noble 4 - 4 Emmanuel Adebayor
Matt Jarvis 3 - 3 Nacer Chadli
Stewart Downing 2 - 3 Aaron Lennon
Passing Accuracy
Mark Noble 83% - 91% Mousa Dembele
Stewart Downing 81% - 89% Vlad Chiriches
Kevin Nolan 79% - 88% Nabil Bentaleb
Joey O'Brien 79% - 85% Paulinho
Joe Cole 79% - 85% Nacer Chadli
Chances Created per game
Stewart Downing 1.8 - 2.6 Christian Eriksen
Mark Noble 1.5 - 1.6 Emmanuel Adebayor
Matt Jarvis 1 - 1.3 Aaron Lennon
Kevin Nolan 1 - 1.3 Nacer Chadli
Andy Carroll 0.8 - 1.2 Kyle Walker
Successful Dribbles per game
Mohamed Diamé 2 - 2.7 Andros Townsend
Stewart Downing 1.1 - 2.4 Mousa Dembele
Mark Noble 1 - 1.2 Aaron Lennon
Guy Demel 1 - 1 Danny Rose
Matt Jarvis 0.6 - 1 Erik Lamela
Tackles per game
Mark Noble 2.7 - 2.8 Nabil Bentaleb
Mohamed Diamé 2.2 - 2.5 Kyle Naughton
Kevin Nolan 2 - 2.4 Danny Rose
James Collins 1.8 - 2.3 Mousa Dembele
Matthew Taylor 1.8 - 2.2 Paulinho
Aerial Duels Won per game
Andy Carroll 9.2 - 3.9 Michael Dawson
James Tomkins 4.1 - 2.3 Jan Vertonghen
James Collins 3.5 - 2.2 Younes Kaboul
Carlton Cole 2.4 - 2.1 Emmanuel Adebayor
Winston Reid 2.2 - 1.8 Kyle Walker
Manager
Sam Allardyce - Tim Sherwood
Current Club
39.7% Win % 50%
54 Won 13
32 Drawn 4
50 Lost 9
0 League Titles 0
0 Cup Wins 0
01/06/2011 Appointed 16/12/2013
2y 329d Time in Charge 131d
Managerial Career
39.7% Win % 50%
348 Won 13
231 Drawn 4
297 Lost 9
7 Sides Managed 1
2 League Titles 0
0 Cup Wins 0
Preston North End First Managerial Role Tottenham Hotspur
30/09/1992 Start Date 16/12/2013
21y 207d Experience 131d
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