Ange Postecoglou insists that he was pleased with his side’s first-half showing against West Ham but confessed that they did not have it easy in one area.
Morale-boosting win for Spurs
To get the critics off his back, Postecoglou needed a convincing win in the London derby on the back of his side’s poor second-half showing against Brighton, and that is exactly what the Spurs players delivered.
The game did not start off the way the Australian would have wanted as the away side opened the scoring and frustrated the Lilywhites with a low block.
However, things started clicking into gear for Tottenham mid-way into the first half, and they absolutely blew the Hammers away at the start of the second period, emerging with a comfortable 4-1 win.
Ange Postecoglou’s admission
Postecoglou insisted that he did not think there was too much wrong with his side’s showing in the first period, but he confessed that it was a real arm wrestle in the middle of the park.
He remarked that his side went up a gear once they got more control in the middle of the park following the introduction of Pape Sarr at the interval.
When asked if he was pleased with Tottenham’s second-half display, Postecoglou told Football.London: “It was very good. Even in the first half, we had to work pretty hard, it was a bit of an arm wrestle. They’re a big, physical team and you have to match them in certain areas.
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“Obviously disappointing to concede but we worked our way back into the game and had some good chances in the late first half and got our rewards for it.
“Second half we went up a gear and again I thought our football was excellent but we did some of that hard stuff we needed to do to gain control, particularly in the midfield area and it gave us a good platform.”
Substitution made the difference
Some Spurs fans might have been bewildered by Postecoglou’s decision to replace James Maddison with a more defensively-minded player in Sarr.
However, the Senegalese star’s introduction allowed the Lilywhites to win possession back in the middle of the park on a number of occasions, thus leaving the Hammers’ backline exposed.
Almost all of our goals in the second period came from us winning the ball in the middle of the park and counter-attacking, with Postecoglou’s tactical tweak working perfectly.