Analysis of the goal conceded against West Ham

Piquionne’s goal.

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!

And breathe.

That was a horribly frustrating game to watch as a Spurs fan – yet again we struggle to break down a team that defends deep and in numbers, and we looked slightly vulnerable on the break (as with the Wigan game).

With Crouch totally ineffective, we were badly lacking in the final third, and bar a brilliant Modric volley, a couple of efforts from Jenas and van der Vaart, and Huddlestone’s poor miss, we didn’t create enough chances. We need one of our forwards to step up and find some form.

West Ham’s goal came from one of their 14 corners – they were shooting from anywhere, and enjoying the rewards, with Cudicini generally rooted to his line at most dead ball situations (we probably miss Gomes most when defending set pieces).

On this occasion, it’s Corluka marking Piquionne, and he gets rather caught under the flight of the ball, whilst Piquionne gets a bit of a run on him.

Corluka and Piquionne are both positioned centrally. Notice that we have Modric on the near post, but nobody on the far.

Piquionne starts to make a run, and then checks – in this time, Corluka has stood still, trusting his standing jump.

Piquionne gets up well, helped by a slight run; this gives him the aerial advantage over Corluka.

He angles the ball well into the corner which is unguarded – whether that was intentional or otherwise, it was sloppy.

With Bale forced to play at left back in Assou-Ekotto’s absence, and Lennon lacking form and confidence, we lacked width for the majority of the game. Redknapp’s changes did nothing to solve this, with Keane coming on for Lennon, and then Pavlyuchenko and Giovani replacing van der Vaart (who had moved wide), and Crouch.

It’s easy to say in hindsight, but I think it would have made more sense to switch to three at the back – Hutton right, Corluka central, and Bassong left, giving Bale freedom to get forward on the left.

Two local derby defeats in a week – not a good one for us.