What went wrong for AVB against West Ham United?

Whether he is ready to admit it or not, André Villas-Boas hasn’t had the greatest of weeks, in the league. After losing to Chelsea last weekend, Villas-Boas was hoping to get the league campaign back on track with a win against a struggling West Ham United side, who had scored just four goals in their opening six games.

On paper, it should have been a walk in the park, for a side of Tottenham’s quality. But, unfortunately for AVB, football matches aren’t won on paper and Spurs ended up on the wrong end of a 3-0 score line. And the second half performance from the hammers, was one that their fans are unlikely to forget for many years to come.

More by accident than by design, West Ham started the match with a 4-6-0 formation, without the presence of any recognizable striker to lead the line. The injury to Andy Carroll meant that Sam Allardyce had little option but to go for the very formation with which Spain triumphed at Euro 2012. And whatever reason maybe, and irrespective of whether AVB gives them credit or not, their tactics sure did play a major role in shifting the tie, in favor of the hammers.

Although Tottenham had more than 60% of possession, they weren’t able to break down the resolute West Ham defense. And in the opportunities that they did create, they fluffed their lines and that ended up costing them dearly. Because West Ham had so little of the ball, they primarily relied on counter attacks to break down a Spurs defense which had only conceded 2 goals in their first six games. In the second half, they succeeded and a 15-minute spell saw them score three goals and effectively kill the tie.

Ravel Morrison’s solo run and delicate finish was no doubt the talking point of the match, which will last long in the minds of all the travelling fans who made the trip to White Hart Lane. The mercurial midfielder, picked up the ball just inside his half and then went on a virtuoso run, which saw him beat both center backs as if they weren’t even there, before dinking the ball over the advancing Lloris. The other two West Ham goals contained a streaky element in it and some would argue that, it was no more what they deserved, after their previous away results were underpinned by some undue bad luck.

When, the excellent Winston Reid opened the scoring, he was lucky that his header rebounded off Nolan, who was on the line, and back to him and not a Spurs player. And whilst AVB might complain about a push from Reid all he likes, Vertonghen was simply beaten to the ball by someone who was much hungrier than he was.

If the first goal was lucky, then Ricardo Vaz Tê’s goal was a definite fluke. From a Mark Noble through-ball, Vaz Tê’s initial shot was saved by Lloris, only to hit the striker’s knee and ricochet back into the net. The timing of the second goal, couldn’t have been much worse, as all of this happened, just as the Tottenham manager was preparing to introduce Roberto Soldado and switch to two strikers. It was without a doubt, the turning point of the game and one from which, there was no way back for Tottenham.

But apart from the goals, it was a strangely subdued encounter, in which West Ham took their chances whilst Spurs spurned theirs. Whilst West Ham played well defensively, apart from the little spell in the second half, didn’t create too many chances. And no matter what AVB might say about West Ham being defensive and scoring from a set piece, the fact was that Tottenham never turned up for the game and that was why they lost. The smattering of boos from the home supporters at the final whistle painted the perfect picture of, what was a forgettable performance from Spurs.

Whilst West Ham certainly surprised Spurs with their formation and managed to frustrate them, truth be told, apart from Andros Townsend, none of the other Spurs players looked up for it. On Allardyce’s tactics, although AVB said “It’s nothing to do with the strategy but you can write whatever you want,” the truth is that, deep down inside, Villas-Boas knows that he was out-thought for the second time in the space of a week. Whilst it was his master José Mourinho the previous weekend, it was Big Sam, this time around and that has certainly got to sting a little for a man who prides himself on his tactical ingenuity.