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Tottenham player ratings v West Ham: Midfield lets Pochettino down

By Rucker Haringey

LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 04: Mauricio Pochettino, Manager of Tottenham Hotspur looks on prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium on January 4, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 04: Mauricio Pochettino, Manager of Tottenham Hotspur looks on prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium on January 4, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 04: Mauricio Pochettino, Manager of Tottenham Hotspur looks on prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium on January 4, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 04: Mauricio Pochettino, Manager of Tottenham Hotspur looks on prior to the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United at Wembley Stadium on January 4, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /

Tottenham’s midfield let them down

Football can be a very fickle mistress and Tottenham found that out the hard way against West Ham yesterday. Despite dominating possession for the entire match, Spurs were only able to salvage one point against their London rivals. Wonder strikes from Pedro Obiang and Heung-Min Son cancelled one another out for a 1-1 draw.

Some Spurs fans might be tempted to write the result off as purely bad luck. That’s a nice, comfortable narrative, but it doesn’t satisfy me. Tottenham could and should have gotten more out of this match.

The main culprit for Spurs was Pochettino’s ineffective defensive midfield. Neither Eric Dier or Moussa Sissoko did much to recommend themselves. Their poor play was compounded by the fact that Pochettino did not need to deploy two defensive midfielders in this match. West Ham parked the bus so completely that one defensive midfielder would have been more than enough to keep their attack at bay.

Ultimately, Pochettino remedied the issue late in the match by bringing Victor Wanyama on for Dier and Erik Lamela in for Sissoko. It was the right move at the wrong time. If Pochettino had moved quicker to change shape his club would have likely secured a comfortable victory.

In the end, we have to rate the performances of a squad that dropped two points in a crucial Premier League encounter. Read on to discover which Spurs stars have the most to answer for.

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