What we learned from first glimpse of ‘Ange-ball’ Spurs, against West Ham in Perth
Tottenham v West Ham in Perth offered the first look at Spurs under new manager Ange Postecoglou. JAMES GHEERBRANT breaks down some key talking points.
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West Ham beat Tottenham 3-2 in a pre-season friendly in Perth, in Ange Postecoglou’s first game in charge of Spurs, with Gianluca Scamacca scoring a late winner.
The match provided an interesting glimpse of both teams, three-and-a-half weeks out from the start of the Premier League season.
First glimpse of Ange-ball
One glance at this Tottenham team was enough to confirm a clean break from the risk-averse Antonio Conte era. Conte would never have countenanced the team that Postecoglou named: a 4-3-3 with two attacking full backs, Pedro Porro and Sergio Reguilón, and James Maddison in the midfield three. Overall, this felt like an embryonic but promising attacking display, full of fluency, intricate passing and positional rotation.
Tottenham’s commitment to play out from the goalkeeper was clear, and the first half showed both sides of the trade-off: West Ham’s second goal came from Guglielmo Vicario, the new No 1, passing the ball out for a corner, but it was his pass to Yves Bissouma under pressure, drawing the West Ham press, that opened space for a lovely move ending with Maddison teeing up a chance for Manor Solomon.
“You know there are consequences if we don’t get that right,” Postecoglou said. “But I’m trying to provide a security and a structure to the players to encourage them to release that fear and play that kind of football. That’s the kind of team we want to be.
“There will be missteps along the way — that’s only natural. But I’m trying to make sure the players understand that veering away or shying away from that will mean us playing the kind of football that I don’t want us to play. We have to be all-in.”
Udogie has the edge in left-back battle
One intriguing conundrum is who will be Postecoglou’s first-choice left back. The head coach is committed to a back four, but the returning loanees Reguilón and Destiny Udogie have both looked comfortable as wing backs in front of a back three.
Reguilón played the first half and at times inverted into central midfield while Bissouma dropped back, but he looked defensively vulnerable and was at fault for the first West Ham goal, when he allowed Danny Ings to nip ahead of him at the back post.
Udogie, who came on at half-time, looked more solid defensively, made some impressive runs with the ball down the left wing, and scored Spurs’ second goal with a lovely flick header from Ivan Perisic’s corner. The Italy under-21 international says he grew up aspiring to emulate Real Madrid’s Marcelo, a brilliant attacking full back who could comfortably play in a back four. On this showing, he looks to have the edge on Reguilón.
Solomon shows wisdom of signing him
Solomon, who made only four starts for Fulham last season and whose four Premier League goals came within the space of a month, is probably more of a depth option than a likely starter at this stage. But Postecoglou likes him and spoke admiringly about his “fire in the belly”, and he was impressive in the first half here. Twice in the first ten minutes he delivered a sharp cut-back to create a scoring opportunity, and he also had three efforts on goal, after one of which he was cleaned out by Jarrod Bowen and should probably have had a penalty.
West Ham’s armband dilemma
David Moyes said on Monday that he would take his time over naming a permanent successor to Declan Rice, but there seemed to be some confusion over who exactly was captaining West Ham in this game.
Lukasz Fabianski was named as the skipper on West Ham’s social media channels and announced as such over the tannoy, but Angelo Ogbonna led the team out and exchanged pennants with Harry Kane. It was only a minor shemozzle, of course, but the uncertainty felt somewhat indicative of the lack of outstanding candidates to replace Rice, and of the void he has left in terms of leadership.
Moyes’ men remain strong on the counter
West Ham didn’t demonstrate a lot of evolution from last season, understandably, but this was a match where they did what they’ve done best under David Moyes, and did it well. They had four shots to Tottenham’s 30 and had to weather long periods of pressure, but their knack for clinical counter-attacking football remains strong and ingrained. The winning goal, which came from a regain in midfield to create a quick transition, and a perfectly slid through ball by Pablo Fornals to Scamacca, felt like the archetypal Moyes West Ham goal. The pass came with Fornals playing in a more central position than usual and perhaps pointed to the potential benefits of trying the Spaniard in such a role.
Originally published as What we learned from first glimpse of ‘Ange-ball’ Spurs, against West Ham in Perth
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