In the 30th minute of Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-1 victory over West Ham United on Saturday afternoon, the home crowd were feeling restless.
West Ham were leading 1-0 at the time and groans of frustration could be heard at every chance Spurs wasted. Tottenham took 12 corners — more than any other team in the first half of a Premier League game this season. They did not look threatening from any of them.
When, after half an hour, Destiny Udogie broke down the left wing and crossed the ball into the box, Brennan Johnson was presented with an easy chance to score. But instead of guiding a header into the net, the ball bounced off Johnson’s shoulder and past the post.
Everybody had been waiting for two weeks to see how Ange Postecoglou’s side would react after a damaging defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion before the international break when they conceded three times in 20 second-half minutes. Postecoglou said that result was a “good lesson” about the importance of “sticking to their core principles”. Dejan Kulusevski’s fierce strike brought them level at half-time against West Ham, but there was still a lot of work to be done. So how did Spurs end up such comfortable 4-1 winners?
The answer lies in a bold half-time substitution from Postecoglou.
James Maddison is one of the team’s most high-profile players. The 27-year-old has the vision and passing range to carve open teams that sit deep. There were times in the first half when all of West Ham’s defenders and midfielders were camped inside their own box. Maddison’s movement out wide and combination play with Udogie and Son Heung-min were causing their opponents problems. Then he led the counter-attack that ended with Kulusevski’s equaliser.
James Maddison is a key playmaker for Tottenham (Benjamin Cremel/AFP via Getty Images)
Even so, it was Maddison who was taken off at the interval for Pape Matar Sarr, a switch that utterly transformed the midfield’s dynamic. Maddison had not necessarily done anything wrong, but Sarr provided more physicality.
It was a gamble that worked perfectly as Spurs ripped West Ham apart by scoring three times in seven second-half minutes. Postecoglou explained afterwards that Sarr’s “running power” was crucial in helping Spurs gain the upper hand.
“When you look at their midfield, they have guys like (Tomas) Soucek who is a big, physical presence and (Lucas) Paqueta and (Guido) Rodriguez who are technically quite good,” Postecoglou said. “You need to win that battle because if they get it to their front players under control, then they are really threatening and all three of them are quick and dynamic.
“We needed to stop it at the source and I thought we did that really well. I said it was a bit of an arm wrestle at the start, but I thought we maintained our intensity and eventually broke them.”
If you compare Maddison and Sarr’s touch maps, what stands out is that the latter was positioned much deeper. Sarr gave Tottenham better protection in case West Ham turned the ball over and tried to counter through Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio.
That did not prevent Sarr from playing a key role in two of Tottenham’s goals. He pulled out wide and passed to Son before Bissouma scored and then set up the South Korea international with a fantastic through ball for the fourth goal.
It was interesting that Postecoglou went out of his way to praise Kulusevski and Johnson for their work out of possession, too. It can feel like a cliche saying you need to outwork and outfight your opponents, but it clearly applied in this scenario.
“I mentioned it to the lads, I know Brennan Johnson didn’t score today, but I thought that was his best performance for us with the amount of work he did to help out Pedro (Porro) and help out the team in a defensive capacity and still be a threat going the other way,” Postecoglou said.
In the defeat by Brighton, Postecoglou was accused of leaving it too late to make any substitutions by waiting until the 80th minute to change his team. Taking off Maddison — one of Tottenham’s star players — early against West Ham could have backfired. If the visitors had sunk deeper into their own half, Maddison’s tool kit would have been sorely missed.
Postecoglou also risked upsetting a player whose confidence was dented in the summer after he was excluded from England’s squad for the European Championship.
But Postecoglou identified a weakness in his team, corrected it and Maddison will surely accept it benefited the team because it helped them achieve the right outcome.
In the future, that substitution might be viewed as the moment Maddison passed the torch to a different team-mate. Kulusevski has been Tottenham’s best player this season. Moving into an attacking midfield role, which he prefers, instead of playing on the wing has allowed him to showcase all the different qualities he possesses. The Sweden international’s crisp shot from just inside the box was excellent and he executed a clever reverse pass in the build-up to Jean-Clair Todibo’s own goal.
Twelve months ago, this team revolved around Maddison. He took over the No 10 shirt from Harry Kane, quickly became a senior figure in the dressing room and dictated games with ease. He was directly involved in eight goals in the first 11 games of the 2023-24 campaign.
Now, though, it is beginning to feel like Kulusevski is the headline act and the rest of the team is set up to maximise his strengths.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
