When under pressure West Ham boss Slaven Bilic calls on Andy Carroll but Tottenham defeat shows how tactically unaware that is.
Christian Eriksen of Tottenham celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s third goal during the Premier League match against West Ham United.
On the face of it a 3-2 home defeat in the Premier League to an extremely talented Tottenham Hotspur side is not too disrespectful for West Ham United.
Yet the scoreline doesn’t really tell the whole story of a game that was already beyond the hosts when Christian Eriksen put Spurs 3-0 up after 60 minutes and was made more nervy for Tottenham late on following a red card for Serge Aurier.
Slaven Bilic, manager of West Ham United.
For the game at the London Stadium manager Slaven Bilic made the big call to drop Andy Carroll and play Javier Hernandez in his preferred central role with Marko Arnautovic and Michail Antonio either side. It was a bold decision that lasted all of 28 minutes until an injury to Antonio that Bilic could admittedly not legislate for.
What the Croatian could control, however, was who he brought on and yet despite having both Andre Ayew and Diafra Sakho on the bench as well, he opted to send Carroll on and once again push Hernandez out wide.
West Ham United striker Andy Carroll (L) greets manager Slaven Bilic as he comes onto the pitch.
It was a decision that not only showed Bilic’s tactical naivety, with the striker’s style easily snuffed out by the visitors’ three-man central defence, but which badly backfired when mistakes from the 28-year-old lead directly to two goals.
Despite an array of attacking talent at his disposal, including the summer arrivals of Arnautovic and Hernandez, when questions are asked of his team the 49-year-old consistently falls back on Carroll for the answers – a player who has scored just 30 times in 117 appearances for the Hammers to date.
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