West Ham United lost 3-2 at Tottenham Hotspur yesterday, after a dramatic turnaround in the final five minutes.
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic
The Hammers were five minutes away from taking a valuable three points away from White Hart Lane yesterday, before a dramatic late double from Harry Kane ensured it was Tottenham who were celebrating after the game.
Slaven Bilic’s men actually produced one of their best performances of what has been a desperately poor season so far, and caused Spurs all sorts of trouble throughout the duration of the match.
The Croatian made a huge error on 85 minutes though, when he took off Dimitri Payet, and introduced the woeful Havard Nordtveit.
West Ham United’s Dimitri Payet
It came at a time in the game where West Ham were hitting Spurs on the counter attack regularly, and actually had the hosts on the back foot.
It was as if the negative substitution from Bilic gave Mauricio Pochettino’s men the impetus to go on and take something from the game.
This isn’t to say that Payet was having an exceptional game, far from it in fact, it was more how the Hammers setup changed when the substitution was made.
West Ham United’s Havard Nordtveit
They reverted to a 5-4-1, and by sitting so deep inside their own half, they invited pressure from Tottenham, which eventually proved costly.
It didn’t help that West Ham’s lone striker in the latter stages of the game was the abysmal Simone Zaza, whose performances’ have Hammers fans scratching their heads as to why Bilic brought him to the club in the first place.
As fate would have it, it was Nordtveit who gave away the injury-time penalty, which Harry Kane dispatched with aplomb, and left West Ham empty handed, as they remain just one place outside the relegation zone.
Bilic must learn from this costly error, and ensure he does not make the same mistake again, because sometimes, the best form of defence is attack.
West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic and Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
