Maddison sacrificed as abysmal West Ham help teach Postecoglou ‘irrelevant’ subs lesson
West Ham were truly atrocious but they did at least kindly help show Ange Postecoglou and Spurs the difference between ‘irrelevant’ and excellent subs.
“If you’re not competitive, it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re not going to get rewards. You don’t deserve to win. So we didn’t deserve on our second-half performance, irrespective of subs or anything else, to get something out of the game.
“But I do think if you do get something out of the game, then you’re falsely rewarded, and I don’t want to get falsely rewarded.”
It was, frankly, the latest in an increasingly worrying series of strange opinions for a football manager to publicly and willingly express. You could see Ange Postecoglou’s point – it was a ‘the performance levels are more important than the result’ thing, an attempt to underline how unrepeatably abysmal Tottenham’s capitulation against Brighton was – but it was ultimately just another bizarre show of tetch from the Australian.
Spurs were fortunate Postecoglou didn’t deem substitutions as “irrelevant” in the first Premier League game after the international break as the last before it. James Maddison might well disagree but there is no guarantee the hosts would have enjoyed their Saturday lunch as much had the Sunday roast stalwart lasted beyond the first 45 minutes against West Ham.
That half-time change was a monumental gamble. Maddison had created five chances and assisted Dejan Kulusevski’s excellent equaliser. He had been very good. There was one point when he seemed to sustain a knock of sorts but he played on and much of the half-time analysis centred around how Spurs would need his influence to complete a comeback after Mohammed Kudus’ opener.
Once the various commentary teams assembled in north London relayed the information that Pape Matar Sarr had replaced the England international in a purely tactical move with no injuries involved, there was no grey area: win and Postecoglou the genius had nailed it to get this Spurs season back on track; lose and the fraud had completely and utterly f**ked it.
It would have been an awkward narrative to retrofit had Sarr contributed little towards the Sisyphean task of scoring against West Ham without reply, so his tackle and pass for Son Heung-min to humiliate Jean-Clair Todibo wrapped a neat bow around the discourse of this victory.
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Sarr was involved in the build-up to the second and third goals too as Postecoglou’s pragmatism paid off. Kulusevski and Son were plenty creative enough to cause West Ham problems and another body in those areas was cluttering up the spaces. Yves Bissouma was instead granted a partner to exert control and the visitors crumbled.
Brighton’s three goals in 18 second-half minutes became Tottenham’s three in eight after the break. West Ham’s disintegration was such that it should have been four in nine but Son hit the post from Max Kilman’s latest unfortunate attempt at defending.
It felt at one stage as though Spurs would be beaten with that stick yet again. Kudus scored a fine opening goal from Jarrod Bowen’s cutback after 18 minutes, and being undone by two incredibly talented attacking players is in itself no crime. But almost precisely the same move had unfolded a handful of minutes prior and yet still Spurs learned no lessons.
Postecoglou must have been fearing the worst then but the response was impressive and spearheaded by one of the great goalless centre-forward displays. Dominic Solanke was phenomenal, his selflessness extending even to the critics who will use his humble goal and assist numbers to soon criticise a player who makes Spurs tick like no other.
West Ham never could quite track him and this truly was the perfect away collapse: an opening goal which offered hope; a strong defensive showing undone only once by individual excellence to get to half-time level; a sudden and inexplicable collapse; an own goal; a multi-man brawl resulting in a sending-off for about three different red-card offences.
David Moyes has his faults but until his final season he would have insulted Marouane Fellaini to his face before overseeing such an immediate and collective cave-in. Not conceding in quick succession was the backbone to his tactical philosophy. Michail Antonio literally said it once:
“That’s one thing with our gaffer, literally, he loses his mind. When we concede one he’s like ‘you do not concede two within ten minutes’. Just try not to concede two. Concede two, do not make it three… just try and shut up shop so the game doesn’t run away.”
Julen Lopetegui opened the cash register, walked into the back and said it’s none of his business. It was so farcical that the triple substitution West Ham were preparing at 2-1 down was only actually made when Spurs scored twice more to make it 4-1. And the most Edson Alvarez, Crysencio Summerville and Carlos Soler did to turn the tide was for the third of that trio to get booked within six minutes.
Those were “irrelevant” subs. Fair play to Postecoglou for spending the last fortnight figuring out how they can make the difference.
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