[West Ham 0 – Tottenham Hotspur 3](https://www.claretandhugh.info/west-ham-v-tottenham-hotspur-line-up-predictions-goals/)
The warnings were there, throughout the first half. Corner after corner came over, West Ham struggling to deal with repeated in-swinging crosses throughout the first 45 minutes. Shaky, badly organised. A goal disallowed – wrongly. What more proof were needed that West Ham’s defensive shortcomings were being exposed as the Hammers were on the ropes for the last twenty minutes of that first half.
_What happened in the 15 minutes at half time?_
Did Potter make changes to cope with Spurs aeriel threat? **No.**
Did he make personnel switches to help his defence? **No.**
Any reorganisation? Tactical switches? **Not a thing.**
_What did they all do for that fifteen minutes, I wonder, sit and have a positive visualisation?_
No changes at half time then and two minutes later, Tottenham score from – a corner.
FOUR West Ham defenders are congregated at the near post, but the ball comes to the far and Sarr heads in unmarked.
**Coaching Fail.**
**Player Fail.**
**Defensive leadership fail**. (More on that later).
The sad part about that game is that West Ham showed real glimpses of promise in the first half, some nice football. Diouf had the beating of Kudus and if we’d had a striker on the pitch, well, who knows.
But simply giving an opponent corner after corner because you have no ‘Antonio’ like hold-up player to stop the hoofed- away ball coming back again and again merely allows that opponent to practise their delivery again and again.
Without changes from West Ham’s manager at half time, predictably the cave-in followed.
And when the changes were made – as usual, too little, too late. This is Potter’s team, remember. No young Callum Marshall on the bench to bring a bit of pace. No decent striker recruited in the summer. If I still had a season ticket, I’d be tempted to send it back. Fortunately my son and I saw the writing on the wall last year after the same fixture and declined the club’s offer of a couple of thousand quid to watch “that”. After more than twenty years regular ‘pilgrimage’. Now it feels like ritual wearing of a hair shirt even just watching on the TV.
It just makes me sad. Every bit as bad as Lopetegui. Make it stop, please. I’d even settle for Mourinho, at least he can drill a defence.