Tottenham vs. West Bromwich Albion: 5 Things We Learned
Here are five things we learned from Tottenham Hotspur's 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion on Boxing Day.
Spurs midfielder Christian Eriksen scored his first Premier League goal with a superb free-kick, only for West Brom centre-back Jonas Olsson to poke home an equaliser two minutes later.
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Evaluating Tim Sherwood
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Tottenham Hotspur manager Tim Sherwood played a 4-4-2 with several oddities.
| GK | Hugo Lloris |
| RB | Kyle Walker |
| RCB | Michael Dawson |
| LCB | Vlad Chiriches |
| LB | Danny Rose |
| RW | Nacer Chadli |
| CM | Lewis Holtby |
| CM | Christian Eriksen |
| LW | Gylfi Sigurdsson |
| CF | Emmanuel Adebayor |
| CF | Roberto Soldado |
He played a naturally inverted winger in Nacer Chadli (a right-footed left-winger) on the right wing as a conventional winger. It should not have surprised Sherwood that Chadli was ineffective throughout the game aside from floating in one dangerous-looking cross.
Sherwood should have started Erik Lamela on the right wing and told him to run at Liam Ridgewell and Diego Lugano.
The midfield pairing of Christian Eriksen and Lewis Holtby provided no stout defence. This is why you saw Zoltan Gera and James Morrison latch onto passes to combine with Matej Vydra.
Eriksen and Holtby totaled for three tackles. If you doubled their output, it still would be two fewer tackles than the amount West Bromwich Albion's Claudio Yacob made (eight).
Then there is the issue of Eriksen being a No. 10 and Holtby lacking the positional discipline to play a central midfield role.
During the 2011-12 season at Schalke when Raul was the deep-lying forward and Holtby was denied the chance to play behind the No. 9, he was slotted into the starting XI as a pivot. But he constantly darted forward, which is the reason why Schalke signed Roman Neustadter in the summer while moving Holtby into the No. 10 role following Raul's departure.
Point being: An Eriksen-Holtby partnership will be overrun by stronger teams, and even on paper, it's not solid.
What Sherwood should have done was start Eriksen with Etienne Capoue.
It's two games in a row that Nabil Bentaleb has been subbed on ahead of the more experienced Capoue, which indicates how much confidence Sherwood has in the teenager. Bentaleb was tidy as he completed 88 percent of his passes.
West Bromwich Albion Got What They Wanted: A Point
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West Bromwich Albion caretaker manager Keith Downing set his team out in a 5-3-1-1, with the primary aim of not conceding against Tottenham Hotspur and hitting them on the counterattack.
| GK | Ben Foster |
| RWB | Steven Reid |
| RCB | Craig Dawson |
| CB | Jonas Olsson |
| LCB | Diego Lugano |
| LWB | Liam Ridgewell |
| DM | Claudio Yacob |
| RCM | Morgan Amalfitano |
| LCM | James Morrison |
| DLF | Zoltan Gera |
| CF | Matej Vydra |
Yes, Spurs had 14 more total shots, but only three were on target—one less than West Brom.
It was one moment of magic from a Christian Eriksen free-kick that was the difference from West Brom snatching three points.
Downing attempted something out of left field (playing with a back five) and it worked. His team responded well to his tactics and went the extra mile—hence West Brom blocking 10 shots.
Yacob, who made eight tackles and completed 93 percent of his passes, was a dominant presence in midfield.
Matej Vydra's Numbers Don't Do Him Justice Against Tottenham Hotspur
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West Bromwich Albion centre-forward Matej Vydra, on loan from Udinese, did not score, did not create a goal and had a pass completion percentage below 50 (44).
Statistically, he was woeful but from a subjective perspective, he was a threat to Tottenham Hotspur.
He made smart runs and received passes from Zoltan Gera and James Morrison in awkward situations for the Spurs players to defend.
An intuitive one-two between Gera and Vydra sent the latter through on goal, only for Spurs centre-back Michael Dawson to disrupt Vydra's shot that led to a routine save from goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
A Morrison through-ball completely caught the Spurs back line off guard and put Vydra right in front of goal, but Lloris bailed Spurs out again.
Vydra, the Championship player of the year after 20 league goals on loan at Watford last season, should get an extended starting run as West Brom's No. 9.
Emmanuel Adebayor-Roberto Soldado Strike Partnership
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Tottenham Hotspur manager Tim Sherwood needs to continue playing an Emmanuel Adebayor-Roberto Soldado strike partnership.
Adebayor created two goalscoring chances, while Soldado took three shots (one was blocked and the other two were off-target).
OK, Soldado has now scored four league goals from 37 shots, and critics will be mentioning Theo Walcott scoring four in his last three games for Arsenal.
You're right: same old story again. No end product.
But Spurs have to keep persevering with Soldado. He is a limited goal-poacher who thrives when the team is built around him. His partnership with Adebayor is still in its infancy.
If Danny Rose can continue playing this cavalier brand of football (he made the most successful crosses of the game: six) plus Kyle Walker raiding the right flank, you would hope Soldado can turn it around in 2014.
Though, time is running out for Soldado.
Referee Anthony Taylor's One Bizarre Decision
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In the 65th minute, referee Anthony Taylor should have waved play on and hoped nobody noticed if he did not want to send West Bromwich Albion's Steven Reid off.
Instead referee Taylor called the foul and then bottled it big-time.
Reid, already on a yellow card, put in a nasty late tackle on Danny Rose that should have been an easy decision for referee Taylor: second yellow (that would have been red in La Liga).
Taylor started talking to Reid, stopped, booked his teammate Jonas Olsson, who had chimed in, and then seemingly forgot to give Reid a second yellow.
What a bizarre sequence of events from the referee.
How obvious does a second bookable foul have to be?
Reid's challenge was late, unnecessary and endangered the welfare of Rose, who was just coming back from injury.
Taylor's mistake denied Tottenham Hotspur a one-man advantage.
To quote his former colleague Graham Poll, as per The Daily Mail: "Accountability is important; credibility is paramount."
Statistics via WhoScored, FFT Stats Zone, Squawka and Transfermarkt.
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