Spurs 1-2 West Ham | Ange’s verdict: “We didn’t show conviction in both boxes”

Ange Postecoglou’s sense of disappointment was tangible after our 2-1 loss against West Ham in the Premier League at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday night.

Once again, we started well, took the lead through Cuti Romero’s header on 11 minutes and dominated the first half. But, once again, like Villa last time out at home, we didn’t capitalise on that dominance by scoring a second goal.

Jarrod Bowen fired West Ham level on 52 minutes and James Ward-Prowse made us pay the ultimate price 20 minutes later when Destiny Udogie underhit a backpass to Guglielmo Vicario, who beat Bowen to the ball but could do nothing as Ward-Prowse slotted into the empty net. Despite racking up 22 attempts at goal, we couldn’t find an equaliser.

Asked on our Review Show for his thoughts, Ange responded: “Not good enough, another game where we certainly had enough dominance to win it, and another game where we didn’t show the conviction to do that in box boxes and didn’t get the outcome we wanted.

“If you don’t take your chances, if you don’t show conviction, if you don’t defend your goal with a desperation that other teams do… and credit to West Ham, they did, we didn’t and we didn’t have the determination and conviction when did create those chances to finish them off. In the Premier League, you’ll get punished for that.”

It was put to Ange on the Review Show and in his post-match press conference that we were good in the first half and didn’t get the rewards for that. He told us: “We weren’t good in the first half, and we have to get away from that. I don’t believe that. That’s part of the problem.

“Good football means you win games and I’m not here to play good football, I’m here to win.

“That’s been the clear message from day one to the players, that we play this style of football not to get pats on the back, we play this style of football to win games and bring success to this football club.

“You need to embrace that. I’m not saying it’s easy, but that’s where we need to be. The goals we conceded were very poor, so there is stuff we need to work on, but at the same time, if we’re creating so many chances, very similar to the Villa game, no point saying we missed a load of chances and we’re unlucky, no, if we’re missing chances, there is stuff we need to work on.”