West Ham defender Winston Reid has warned his fellow team mates to be extra wary of Tottenham’s top goalscorer Harry Kane when they face Spurs at the London stadium on Friday night.
The England striker scored two late goals in the Hammers’ 3-2 defeat at White Hart Lane back in November, and Reid has told the club’s official programme (via WHUFC.com) that they must limit Kane’s chances in front of goal so he can’t punish them with his lethal finishing ability:
“When we played them at White Hart Lane, he didn’t have a shot on target for 89 minutes, then out of nowhere he had scored a penalty and another goal from open play and they had won the game. That’s the type of player he is and that’s a positive for Spurs, because he doesn’t need a lot of chances to score his goals.”
Reid has revealed the tactics he will be employing against Kane tomorrow evening. The New Zealand international believes you must mark the striker tightly and prevent him from turning and facing goal:
“He generally very rarely misses the target, so with players like that, you need to try to keep them with their back to goal for as much time as possible to make it difficult for them to score.”
West Ham will go into the game boosted by successive clean sheets. The Hammers have had issues in defence all season but with the experience of Reid, James Collins and Jose Fonte in a back three for the past two matches, it seems like manager Slaven Bilic has settled on a formula which gives the team some added solidity. It will be needed when they face the league’s second top scorers tomorrow.
