Tottenham’s Wanyama Makes Up for Mistake, Scores Against Hull City
Tottenham failed to draw level against Manchester United at Old Trafford this past Sunday because of Victor Wanyama’s botched header, but he believes he’s made up for his error after scoring.
Since joining from Southampton in the summer and quickly establishing himself as Mauricio Pochettino’s new defensive midfielder, Victor Wanyama has been at the center of Tottenham’s continued success in having the Premier League’s best defense two years in a row.
When Toby Alderweireld went down with injury, while Eric Dier did a good job in filling in for the Belgian center-back, it was Wanyama who managed to disrupt opposing players from entering the final third and challenging Spurs’ backline or Hugo Lloris.
Of course, a lot of the time, a player’s accolades don’t get mentioned as much for reasons unknown. Instead, the focus shifts to mistakes/errors that end up costing a team points.
For instance, Victor Wanyama got a lot of flack for completely missing his header against Manchester United after being left unmarked.
There were other opportunities for Spurs to score an equalizer, but in terms of having the best opportunity to score in the game, Wanyama had it and let it slipped away.
“I’ve been having a tough week,” Wanyama said on Tottenham’s official website. “I had chances against Swansea [City] and then [Manchester] United. I don’t want to see that again.”
More from Match Reports
- From glory, glory to gory, gory, for Mason and Tottenham Hotspur
- Ryan Mason’s Elegant Solution to Tottenham’s Problems
- Tottenham – Defensive needs show over last two games
- Tottenham Hotspur hold off Brighton in much needed 2-1 win
- Mason moves make the difference for lucky Tottenham against Brighton
“The staff have been giving me stick, saying there’s no point [in] me going to the goal because I keep passing back to the keeper and not scoring!”
“For that reason, it was in my heart, I said ‘from this week, I’ll do my finishing’ and I wanted to prove them wrong. I was in the right place to score and went to the bench to tell them off!”
So what went wrong for the Kenyan international and why couldn’t he score against Man United? Besides doing everything right, the 25-year-old didn’t use his head at the most important time. As in, the ball smacked him right in the face which caused Wanyama to miss as bad as he did.
“[…] I did everything well, peeled off to the back post but then I headed the ball with my face, I just mistimed it,” Victor Wanyama explained. “That should have been a goal. I was disappointed. I need to work more in training to make sure I’m more clinical.”
“This goal tonight gives me confidence again. It was an easy goal but I guess it’s about being in the right place at the right time. The finish was easy.”
If last Sunday’s performance was gut-wrenching to come away with no points against Man United, then Wednesday night’s match should ease everyone’s minds for a little while.
Now with Burnley coming up in just three days time, all of the attention will be focusing on how to best attack the 13th-placed club who is having a pretty decent season after being promoted earlier this summer from the Championship.
Next: Vertonghen, Eriksen React to Tottenham's Win Over Hull City
And from the looks of it, the Clarets will likely make life difficult for Spurs once again as Victor Wanyama is predicting another scrappy game this Sunday.
“These are the tough games to play. Burnley make it tough, they don’t let you play and try to stop you.” Wanyama said.
“You saw that against Hull – it was a bit of a scrappy game and come Sunday, it will be the same type of game but we hope we can get three points again.”