Danny Murphy has revealed the lengths to which Fulham altered their game plan against Tottenham to expose struggling goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.
A terrible error from Gomes gifted Fulham the lead, and his lack of command in the penalty area contributed to their second goal.
And Murphy, the former Tottenham midfielder, says Fulham’s 2-1 win was largely the result of detailed preparations ahead of the game.
“We did 20 minutes’ training specific to Gomes on Friday,” he said. “We changed our set-plays completely for the game. We nearly scored off two of them [corners]. We basically aimed to get corners with pace and under the bar.
“We had our two big men near him, [Brede] Hangeland standing near him. Konchesky was coming over from left back to do the inswinger, which we don’t usually do. Jimmy [Bullard] was putting them under the bar, which we don’t usually do. Usually, the nearer the keeper you put them, they come and grab them.”
Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, said. “We put a lot of people closer to goal on corners so you could argue that, yes, we targeted the keeper,” he said. “We realised that’s not his real strength but we do that with a lot of teams.”
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, admits he is forced to persevere with Gomes until the transfer window opens in January.
