View: How Moyes transformed West Ham form to secure two big wins v Wolves & Leicester
There was a lot of doom and gloom surrounding West Ham fans as the new Premier League season kicked off last month and after an opening day defeat to Newcastle, the feeling was totally justified.
David Moyes’ men had more possession, more shots on target, completed more passes and even made more tackles than Newcastle as they lost 2-0 at the London Stadium [WhoScored] on September 12. It was just a total lack of quality that failed to get them anywhere against a rigid Steve Bruce 4-4-2.
Following the disappointing defeat to the Magpies, West Ham faced a tricky away clash at Arsenal, in which they lost 2-1.
It was an expected result. Arsenal have started the season well and made a few good additions to their squad over the summer – something which cannot be said about the Hammers.
However, West Ham did look a bit better against the Gunners. According to stats by UnderStat, West Ham’s xG against Newcastle was a lowly 0.86 but at the Emirates, their xG improved to 2.06. For that match, Arsenal’s xG was 1.33, which suggests that the Hammers were perhaps the better team and deserved more than to return to East London empty-handed.
Moyes opted to change formation for the trip to Arsenal. He lined up with a more defensive 5-4-2 after going for a 4-2-3-1 against Bruce’s side. The back-five, which saw Aaron Cresswell play as a left-sided centre-back, continued for wins over Wolves and Leicester, which saw the Irons score seven times and concede zero.
We’ve singled out Cresswell because his role took the biggest transformation in those matches as Moyes, despite self-isolating at home due to a positive COVID-19 test, switch him from playing as an outright left-back to one who sits more centrally when defending, but still powers forward when West Ham are in possession.
Below is an image of Cresswell’s heatmap for his display against Leicester at the weekend [WyScout]. As you can see, Cresswell was a lot more central than a usual left-back but in the opposition’s half of the pitch, he was out wide almost the whole time.
That explains why the former Tranmere and Ipswich full-back managed to assist two goals in the 3-0 win over Leicester. Stats by WyScout show that Cresswell has also set up more shots in each game since the defeat to Newcastle, when he only managed one.
As you can see in the image below, West Ham’s back-three of Fabian Balbuena, Angelo Ogbonna and Cresswell spread out to resemble the left-hand side of a back-four when they were in possession of the ball with Cresswell taking on the role of a left-back.
New signing Vladimir Coufal dropped in at right-back whenever this happened, which helps the Hammers stay tight when they are faced with counter-attacks – something which a side like Leicester loves to do with Jamie Vardy up front.
Vardy was kept quiet by this change of play at the back. The 33-year-old Foxes forward had just one shot of goal against the Hammers after averaging two per match in his opening three Premier League appearances.
It will be interesting to see how West Ham keep this up and whether or not other teams learn how to counter their new style of play.
Not many people give Moyes credit when it’s due but in this case, he definitely needs to take more plaudits than he’s getting.
In other West Ham news, the Hammers have eyed up Bournemouth forward Joshua King.