West Ham should do this more often after success v Leicester – Tactics
West Ham were perhaps a tad fortunate to rescue a point away at Leicester City on Sunday as Craig Dawson’s upper arm saved David Moyes’ blushes.
Youri Tielemans and Ricardo Pereira gave the Foxes the lead as they overturned Jarrod Bowen’s opener before the stoppage-time equaliser saw the game end 2-2.
Despite the sub-par performance, there is one thing that Moyes will have been delighted to see and he should be trying to benefit from it more often.
It was Bowen’s early strike that will have pleased the Scotsman in the dugout, not because it was a fancy passing move, but because it was so simple in its design and executed to perfection.
It had been a game of little chances up until the 25-year-old broke the deadlock for West Ham with a clinical finish past Kasper Schmeichel.
It all came, however, from the simplest of long balls from defensive that caught the Foxes completely unaware.
Dawson laid the ball off to Issa Diop and as it rolls towards him, he looks up and makes eye contact with Bowen as if the move is pre-meditated off the training ground.
James Justin might not have been able to see Diop wind up to make the pass which gave Bowen a handy head-start.
As the ball hits Diop’s foot, Bowen already knows roughly where he wants it to go and he gets on his bike before any of the Foxes backline can turn around.
Justin is still travelling forwards at this point and only Daniel Amartey seems to be ready to trackback.
By the time the ball has bounced a couple of times in behind the defence, Bowen’s exceptional pace has left Justin, Amartey and Caglar Soyunuc in the dust and gives him all the time in the world to pick his spot.
And you can’t give a man in this kind of form any time at all and it will have come as no surprise to anyone to see the net bulge when he took his shot.
Route one isn’t a tactic you see deployed much anymore with playing out from the back being “in fashion” at the moment but defenders are rarely ready for it if you only do it every now and then.
With the pace of Bowen and Michail Antonio, the Hammers have a real weapon in their armoury that they need to fire far more often.
In other West Ham news, the Irons are in the race to sign a defender from Serie A with the club willing to listen to offers.