WHZ Tactics: Cresswell v Raphinha will be key as West Ham host Leeds
West Ham left-back Aaron Cresswell will certainly have his hands full on Monday. He’ll goe toe-to-toe with Leeds’ Brazilian superstar Raphinha.
The Hammers defender will be tasked with marking the winger who has had an excellent first season in the Premier League. The Whites’ man-to-man approach means the two will likely be seeing a lot of each other at the London Stadium.
Raphinha, 24, has scored five times in the top-flight and assisted five goals for his teammates as Leeds continue to push for a top-half finish.
He’s performed very well over the past few weeks, in particular, his man of the match heroics away to Newcastle in January. The attacker is unfortunate to not have more assists to his name. Three times he put the ball on a plate for Liam Cooper against Wolves, but the Leeds captain was unable to convert.
Raphinha is by far Leeds’ biggest attacking threat and, according to WyScout, is the 11th best ‘lateral attacker’ in the top-flight. This is based on his attacking stats. He’s a dynamic player with excellent ball control, is very skilful and likes to take players on.
His 106 attempted dribbles rank within the top 25 in the Premier League. The Brazilian has had 73 touches in the opposing penalty area and is successful with 33.96% of his crosses. He loves to get on the ball and make things happen, but it didn’t work out that way for him in the reverse fixture.
When the two sides met at Elland Road Raphinha had a quiet evening by his standards. The winger was limited to just one attempt at goal which was off target and lost possession 20 times.
Cresswell, on the other hand, had a fantastic evening for West Ham. He assisted goals for Tomas Soucek and Angelo Ogbonna as we left with a 2-1 victory. Defensively he played well too, making six interceptions and eight recoveries.
He has benefitted greatly from Moyes’ three at the back system. Cresswell has spent a lot of time playing as a left-sided centre back, with license to bomb forward when we are attacking. It’s seen him pick up eight assists this season, his best return.
The Englishman, 31, had received criticism for a string of under-par performances when Pellegrini was in charge. He looks revitalised under Moyes, though, and his defensive performances have improved greatly. Cresswell has become much better at pressing early and getting tighter to his man, which will be important against Raphinha.
Below is an example of this. Cresswell spots ball being played wide to Doherty and is already on the move.
He doesn’t allow Doherty to advance down the line, or make a pass inside to Gareth Bale. Doherty is forced back and becomes crowded.
Cresswell is able to win back possession. We go on to score from winning the ball back here, with Lingard putting us 2-0 against Spurs. It’s also important because this is at the beginning of the half. At Elland Road, we began slowly and went 1-0 down as a result. We look to have improved on this, Cresswell in particular.
If we are to get a result against Leeds then we need to get in their faces like this. Cresswell more so than anyone, as he will have to deal with their best creative player.
Raphinha is most effective when given time and space to run at defenders, he has the ability to pass them with ease. Cresswell will have to be very smart in the way he deals with him, but recent performances give us hope he’ll be up to the task.
In other West Ham news, here is our predicted XI to face Leeds on Monday.