WHZ View: Boundless Bowen shows he can be West Ham main man after brilliant WBA display
Jarrod Bowen scored a crucial opener in West Ham’s 2-1 win against West Brom but his overall performance was something to behold on Tuesday.
The Irons opened the scoring through Bowen just before half-time before the Baggies rallied back early in the second half to draw level with a Matheus Pereira goal, before Michail Antonio secured all three points at the London Stadium.
While Antonio will quite rightly claim the plaudits for his match-winning goal Bowen also deserves a lot of credit for his off-the-ball running that helped to pin the Albion defence.
Under David Moyes West Ham are not known as a side that like to dominate the ball and dictate play as evidenced in their lowly possession total of 43.3% in the Premier League this season which ranks them 15th in the division [Wyscout].
However, West Brom (38.3%) are one of the few sides that average less than the Irons and they travelled south with the same mentality on Tuesday evening, shown in the 59% possession Moyes’ side enjoyed.
This meant he needed to adapt and ask for his players to be smarter in their movements and Bowen showed just that.
Signed from Hull in January 2020 Bowen took some time to adapt before exploding to life in this campaign with the goal on Tuesday taking his Premier League total to five this campaign alongside two assists.
As a pacey wide player who likes to get in behind Moyes’ tactic of counter-attacking suits Bowen down to the ground. With Sam Allardyce sending his side out to be organised this was to be a tough task for Bowen but one he coped with admirably as he plotted ways around having less space behind the defence.
As you can see below, West Brom have all but two of their players behind the ball and the defence are sat on the edge of their box.
Bowen make a great run in between centre back and full-back but does not receive the ball; however, this was only in the first five minutes and was just a warning of what was to come.
This next clip sums up the cleverness of Bowen that will be repeated throughout this piece.
Here, he feigns to come short for the throw in before running around Kieran Gibbs for the longer throw from Vladimir Coufal, winning a corner in the process.
With West Brom sat so deep Bowen had to devise a different plan to plot his way round the defence.
In this clip Bowen comes short again and drags Gibbs with him.
Bowen knows he has the pace to beat Gibbs even with the defender having a head start and as soon as the ball is played to Coufal he turns and starts to make his sprint in behind.
Gibbs ends up challenging and it goes out for a throw-in but it is small things like this in a game that help to tire the opposition out and gain some vital yards up the pitch to increase the pressure.
Bowen is a tireless runner and this was not something confined to the first half.
Even after scoring the opener the 24-year-old was determined to inflict more misery on the West Brom defence and he adopted a similar tactic against Gibbs.
In the three clips below you can see the build up of this attack where Bowen again comes short, feigns to receive the ball and then makes a dart on the shoulder of Gibbs before Coufal clips a ball over.
This link up with Coufal down the right hand side is one of the reasons West Ham are having such a successful season and reside in seventh place in the Premier League, eyeing up a European spot this season.
Coufal has won plenty of admirers recently and his Czech compatriot Tomas Soucek has also been one of the leading lights for the Irons this season, but do not overlook the importance of Bowen to this team and the effect his tireless energy has on the opposition.
He even played on the left and centrally later in the game to replace the departed Manuel Lanzini and Antonio respectively as he showed his versatility.
Remarkably this was just the second time Bowen has completed a game that he has started as he has been substituted a record 16 times in the Premier League this season.
No one can blame Moyes as he looks to energise his front line late on in games but perhaps this was a nod to Bowen that he is placing more faith in him.
On the back of this game, who can blame him. Bowen is certainly making his mark and is giving a strong case as to why he should be a permanent fixture in the West Ham XI for the whole 90 minutes.
In other West Ham news, see our exclusive interview with Frank McAvennie on the Premier League striker he is desperate to see signed.