WHZ View: Bowen running off the ball could be key in West Ham v Wolves
West Ham forward Jarrod Bowen will be rubbing his hands at the thought of facing Wolves on Monday at Molineux.
The Englishman had one of his best Hammers performances in the reverse fixture at the London Stadium. Bowen scored twice in our 4-0 win and was a menace to their backline throughout.
Having Ryan Fredericks play wingback gave Bowen much more freedom to get up the pitch and harm Wolves. He spent most of his time in their half, winning possession five times and having three attempts at goal.
In all honesty, it’s the sort of performance that we have seen from Bowen for quite some time. That is, of course, until last weekend against Arsenal. For the opening half-hour anyway, Bowen was back to his best and the Gunners couldn’t handle him.
He would have been made well aware of the threat of Kieran Tierney. Arsenal have had a lot of success down the left flank this season, so it was crucial that Bowen pressed from the front.
He was at it from the off, as can be seen below. Bowen picks up a loose ball in the centre of the pitch and lays it off to Vladimir Coufal. Instantly, he’s on his bike.
He turns and races towards the space left by the Arsenal full-back. His movement gets us up the pitch very quickly and gets us on the attack.
Coufal holds up play a bit, and maybe plays the pass a second too late. But this is good work from Bowen, early on too. It set the tempo for the opening phases of play and his directness put us on top.
Seeing him run in behind like this with confidence is significant ahead of the Wolves clash. It’s this exact attitude that got us the opening goal at the London Stadium.
As captured below, Antonio is fouled in the centre circle. Bowen is alert and waiting to run in behind.
Pablo Fornals spots him early and plays a quick freekick into the path of Bowen. He’s a very strong dribbler, and Romain Saiss isn’t sure which way to send him.
Fatally, Saiss shows him inside and Bowen set us off with a 1-0 lead. He was a handful for Wolves on the night, going on to pick up his second goal after half time.
Bowen is a very clever footballer who is aware of his surroundings. He scored a similar goal to this against Arsenal in our last game by staying alert for the quick freekick. Everyone was static, but he was quick to get in behind again and give us a two-goal lead.
It was excellent to see him back to his best last weekend, right in time for the Premier League run-in. With Wolves likely to line up with a back three and four midfielders, there will be plenty of room down the channels for Bowen to exploit.
Hopefully, he’ll be raring to go on Monday and maintain our push for Europe.
In other West Ham news, we expect David Moyes to make this big change to the XI to face Wolves on Monday.