WHZ View: West Ham v Aston Villa – where can the game be won?
West Ham will aim to get back to winning ways when they travel to Villa Park on Wednesday evening.
The Hammers suffered a 3-1 defeat at home to Liverpool on Sunday, their first of 2021. They’ll know they need a win to stay above tomorrows opponents Aston Villa.
David Moyes’ men currently lead the chasing pack to the top four. We’re fifth in the table but are just six points ahead of Leeds United down in twelfth.
It’s a massive clash in the race for Europe. With that in mind, West Ham Zone have looked at potential areas where the match can be won for the Hammers.
In the air
Tomas Soucek has won 230 headers in the league this season, four of his seven goals have come from his head [WyScout]. He’s out on his own in this regard – Chris Wood of Burnley is second with 183 headers won.
This will be a big test for Soucek however, as he’s coming up against two men very good in the air.
Kourtney Hause and Tyrone Mings make up two of the top three for percentage of headers won in the top-flight, at 73.81% and 73.61%.
That said, two-headed goals were enough to give us a 2-1 victory in November.
Get balls into the box early
These goals both came within minutes of either restart. We started both halves very quickly and caught Villa napping, and ultimately it won us all three points.
Aaron Cresswell and Vladimir Coufal are in the top 15 players for attempted crosses in the league. Between them, the full-backs have put 134 crosses in this season. They’ve averaged a 33.33% and 32.39% success rate each.
Cresswell has now registered six assists in the league, the most for a defender. A man reborn under Moyes, he’s crucial to our attacking play.
Patience
Villa like to press teams and have a lot of the ball in their matches. At the London Stadium, they had 66% possession and registered 16 shots at goal.
If they’re going to press, we need to be patient and resilient at the back. Despite the last two performances, we’ve been very solid in defence this season and effective in winning possession back.
As it stands, Ogbonna has made the eighth-most interceptions in the league with 127 overall. Rice, 113, and Cresswell, 112, also make it into the top 20 players.
Once winning possession, we have pace and quality up top in Bowen, Benrahma and Antonio to punish and take chances. We definitely have individuals capable of playing in this manner.
In other West Ham news, was the January transfer window a good one for the Hammers?