A report published today has provided detailed analysis with statistics that will be music to the ears of West Ham United coaches as they work to integrate their ‘rebuilt’ back line with Aaron-Wan Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo and Max Kilman, the summer recruits lining up alongside ‘old hand’ Emerson.
It seems that far from being amongst the major transgressors, West Ham United are second only to Manchester City in their solidity when ‘playing out from the back’ this season!
“Building From the Back” – the strategy brought to the Premier League by Pep Guardiola and Manchester City which has been copied by just about every club from the Premier League down to the lower divisions, is a modern day trend which has its pitfalls. Get it right and the football looks elegant, planned with short triangles of interconnected players passing their way out of the high block and transitioning into attack .
Get it wrong and the results can be horrendous with possession turned over to an attacking side within a few feet of the penalty box, inviting a shot.
It seems now that the long, goal-keeper punt up field is a thing of the past as teams take short goal kicks to waiting defenders on the edge of their own box. Some teams are more proficient at it than others!
Peter Smith at skysports.com produced a fascinating article highlighting the criticism created live on Sky on Saturday when presenter Tim Sherwood ‘couldn’t believe what he was seeing’ as Brighton kept surrendering possession to Chelsea, ultimately resulting in a Chelsea goal.
West Ham have lost possession when playing out from the back a total of four times this season leading to their opposition getting a shot in. Manchester City just twice. The worst culprits Newcastle United have had possession turned over a staggering 15 times leading to shots – and we’ve only had six games. They must be inviting teams to press high against them every week.
Credit needs to go to Mavropanos, Kilman and Todibo who have often been involved in the inception of the moves from the back. Probably too, Alphonse Areola is a better footballer of our two keepers. I’d suggest these stats show areas in which we are quietly improving as coaching and player confidence increases.
The report highlights how disastrous the tactic is when it goes wrong, citing the Chelsea v Brighton game: “Opposition teams had only turned over the ball high up the pitch against Brighton once in the first five matches of this season. Chelsea did it five times, scoring twice from those moments on their way to a 4-2 win.”
The report also highlights ‘defensive errors leading to shots and goals’ where Southampton, bottom of the PL, are ahead of the pack with 0.67 goals per game coming from errors and Manchester United fourth with 0.5 goals per game coming from errors. West Ham are again way down with ‘just’ 0.17 goals per game coming from defensive errors! Now that did surprise me.
Credit to our back line then: More secure and certainly less error-prone than most, and for any opposition coach looking to exploit a Hammers weakness, they’ll have to look elsewhere. Getting on for £100 million well spent then.
These stats are proof of Lopetegui’s tactical failures and support of generally near flawless player performance . The problems are all caused by Lopetegui’s incompetence as a coach . His big team coaching has failed every time as proven by his brief stints with Spain and Real Madrid . Sullivan needs to recognize that he’s been duped with a well rehearsed power point presentation and sack Lopetegui now . Ipswich could easily beat Westham this weekend at which point GOpetegui , GOpetegui .
Typical negative West Ham Fan who wants us to turn into world beaters overnight. Mr Baker needs to apply for the managers job so we can be world class in a couple of weeks….I despair!!!