The time for talking, stalking players, chasing shadows and all things transfer window related is almost over. It’s been a blast. Now comes the main event. Just a couple of days now until West Ham United ‘s newly remodelled squad under a new Head Coach get to play their first competitive game as a unit. Several questions are repeatedly raised by supporters as the game gets closer.
What Strategy will Lopetegui adopt?
From pre-season we have seen the high press on occasion, the desire to win back the ball by a dogged midfield which attacks as a group when out of possession. Instead of falling back and defending deeper when faced with a relentless opponent, expect Kilman, Todibo, Wan Bissaka and Emerson (if a back four is the chosen strategy) to push forward with the high line. The midfield without Alvarez is a tricky one but always Lopetegui sets his sides up to stop the opposition playing through them and forcing them wide.
Back Four? Or Three plus Wingbacks?
It seems that our Head Coach often switches to a back three and it is interesting that Wolves fans felt Max Kilman most secure when playing at the centre of a three. Wan Bissaka similarly could play as the right of a three with Kilman and Todibo: Soccer specialists Analytics United have certainly suggested Aaron Wan Bissaka would be well suited to playing the right-hand most of three. Probably start the season in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 but I’m basing that solely on the pre-season, not on any specialist insight!
Possession Based football? Or hit on the break as last Season?
All of the games so far have seen The Irons adopt a more possession-based game. It is something the Head Coach has adopted and insisted on, going back as far as his days with Seville. With the re-modelled midfield we’d hope this will grow throughout the season. Question mark over Alvarez’ stand in for now, would we expect Rodriguez?
From Lopetegui’s Seville days comes a really informative ‘stat’ courtesy of Skysports illustrating the difference in style during his three year tenure so I have copied it here:
In Lopetegui’s three seasons in charge the possession stats were the three furthest right in the graphic above, significantly higher possession than both before and after his period in charge. The club won the Europa league and had three top 4 finishes!
Historical analysis can be a double edged sword though… Wolves fans will tell you the lamentable goal scoring rate under J-lo. Only 23 goals in 23 games, which was one of the lowest in the Premier League in that time. Only two clubs scored fewer. However, this West Ham team is a very different creature to his Wolves squad fighting relegation at that time so I would expect the creativity in our side to smash those kind of figures.
Where will Summerville feature? The Irons have so many attacking options he could well be on the bench!
Who will start as the Striker? Which is more likely? Antonio with Fullkrug off the bench? Or The German to start? Most would guess Antonio to play til 60 minutes.
One other feature to look out for that has been prevalent in pre-season is the diagonal cross field ball from back left to right wing and vice versa. With Bowen on the lookout for balls over the top expect this to be used as a more direct attacking form – with the same used from right to left by James Ward Prowse to Guilherme in pre-season games.
Some welcome changes indeed from what has come before. Hopefully the terms ‘last gasp defending’ and ‘parking the bus’ aren’t part of Lopetegui’s repertoire. Just hope not to see the failed partnership of JWP and Soucek in midfield. Anything else – its fine by me.
I think we’re a different beast to Wolves with regards to scoring goals. How many goals were there in Fullkrug, Bowen, Summerville and Kudus last season ? It has to have been in the region of 70.
For me personally it would be a 4-2-3-1 of;
Areola
AWB. Todibo. Kilman. Emerson
Rodriguez or Alvarez. Paqueta
Bowen. Kudus. Summerville
Fullkrug.
That is exactly what I have been predicting, ongoing at least. We may see a phasing in over the first game or two though.
Alvarez is still injured, AWB not ready
I thought AWB played best part of all the game in the community shield ?
Played the whole pre-season. Probably the fittest player in our squad. But he’s not played for us yet so Loppy might want more than a week to bed him in.
He went off with a concussion injury near the end – I’m guessing there’s more than a week in the required protocol
Ah, I didn’t know that thank you, I only knew that he played most of the game. You may well be right.
didto
ditto
With so many options available to Lopetegui, it will be interesting to see what role Kudus -a player who stood out and frequently was able to make a difference for the team last season- finally gets assigned. If we don’t secure a place for the champions or at least a place for Europe, it might turn out to be hard for West Ham to retain Kudus for the 25/26 season.
…..wait n see.
Not sure how brave Jules will be. If he starts with 3 at the back being AWB, Killman and Todibo we could be in for a nightmare given Edson is out where ideally a double pivot of him and Rodrigues could have worked with the 3 at the back – just my view as I don’t feel Soucek or JWP would work well in that system. I’m confident we’ll get something in this game.. more interested myself to see that we rid ourselves of the sell by date players and possibly bring in a striker (if we can manage to shift Ings).. Controversial, I’d start with Fullkrug with Antonio coming on after 55 – 60 mins to bully hopefully tired defenders (but I think it will be the opposite in reality).. COYI’s !!!