By Kris Gonzo | Senior West Ham Columnist (Follow on X)
West Ham have scored an extraordinary 21 goals in our opening eight competitive games of the season.
Naturally, most of the attention has fallen on the players putting the ball in the net. But I’ve been interested in something slightly different: where is the progression actually coming from?
Nuno Espírito Santo was never going to be able to low-block and park the bus his way to promotion.
West Ham were always going to have more possession in the Championship than we did last season, which meant Nuno had to expand his style. The question was whether we could actually do anything productive with all that extra possession.
The early numbers provide a fascinating answer.
West Ham’s defenders are driving us forward
Looking at the seven match reports available to me — Watford is excluded from this particular statistical sample — the five West Ham players with the most successful progressive passes are Ollie Scarles, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jarrod Bowen, Max Kilman and Kyle Walker-Peters.
Scarles leads the way with 39 successful progressive passes from 58 attempts, closely followed by Mavropanos with 38 from 53.
Bowen has completed 36 of 46, Kilman 31 of 43 and Walker-Peters 18 from 23.
That’s four defenders in the top five.
I always think passing statistics for centre-backs need some context. They’re usually going to have excellent completion percentages because many of their passes are the easiest ones on the pitch.
Progressive passing is different.
If a centre-back is regularly breaking lines and successfully moving the team significantly closer to the opposition goal, he’s doing much more than simply recycling possession. That said, with the pitch in front of them, the options of a pass-back are lessened for defenders but that didn’t seem to stop us last season.
We’ve already seen that from Kilman, who is increasingly prepared to step forward and help West Ham build through midfield. Mavropanos has clearly been doing it too, and his increasingly aggressive approach on the ball has been noticeable since his remarkable performance against Wolves.
Scarles’ position at the top of the list is perhaps the biggest surprise.
I’d always considered Scarles best attributes to be his defending.
Nuno’s West Ham is having to evolve
None of this means progressive passing explains all 21 goals.
West Ham already look capable of becoming extremely dangerous from set pieces, particularly with the quality Arne Engels is providing. His delivery has already caused problems and his free-kick created Mavropanos’ goal at Bolton.
But we can’t rely on corners and free-kicks to get promoted.
Teams will sit deep against West Ham and there will be plenty of afternoons where we’re expected to dominate the ball and find a way through. We’ve already seen what happens when that doesn’t work, with West Ham struggling to impose themselves at Watford.
That’s why these numbers matter.
Nuno’s West Ham is beginning to look less like a team waiting to counter-attack and increasingly like one learning how to move opponents around, progress the ball and create its own openings.
For a manager associated with sitting deep and hitting teams on the break, that may be one of the most important developments of the season so far.
Funny how stats can be interpreted in different ways. Ollie passes with no pressure up to Solomon. It’s a simple pass. What I want to see him do is overlap and get some quality crosses in the box…
A progressive pass from centre back to winger is surely one of the easiest passes to make and a progressive pass from left back to winger is also surely one of the easiest passes to make. As for centre back to midfielder, midfielder back to centre back, centre back out to winger or advanced left back, happens continuously.
It’s a bit of a red herring as a stat Gonzo. A progressive pass for our defenders would be to pass the ball to anyone in an advanced position over a certain distance. That would include a ball that is often passed to a winger that often comes straight back and then passed across the back line. A pass that the opposition is kind of allowing by being compact or playing a low block. What the stat doesn’t show is if the progressive pass was timed correctly and led to another progressive play. It’s therefore far easier to play a progressive pass as a defender that advances the ball 10 meters closer to the opposition goal with 6 players and 2/3rds of pitch in front of you than it would be for a midfielder with maybe only 1/2 or a 1/3 of a pitch ahead of you and only 2 possible outlets for a credible progressive pass opportunity up against a low block.
Sorry, but this is complete bunkum.
Interesting Gonzo.
I’d like to think that our new left back will contribute significantly to those stats. Reportedly his skill set is ideally suited to breaking lines and skipping past opponents.