31/03/2014
20:00
Stadium of Light
Sunderland vs West Ham United
Goalscorers:
0-1 Andy Carroll 9'
0-2 Mohamed Diamé 50'
1-2 Adam Johnson 65'
Analysis
Hooray! We're (pretty much) safe!
It wasn't particularly pretty, but it was definitely a step up from Wednesday night.
I'm going to dive straight in to talk about our attacking approach, and how there was so much more of it than last week. At the Boleyn against Hull, there was no desire to get forward, no ability to keep the ball, no urge to create chances, and certainly no intent to score goals. Okay, so last night we ended on the back foot, but we showed so much more at the Stadium of Light than last week.
Possibly the best stat to summarise the difference between the two performances, is that we attempted 24 take ons last night, compared to just 12 last week.
Stewart Downing was at the fore of this increased intent, as shown by the image below. The summer signing attempted 9 take ons, beating his man on 6 occasions. as you can see below, Downing attempted to get down the flank to the byline to cross on several occasions, popping up on both flanks to trouble the Sunderland defence.
Despite showing this increased attacking ability, West Ham also had a fair amount of defending to do on the night. This was probably to be expected, considering the magnitude of the game from a Sunderland perspective.
They threw everything at us towards the end, with goalkeeper Vito Mannone appearing in the box on a few occasions (surprisingly early in the game too). But everything they thew at us was comfortably dealt with, particularly by the excellent James Tomkins.
The academy graduate has come in for some stick in the last few weeks, but put in a top performance against Sunderland. Tomkins won 100% of his tackles, 100% of his aerial duels, made one block, and 8 clearances. He also showed a composure on the ball, and a willingness to pass the ball out of defence (despite recording 9 long balls, the majority were passes to the flanks rather than aimless hoofs).
The image below displays his heat map. As you can see he was busy in his own box, but was also comfortable to push forward and hold a high line during the opening stages of the game.
Despite a number of noteworthy performances (Downing, Tomkins, Noble), the night probably belongs to Andy Carroll. The big Geordie is loathed by Sunderland fans for his Tyneside roots, and last night he gave them something to hate him for.
Carroll bagged himself the opening goal with a towering header at the back post, and also created Mo Diamé's winner (his fourth assist in 9 games this season).
And Carroll gave Sunderland's trio of central defenders an absolutely torrid time all game. He won 7 out of 10 aerial duels, whilst Vergini, Brown and O'Shea managed to win 0 out of a combined 6 duels. Carroll also created two chances (one of which was converted by Diamé), had four attempts on goal (two on target), and actually attempted more passes than any West Ham player other than midfield metronome Mark Noble.
The image below shows Carroll's passes from last night. Although he only completed 63% of his passes, you can see that he was a constant thorn in the side of the Sunderland defence, and was a perfect link man for the West Ham midfield.
There is still work to be done before the boos of last week are to be completely eradicated, but this was step in the right direction. Whereas the gameplan has seem non existent in recent weeks, there was a cohesive identity about West Ham last night.
We did go long, we did cross the ball, we did defend doggedly. But we also passed on the floor, played out from the back, ran at fullbacks and created chances.
This was a much improved performance that delivered exactly what was needed. Now let's hope we can kick on from here to the end of the season.
General Play
5-3-2 Formation 4-2-3-1
(21) Vito Mannone - Adrián (-30)
(-3) Phil Bardsley - Guy Demel (8)
(0) Santiago Vergini - James Tomkins (8)
(-6) John O'Shea - Winston Reid (-8)
(-2) Wes Brown - George McCartney (9)
(11) Marcos Alonso - Mark Noble (30)
(24) Liam Bridcutt - Matthew Taylor (7)
(-5) Lee Cattermole - Stewart Downing (26)
(15) Ki Sung-Yueng - Kevin Nolan (-23)
(11) Fabio Borini - Mohamed Diamé (19)
(8) Connor Wickham - Andy Carroll (44)
(51) Adam Johnson - Pablo Armero (-15)
(26) Craig Gardner - Roger Johnson (2)
(-8) Ignacio Scocco - Antonio Nocerino (-4)
Best Performance
(51) Adam Johnson - Andy Carroll (44)
Worst Performance
(-8) Ignacio Scocco - Adrián (-30)
59% Possession 41%
430 Passes Attempted 268
Liam Bridcutt 77 Most Attempted 52 Mark Noble
80% Passing Accuracy 72%
80% In Opp. Half 71%
Ki Sung-Yueng 92% Best Accuracy (min. 15 passes) 88% Mark Noble
55 Long Balls 63
13% % Long Balls 24%
Wes Brown 9 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 9 James Tomkins
Most Frequent Pass Combination
Vergini to Bridcutt 14 - 14 Noble to Downing
8 Aerial Duels Won 14
36% Success 64%
Connor Wickham 2 Most Won 7 Andy Carroll
Liam Bridcutt 88 Most Touches 66 Stewart Downing
Offensive Play
26 Attempts on Goal 11
7 On Target 6
14 Off Target 4
5 Blocked 1
58% From Outside the Box 45%
Marcos Alonso 7 Most Shots 4 Andy Carroll
19 Key Passes 10
Liam Bridcutt 5 Most Key Passes 4 Mark Noble
34 Crosses 17
Marcos Alonso 8 Most Attempted 6 Stewart Downing
3 Successful Crosses 6
9% Success 35%
Marcos Alonso 2 Most Successful 2 Stewart Downing
10 Take Ons Attempted 24
6 Successful Take Ons 11
60% Success 46%
Phil Bardsley 2 Most Take Ons 6 Stewart Downing
Defensive Play
40 Tackles Attempted 26
23 Successful Tackles 10
58% Success 38%
Santiago Vergini 8 Most Tackles 3 Mohamed Diamé
23 Clearances 53
Wes Brown 8 Most Clearances 9 Winston Reid
5 Interceptions 5
Marcos Alonso 4 Most Clearances 2 Guy Demel
1 Shot Blocks 5
Phil Bardsley 1 Most Shot Blocks 1 Antonio Nocerino
Discipline
11 Fouls 14
Connor Wickham 2 Most Fouls 4 Andy Carroll
2 Yellow Cards 4
Sunderland: Marcos Alonso, Connor Wickham
West Ham United: Mark Noble, Kevin Nolan, Winston Reid, Adrián
0 Red Cards 0
Sunderland:
West Ham United:
Head to Heads
Vito Mannone vs Adrián
2 Goals Conceded 1
4 Saves 5
3 Claims 1
3 Successful Claims 1
100% Success 100%
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
Santiago Vergini 6 Most Passed To 9 Andy Carroll
Santiago Vergini 3 Most Passes From 1 James Tomkins
Marcos Alonso vs Guy Demel
2 Aerial Duels 2
2 Duels Won 2
100% Success 100%
7 Tackles Attempted 0
3 Tackles Completed 0
43% Success 0%
2 Clearances 8
4 Interceptions 2
0 Blocks 0
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
33 Passes Attempted 24
25 Successful 15
76% Success 63%
8 Crosses Attempted 2
2 Successful 1
25% Success 50%
2 Chances Created 0
7 Attempts on Goal 0
2 On Target 0
0 Goals 0
Liam Bridcutt 8 Most Passed To 9 Stewart Downing
Adam Johnson 8 Most Passes From 7 Stewart Downing
Liam Bridcutt vs Mark Noble
77 Passes Attempted 52
68 Successful 46
88% Success 88%
5 Key Passes 4
0 Assists 1
2 Attempts on Goal 0
1 On Target 0
0 Goals 0
0 Take Ons Attempted 1
0 Take Ons Successful 1
0% Success 100%
6 Tackles Attempted 5
3 Tackles Completed 3
50% Success 60%
1 Clearances 1
0 Interceptions 0
0 Blocks 0
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
Connor Wickham 10 Most Passed To 14 Stewart Downing
Santiago Vergini 14 Most Passes From 6 Matthew Taylor
Connor Wickham vs Andy Carroll
3 Attempts on Goal 4
1 On Target 2
0 Goals 1
1 Key Passes 2
0 Assists 1
33 Passes Attempted 35
26 Successful 22
79% Success 63%
0 Take Ons 2
0 Sucecssful Take Ons 0
0% Success 0%
5 Aerial Duels 10
2 Duels Won 7
40% Success 70%
Liam Bridcutt 6 Most Passed To 8 Stewart Downing
Liam Bridcutt 10 Most Passes From 9 Adrián
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