West Ham United 2 - 1 Manchester City

25/10/2014

15:00

Boleyn Ground

West Ham United 2 - 1 Manchester City

1-0 Morgan Amalfitano 21'

2-0 Diafra Sakho 75'

2-1 David Silva 77'

 Analysis 

West Ham United 2, Manchester City 1.

Erm... What?

Positives

Let's be honest, pretty much everything in Saturday's game was positive.

There were individual performances all over the park, we defended wonderfully, we didn't lose our attacking intent, we took the Champions and we beat them. It wasn't a smash and grab 11 men behind the ball job either. We just plain beat them.

First thing's first, the defence.

Before the game, I said that the way to beat City is to defend with your life. Block everything, throw yourself into tackles, and just get the ball away. On Saturday afternoon, we did exactly that.

We put in 37 attempted tackles. We made 38 clearances. We made 18 interceptions. We made 20 blocks (passes, crosses and shots).

The image below shows ours tackles (left) and blocks (right). We only won 32% of our tackles, but that isn't really important against a side like City. It's not about winning possession back a lot of the time, it's more about disrupting their flow and stopping them from playing. By flying into tackles everywhere, we simply refused to allow City to build anything positive going forward for large periods of the game.

http://epl.squawka.com/west-ham-united-vs-manchester-city/

What was particularly pleasing about Saturday's game though, was that we didn't just shut up shop and defend with 11 men behind the ball. We know that we are a side capable of defending against the best sides - remember the clean sheet against Chelsea last year? - but against City we actually got forward and attacked with menace too.

It was incredibly refreshing to see the side continue doing what they have been successful with in recent weeks. Enner Valencia and Diafra Sakho were their usual energetic and dangerous selves, whilst Carl Jenkinson and Aaron Cresswell got forward with regularity down the flanks, to provide some serious offensive threat.

The image below shows the chances created by the side, and our attempted take ons. We attempted 10 take ons on the day, showing our intent throughout.

Negatives

It's hard to be negative about such a fantastic performance, but there were some areas of improvement. 

This was the performance that saw our worst pass completion record by some way. We only completed 64% of our passes against City, which saw us struggle to retain possession and give our defence a rest from the waves of City attacks.

The image below shows the pass completion of each of the 14 Hammers on the day. The midfield all posted reasonable figures, but all of the defenders completed less than 60% of their passes, and look at Diafra Sakho on just 13% (Kevin Nolan didn't attempt any passes, hence his 0%).

At the end of the day, our pass completion doesn't matter if we create and convert chances. But having a better passing accuracy would enable the defence and Adrián to have a bit more of a rest against the top opposition.

Key Player

We had a number of stand out performances on Saturday lunchtime. Really, you could pick almost all of them out as top performers, but there was one man who stood out for me.

Alex Song put in the sort of performance that his reputation said he would when he arrived in East London. The Cameroonian has taken a few games to really get into his stride, but he really arrived on Saturday.

Song was the calming influence we needed in midfield, hassling the opposition players, keeping possession and just running the game.

He completed 77% of his passes (4th best in the side), completed one take on, made two interceptions, blocked two passes and blocked one shot. He also put in a whopping 9 attempted tackles, winning 3 of them.

In truth, the stats don't really do justice to what was an excellent midfield performance from the #30.

The image below shows his heat map and attempted tackles. You can clearly see that he was everywhere on the day, a true box to box performance.

Conclusion

Saturday's performance must go down as one of the best day's of Sam Allardyce's reign.

Not only did we get an excellent result against the league champions, but it was the manner in which we got the win. We basically out performed one of the best sides in Europe in both attack and defence.

It doesn't really get much better than that.

 General Play 

WhoScored Performance Rating

4-1-2-1-2 Formation 4-4-2

(7.3) Adrián - Joe Hart (6.3)

(6.4) Carl Jenkinson - Pablo Zabaleta (6.8)

(7.6) James Collins - Vincent Kompany (6.5)

(7.1) Winston Reid - Eliaquim Mangala (7.8)

(6.9) Aaron Cresswell - Gael Clichy (6.2)

(6.8) Mark Noble - Jesus Navas (7.3)

(7.3) Morgan Amalfitano - Yaya Toure (7.6)

(6.9) Alex Song - Fernando (6.7)

(6.7) Stewart Downing - David Silva (8.2)

(8.4) Diafra Sakho - Edin Dzeko (5.9)

(7.7) Enner Valencia - Sergio Aguero (7.1)

(6.9) Cheikhou Kouyaté - Stevan Jovetic (6.3)

(5.9) Carlton Cole - James Milner (6.7)

(6.1) Kevin Nolan - Aleksandar Kolarov (6.3)

Best Performance

(8.4) Diafra Sakho - David Silva (8.2)

Worst Performance

(5.9) Carlton Cole - Edin Dzeko (5.9)

37% Possession 63%

208 Passes Attempted 537

Mark Noble 32 Most Attempted 96 Yaya Toure

64% Passing Accuracy 82%

47% In Opp. Half 74%

Mark Noble 91% Best Accuracy (min. 15 passes) 98% Fernando

47 Long Balls 53

23% % Long Balls 10%

Aaron Cresswell 12 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 12 Yaya Toure

Most Frequent Pass Combination

Noble to Song 8 - 21 Silva to Toure

 14 Aerial Duels Won 25 

 36% Success 64% 

Diafra Sakho 9 Most Won 6 Eliaquim Mangala

Mark Noble 47 Most Touches 112 Yaya Toure

 Offensive Play 

12 Attempts on Goal 21

4 On Target 5

6 Off Target 11

2 Blocked 5

25% From Outside the Box 48%

Enner Valencia 4 Most Shots 7 Sergio Aguero

7 Chances Created 14

Aaron Cresswell 2 Most Chances Created 4 David Silva

19 Crosses 23

Aaron Cresswell 5 Most Attempted 11 Jesus Navas

2 Successful Crosses 10

11% Success 43%

Alex Song 1 Most Successful 6 Jesus Navas

10 Take Ons Attempted 19

7 Successful Take Ons 15

70% Success 79%

Morgan Amalfitano 2 Most Successful Take Ons 3 Sergio Aguero

 Defensive Play 

37 Tackles Attempted 32

12 Successful Tackles 13

32% Success 41%

Alex Song 3 Most Successful Tackles 4 Eliaquim Mangala

38 Clearances 41

James Collins 12 Most Clearances 13 Eliaquim Mangala

15 Interceptions 16

Winston Reid 3 Most Interceptions 2 Eliaquim Mangala

5 Shot Blocks 2

James Collins 3 Most Shot Blocks 1 Eliaquim Mangala

 Discipline 

 12 Fouls 14 

Alex Song 5 Most Fouls 6 Vincent Kompany

2 Yellow Cards 1

West Ham United:  Morgan Amalfitano,  Alex Song  

Manchester City:  Vincent Kompany   

0 Red Cards 0

West Ham United:     

Manchester City:     

 Head to Heads 

Adrián vs Joe Hart

7.3 WhoScored Rating 6.3

1 Goals Conceded 2

4 Saves 2

  

1 Claims 3

1 Successful Claims 3

100% Success 100%

29 Total Distribution 36

9 Accurate 18

31% Success 50%

13 Goal Kicks 9

4 Accurate 5

31% Success 56%

  

0 Throw Outs 5

0 Accurate 4

0% Success 80%

6 Kick from Hand 1

1 Accurate 0

17% Success 0%

  

10 Other 21

4 Accurate 9

40% Success 43%

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0

0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

Diafra Sakho 6 Most Passed To 5 Gael Clichy

Winston Reid 4 Most Passes From 8 Eliaquim Mangala

Winston Reid vs Vincent Kompany

7.1 WhoScored Rating 6.5

4 Aerial Duels 4

1 Duels Won 4

25% Success 100%

  

3 Tackles Attempted 5

2 Tackles Completed 0

67% Success 0%

  

10 Clearances 9

3 Interceptions 1

1 Shot Blocks 0

  

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0

0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

  

19 Passes Attempted 46

11 Successful 36

58% Success 78%

  

0 Crosses Attempted 0

0 Successful 0

0% Success 0%

  

0 Chances Created 0

  

0 Attempts on Goal 1

0 On Target 0

0 Goals 0

  

Adrián 4 Most Passed To 9 Yaya Toure

Aaron Cresswell 2 Most Passes From 6 Pablo Zabaleta

Alex Song vs Yaya Toure

6.9 WhoScored Rating 7.6

30 Passes Attempted 96

23 Successful 85

77% Success 89%

  

0 Chances Created 2

0 Assists 0

  

0 Attempts on Goal 7

0 On Target 1

0 Goals 0

  

1 Take Ons Attempted 4

1 Take Ons Successful 3

100% Success 75%

  

1 Crosses Attempted 0

1 Successful 0

100% Success 0%

  

9 Tackles Attempted 4

3 Tackles Completed 2

33% Success 50%

  

0 Clearances 1

2 Interceptions 0

1 Shot Blocks 0

  

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0

0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

  

Mark Noble 7 Most Passed To 19 David Silva

Mark Noble 8 Most Passes From 21 David Silva

Diafra Sakho vs Sergio Aguero

8.4 WhoScored Rating 7.1

4 Attempts on Goal 6

1 On Target 1

1 Goals 1

  

37 Touches 39

8 in Penalty Area 16

21% % Penalty Area 41%

1 Chances Created 0

0 Assists 0

  

15 Passes Attempted 21

2 Successful 16

13% Success 76%

  

2 Take Ons 4

0 Successful Take Ons 3

0% Success 75%

  

19 Aerial Duels 1

9 Duels Won 0

47% Success 0%

  

Enner Valencia 1 Most Passed To 8 David Silva

Adrián 6 Most Passes From 9 David Silva

Burnley 1 -3 West Ham United

18/10/2014

15:00

Turf Moor

Burnley vs West Ham United

 Goalscorers: 

0-1 Diafra Sakho 49'

0-2 Enner Valencia 54'

1-2 George Boyd 60'

1-3 Carlton Cole 70'

 Analysis 

I said in my match preview that this was the sort of the game that a top half side should be winning comfortably, and one that a bottom half struggler would accept a draw from.

I guess that makes us a top half side then.

Positives

There were a lot of positives from the game on Saturday: Diafra Sakho continuing his wonderful goalscoring record, Enner Valencia's quite incredible header for the second, or the way both Carl Jenkinson and Aaron Cresswell put in top notch performances in attack and defence.

But what I want to look at is the way in which our midfield operated.

On paper, the midfield is a 1-2-1 with Mark Noble sitting at the base and  Stewart Downing operating at the tip. What happened on Saturday was more of a 2-2, with Noble and Alex Song teaming up to put in the hard yards and recycle possession. 

Between them, Noble and Song completed 89% of their 119 passes, created 3 goalscoring opportunities, won 36% of their 11 tackles, made 3 interceptions, 3 clearances and blocked 3 shots. The pair provided a platform that enabled the rest of the team to operate efficiently.

Particularly, their presence in the middle of the park allowed the fullbacks to push on and join the attack, knowing that they would be covered by their midfield colleagues.

The image below shows Noble and Song's combined heat map. As you can see, the pair put in a huge amount of effort to not just patrol the middle of the park, but to also get out wide and offer increased solidity. You'll notice that neither ventured particularly far forward with any regularity, but this wasn't the part of the game they were there to get involved in.

http://epl.squawka.com/burnley-vs-west-ham-united/

The impressive performances of Song and Noble enabled the other midfield pair to float around and pick out pockets of space from which they could hurt the opposition.

Downing and Morgan Amalfitano both played almost with free roles, both drifting between both flanks and the number 10 position at will.

And the pair were heavily involved in all aspects of our attacking play. Between them, they completed 4 of 5 attempted take ons, were successful with 6 of 13 attempted crosses, created four chances for team mates, and had 8 shots on goal themselves.

You can see from their combined heat map that neither were ever in any area long enough to be effectively picked up by the opposition, spending the full game roaming across the park.

The way in which our midfield four lined up with such fluidity was the platform for our success, and meant that the Burnley side was unable to deal with us.

If you compare the average positions of the midfield's (below), you can see what a huge difference there was between the four. Burnley's midfield was very flat, a traditional take on the 4-4-2, whilst West Ham's was far more of a 4-2-2-2 formation. 

http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/

Negatives

The main negative to take away from the game at Turf Moor was the number of individual mistakes made.

In total, we lost possession via poor touches or being dispossessed by an opposition player on 21 occasions, and their goal came from an individual defensive error from Adrián. This amount of errors isn't actually that bad, indeed, Burnley made more mistakes than we did, however, against a better opposition we are likely to be punished more readily than we were on Saturday.

The image below shows the individual errors made by the side (shooting right to left). You'll notice that there were a handful of errors made across our defensive line. Should these sort of errors be replicated next weekend, it is a fair assumption that Manchester City would punish them more ruthlessly than Burnley.

Key Player

As with most of our games this season, it is actually very difficult to pick out a key performer. Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia both shone, as did Mark Noble and Carl Jenkinson, while Stewart Downing and Aaron Cresswell were each awarded man of the match by Squawka and WhoScored respectively.

However, the man I am going to pick out is returning centre back James Collins. Ginge (or 'Pink' to be more accurate) was magnificent at the back in place of the in-form James Tomkins.

Collins may lack finesse on the ball, and his approach to playing out of defence is a bit erratic - as indicated by his 67% passing accuracy, and the fact that 28% of his attempted passes were long balls - but he is arguably the best out and out defender in the side.

On the day, Collins made 19 clearances, 6 interceptions, blocked one shot, won three of his five tackles and three of his four aerial duels. It was a truly outstanding defensive display, and nothing less than we should expect from the man.

The image below shows his tackles (left) and interceptions (right). As you can see, particularly with the interceptions, Collins made a number of timely interventions during the game to stop Burnley from creating any meaningful chances.

Conclusion

Overall, this was another very good display from West Ham.

The diamond midfield were, again, crucial in providing the platform for the win. The defence all did their part and looked untroubled after a rocky opening period, and the strike duo of Sakho and Valencia proved to be match winners - and the side didn't even look particularly weakened after Valencia was replaced by Carlton Cole for the remaining 30 minutes.

It will be interesting to see how we approach the game with Manchester City next weekend. Will the diamond remain, or will we revert to a 4-5-1 to increase our defensive protection?

Either way, it remains an exiting time to be a West Ham fan.

 General Play 

4-4-2 Formation 4-1-2-1-2

(-24) Tom Heaton - Adrián (-18)

(18) Kieran Trippier - Carl Jenkinson (36)

(23) Michael Duff - James Collins (48)

(15) Jason Shackell - Winston Reid (11)

(2) Ben Mee - Aaron Cresswell (54)

(-31) Michael Kightly - Mark Noble (31)

(2) Scott Arfield - Morgan Amalfitano (39)

(10) David Jones - Alex Song (-15)

(46) George Boyd - Stewart Downing (59)

(2) Danny Ings - Diafra Sakho (22)

(-26) Lukas Jutkiewicz - Enner Valencia (29)

(2) Ashley Barnes - Carlton Cole (34)

(-1) Nathaniel Chalobah - Kevin Nolan (5)

(-2) Marvin Sordell -                       

Best Performance

(46) George Boyd - Stewart Downing (59)

Worst Performance

(-31) Michael Kightly - Adrián (-18)

47% Possession 53%

348 Passes Attempted 409

Scott Arfield 48 Most Attempted 64 Mark Noble

71% Passing Accuracy 80%

61% In Opp. Half 67%

David Jones 93% Best Accuracy (min. 15 passes) 90% Carl Jenkinson

63 Long Balls 61

18% % Long Balls 15%

Kieran Trippier 16 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 13 Aaron Cresswell

Most Frequent Pass Combination

Boyd to Trippier 11 - 17 Jenkinson to Noble

 12 Aerial Duels Won 24 

 33% Success 67% 

Jason Shackell 5 Most Won 6 Winston Reid

Kieran Trippier 62 Most Touches 80 Mark Noble

 Offensive Play 

17 Attempts on Goal 22

3 On Target 6

10 Off Target 9

4 Blocked 7

24% From Outside the Box 27%

Danny Ings 5 Most Shots 6 Diafra Sakho

11 Chances Created 18

George Boyd 4 Most Chances Created 5 Aaron Cresswell

35 Crosses 27

Kieran Trippier 14 Most Attempted 7 Stewart Downing

11 Successful Crosses 12

31% Success 44%

Kieran Trippier 6 Most Successful 3 Stewart Downing

18 Take Ons Attempted 15

10 Successful Take Ons 8

56% Success 53%

Danny Ings 2 Most Successful Take Ons 3 Stewart Downing

 Defensive Play 

22 Tackles Attempted 30

12 Successful Tackles 14

55% Success 47%

Michael Kightly 4 Most Tackles 4 James Collins

38 Clearances 68

Jason Shackell 15 Most Clearances 19 James Collins

15 Interceptions 16

Jason Shackell 4 Most Interceptions 6 James Collins

7 Shot Blocks 4

Jason Shackell 2 Most Shot Blocks 2 Mark Noble

 Discipline 

 3 Fouls 10 

Michael Kightly 1 Most Fouls 2 Mark Noble

0 Yellow Cards 1

Burnley:     

West Ham United:  Wisnton Reid   

0 Red Cards 0

Burnley:     

West Ham United:     

 Head to Heads 

Tom Heaton vs Adrián

-25 Squawka Rating -18

3 Goals Conceded 1

2 Saves 2

  

1 Claims 1

1 Successful Claims 1

100% Success 100%

30 Total Distribution 27

14 Accurate 14

47% Success 52%

8 Goal Kicks 10

4 Accurate 3

50% Success 30%

  

4 Throw Outs 6

4 Accurate 6

100% Success 100%

2 Kick from Hand 2

1 Accurate 0

50% Success 0%

  

16 Other 9

5 Accurate 5

31% Success 56%

0 Errors Leading to Shot 1

0 Errors Leading to Goal 1

Kieran Trippier 4 Most Passed To 3 Carlton Cole

Jason Shackell 5 Most Passes From 2 James Collins

Jason Shackell vs James Collins

15 Squawka Rating 49

8 Aerial Duels 4

5 Duels Won 3

63% Success 75%

  

4 Tackles Attempted 5

2 Tackles Completed 3

50% Success 60%

  

16 Clearances 19

4 Interceptions 6

2 Shot Blocks 1

  

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0

0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

  

25 Passes Attempted 39

17 Successful 26

68% Success 67%

  

0 Crosses Attempted 0

0 Successful 0

0% Success 0%

  

0 Chances Created 0

  

0 Attempts on Goal 0

0 On Target 0

0 Goals 0

  

Tom Heaton 5 Most Passed To 7 Carl Jenkinson

Ben Mee 6 Most Passes From 9 Winston Reid

David Jones vs Mark Noble

16 Squawka Rating 43

42 Passes Attempted 64

39 Successful 57

93% Success 89%

  

1 Chances Created 2

0 Assists 0

  

0 Attempts on Goal 0

0 On Target 0

0 Goals 0

  

0 Take Ons Attempted 1

0 Take Ons Successful 1

0% Success 100%

  

1 Crosses Attempted 2

0 Successful 2

0% Success 100%

  

1 Tackles Attempted 4

0 Tackles Completed 2

0% Success 50%

  

0 Clearances 3

3 Interceptions 3

0 Blocks 1

  

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0

0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

  

Ben Mee 10 Most Passed To 12 Stewart Downing

Ben Mee 8 Most Passes From 17 Carl Jenkinson

Danny Ings vs Diafra Sakho

3 Squawka Rating 22

4 Attempts on Goal 6

1 On Target 1

0 Goals 1

  

35 Touches 45

10 in Penalty Area 13

28% % Penalty Area 28%

0 Chances Created 3

0 Assists 1

  

14 Passes Attempted 26

10 Successful 14

71% Success 54%

  

1 Take Ons 3

1 Successful Take Ons 0

100% Success 0%

  

7 Aerial Duels 10

1 Duels Won 4

14% Success 40%

  

Scott Arfield 3 Most Passed To 5 Stewart Downing

Scott Arfield 8 Most Passes From 7 Morgan Amalfitano