Wednesday 17th April
19:45
Boleyn Ground
West Ham United vs Manchester United
Head to Head
34.1% Head to Head Win % 46.0%
43 Won 58
25 Drawn 25
58 Lost 43
165 Goals Scored 231
231 Goals Conceded 165
Analysis
This week I'm discovering why footballers find it difficult to play three matches in a week. This is the first time I've had to do match analysis on three games in 8 days, and it's tough!
Tomorrow see's the visit of Manchester United. Now, I don't know where this has come from, but I'm hearing quite a lot of optimism for this game from various West Ham fans. On twitter and the various forums I frequent there seems to be a growing optimism that we will get something from this game.
If that is to happen, West Ham will need to defend very well against a team that can create from all over the pitch. In our last league meeting, United created numerous chances from all over the pitch, using a real mix of approaches. This is a common feature of their game. United are probably the best side in England at mixing styles of play and surprising the opposition.
The following two graphics show the chances they created against us in the league last year, and then those they created against Stoke last weekend. In both games United were nowhere near their best, but the images show that they retain the ability to create chances, and with strikers like Robin van Persie, Javier Hernandez & Wayne Rooney, they tend to score eventually.
Against Stoke, United's stand out player was former West Ham midfielder Michael Carrick. Carrick has been one of the top performers in recent weeks, in fact, he's been fantastic all season. However, for the purposes of this match preview, I'm going to focus on his midfield partner.
Wayne Rooney played in a far deeper role than we are used to seeing him on Sunday. Playing in the centre of midfield next to Carrick, Rooney was able to sit deep and pick out pass after pass.
The graphic below shows Rooney's heat map against Stoke, displaying where he took his touches around the pitch. As you can see, the majority of his touches came in the middle third, allowing him to spray passes around the pitch.
However, there is a way to combat Rooney in this position. Between them, the Stoke midfield trio of Steven N'Zonzi, Glenn Whelan and Geoff Cameron attempted 9 tackles in the middle of the park. Considering that Rooney managed to attempt 81 passes (according to Opta) during the game, this figure is nowhere near high enough.
I don't know if it's a loss of confidence through their poor recent form, but the snapping, snarling Stoke of old where nowhere to be seen on Sunday. The image below shows their attempted tackles against United.
I could write about West Ham until the cows come home, but the one thing I do want to mention is our current defensive situation. It appears that Winston Reid & James Tomkins will sit this one out, and Sam Allardyce has made it perfectly clear that Emanuel Pogatetz will come into the side should that be the case.
The Austrian hasn't exactly hit the ground running since joining on loan in January, with many fans less than excited with his form. He might come good, who knows? But I'm not going to hold my breath.
In the 27 minutes he managed against Southampton, Pogatetz attempted 0 passes. He also attempted 0 tackles (the two he did were fouls so don't count). He contested one headed duel, which he lost. He also got booked.
If West Ham are going to get anything on Wednesday, we'll need to defend really well, and hound the midfield. I believe we'll have a far better chance without Pogatetz in the side.
So come on, Emanuel, show us what you've got. Surprise us. Please?
Recent Form
L W L W D D Last 6 D W W L L W
7 Goals Scored 7
7 Goals Conceded 5
W D D W L W Home/Away Form W D W W L W
11 Goals Scored 7
8 Goals Conceded 2
Andy Carroll Form Player Michael Carrick
66.23 Last 6 67.22
4 Goals Scored 1
0 Assists 1
62.75 Season (League) 66.77
16(2) Appearances 29(2)
6 Goals 1
0 Assists 4
24 Chances Created 29
521 Passes 2326
310 Passes Completed 2046
59.5% % Completed 87.9%
Last Meeting
16th January 2013
Goalscorers
1-0 Wayne Rooney 9'
4-4-2 Starting Formation 3-5-2
Starting XI
Anders Lindegaard - Jussi Jääskeläinen
Rafael da Silva - James Tomkins
Chris Smalling - Alou Diarra
Phil Jones - Winston Reid
Alex Buttner - Jordan Spence
Antonio Valencia - Gary O'Neil
Anderson - Matthew Taylor
Ryan Giggs - Mohamed Diamé
Luis Nani - Dan Potts
Wayne Rooney - Ricardo Vâz Te
Javier Hernandez - Carlton Cole
Absentees
Injured/Doubtful
West Ham United: Winston Reid, James Tomkins, George McCartney, Mark Noble, Joe Cole
Manchester United: Chris Smalling, Ashley Young, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher
Suspensions
West Ham United: n/a
Manchester United: n/a
Opposition Last Time Out:
vs Stoke City
Goals Scored: 2
Goals Conceded: 0
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1
David de Gea
Phil Jones Rio Ferdinand Nemanja Vidic Patrice Evra
Wayne Rooney Michael Carrick
Antonio Valencia Robin van Persie Shinji Kagawa
Javier Hernandez
Best Player: Michael Carrick
CI Rating: 75.5
Worst Player: Antonio Valencia
CI Rating: 57.96
Top 5's (min 5 apps)
Goals Scored
Andy Carroll 6 - 24 Robin van Persie
Kevin Nolan 6 - 16 Wayne Rooney
Mark Noble 4 - 16 Javier Hernandez
Modibo Maïga 4 - 5 Shinji Kagawa
Jack Collison 2 - 5 Ryan Giggs
Assists
Ricardo Vâz Te 4 - 9 Wayne Rooney
Joey O'Brien 3 - 8 Robin van Persie
Kevin Nolan 2 - 5 Patrice Evra
Matthew Taylor 2 - 4 Michael Carrick
Gary O'Neil 3 - 4 Danny Welbeck
Passing Accuracy
Mohamed Diamé 83.2% - 92.5% Paul Scholes
Mark Noble 82.3% - 90.2% Tom Cleverley
Joe Cole 80.9% - 89.9% Shinji Kagawa
George McCartney 79.8% - 89.6% Rio Ferdinand
Guy Demel 79.7% - 88.8% Jonny Evans
Chances Created per game
Joe Cole 2.1 - 1.9 Wayne Rooney
Mark Noble 1.5 - 1.8 Robin van Persie
Matt Jarvis 1.4 - 1.8 Ashley Young
Andy Carroll 1.3 - 1.3 Antonio Valencia
Ricardo Vâz Te 1.3 - 1.0 Luis Nani
Successful Dribbles per game
Mohamed Diamé 2.3 - 1.8 Antonio Valencia
Guy Demel 0.8 - 0.8 Danny Welbeck
Ricardo Vâz Te 0.7 - 0.8 Patrice Evra
Mark Noble 0.5 - 0.8 Luis Nani
Matt Jarvis 0.5 - 0.8 Robin van Persie
Tackles per game
Mark Noble 4.0 - 3.2 Rafael da Silva
Mohamed Diamé 3.6 - 2.5 Michael Carrick
James Collins 2.0 - 2.4 Patrice Evra
Winston Reid 1.8 - 2.2 Ryan Giggs
George McCartney 1.8 - 1.9 Tom Cleverley
Aerial Duels Won per game
Andy Carroll 10.2 - 4.1 Nemanja Vidic
Carlton Cole 4.2 - 2.5 Jonny Evans
James Collins 3.2 - 2.2 Patrice Evra
James Tomkins 2.7 - 2.0 Chris Smalling
Winston Reid 2.6 - 1.8 Phil Jones
Manager
Sam Allardyce - Alex Ferguson
43.1% Current Club Win % 59.7%
38 Won 892
23 Drawn 335
27 Lost 266
40.1% Managerial Career Win % 58.1%
332 Won 1250
222 Drawn 487
273 Lost 411
2 League Titles 16
0 Cup Wins 32
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