Saturday 28th September
15:00
KC Stadium
Hull City vs West Ham United
Analysis
We may not have done it the easy way, but a midweek cup victory over Cardiff City has managed to lift the mood a little around the Boleyn Ground.
To follow up the very disappointing defeat against Everton with a third home defeat on the spin would have been almost unthinkable. The victory has certainly lifted some pressure off the players, and now we hope they can roll that into the weekends fixture against Hull City.
Hull have been rather surprising so far in this Premier League season. Many expected them to be the weakest of the three promoted sides, but they have managed to accumulate 7 points from their opening 5 games, standing them in good stead for the rest of the season.
One of the key reasons they have made a positive start to the season is, for me, the double addition of Tottenham Hotspur's England pair Jake Livermore and Tom Huddlestone.
The pair are both very good ball playing midfielders, with Livermore so far completing 83% of his 185 passes, and Huddlestone managing a very impressive 82% of his 233. Between them, the midfielders have already created 14 chances for their teammates, at a rate of 2.8 chances created per game - a rate that jumps to 5 per game when looking at home matches alone.
Both players will present a different challenge to West Ham's midfielders on Saturday. Livermore tends to get forward and create for the two strikers, Danny Graham and Sone Aluko, whilst Huddlestone sits deeper, spraying passes across the field.
The images below show, firstly, the areas from which Livermore has created chances this season, and secondly, the passes attempted by Huddlestone against Newcastle last week. As you can see, Livermore has created 83% of his chances from just off the strikers, suggesting the England midfielder will burst forward and support the attack. Huddlestone, on the other hand, made the majority of his passes against Newcastle from inside his own half, holding position and using his range of passing to damage the opposition.
Saturday will also represent a different sort of challenge to West Ham's back line. It is very rare in the Premier League to see a side lining up with the traditional 4-4-2 formation, but that is exactly what Steve Bruce's side have done in their past two games - and, seeing as they have gained four points in those matches, I'd expect to see it again.
The two forwards that have started the past couple of games are Danny Graham and Sone Aluko. Graham is your typical, bullish English striker - a strong battler, but not the greatest finisher in the world. Whilst Aluko is a more skilful, deep lying type of forward.
Despite making a positive start to his Premier League career (12 goals in 36 in his first top flight season), Graham has managed just three league goals for three clubs since the start of last season - and hasn't scored since New Years Day 2013.
Alongside him, Aluko also isn't the most prolific of strikers. He has managed a hit rate of one goal in more than every five games (34 in 182) - a figure that is boosted greatly by a 23 games spell for Rangers in 2011/12 when he grabbed 12 goals.
However, we've already seen from Aluko that he has something special in his locker - his goal against Newcastle last week was right out of the top drawer, and Danny Graham has punished West Ham before, grabbing a goal in our 0-3 defeat at Swansea 13 months ago.
The following images show the different challenges that the two represent. The first image shows Aluko's heat map against Newcastle. As you can see, the Nigerian international is not a typical centre forward, spending most of his time outside of the penalty box, drifting all over the pitch. The second image shows Graham's action zones in Hull's previous home game against Cardiff City. As you can see, he spends much more time in the attacking third, and made more touches in the box than in any other action zone.
Interestingly too, you can see that Aluko tends to drift toward the right wing, while Graham often goes out to the left. This allows the forwards to double up on the fullbacks, whilst also creating space for the likes of Stephen Quinn, Jake Livermore, and, in particular, Robbie Brady to get into the box and damage the opposition.
This is the sort of game that I tend to worry about. We know that we're capable of beating Hull City, home or away. This raises the expectations for us all, which is always a dangerous thought with West Ham. As soon as you start expecting performances from West Ham, they tend to find a way to bring you back down to ground with a bump.
That said, we've now managed 5 goals in our previous two games against Premier League opposition. Although we've conceded the same amount in that time, we also know we have a very strong defensive pedigree.
Let's hope that we can find the right balance between attack and defence and get the league victory that we crave.
Head to Head
24% Head to Head Win % 41%
10 Won 17
14 Drawn 14
17 Lost 10
47 Goals Scored 63
63 Goals Conceded 47
Recent Form
W W L D W Last 6 D W L D L
6 Goals Scored 4
5 Goals Conceded 5
W D D W D Home/Away Form D D L L D D
5 Goals Scored 2
3 Goals Conceded 5
Form Player (Last 6 Only)
Ahmed Elmohamady - Winston Reid
6 Appearances 6
Minutes Played 540
225 Sum Squawka Performance Score 117
45 Average Squawka Performance Rating 25
272 Passes Attempted 155
214 Completed 109
79% Success Rate 70%
4 Chances Created 0
0 Assists 0
1 Attempts on Goal 3
1 On Target 0
1 Goals 0
11 Tackles Made 14
11 Successful Tackles 12
100% Success Rate 86%
17 Interceptions 13
14 Clearances 55
1 Blocks 2
5 Defensive Actions Per Game 12
5 Aerial Duels 33
3 Won 21
60% Success Rate 64%
0 Defensive Errors 0
0 Leading to a Goal 0
Last Meeting
28 April 2012
1-0 Carlton Cole 36'
2-0 Carlton Cole 49'
2-1 Corry Evans 81'
4-2-3-1 Starting Formation 4-2-3-1
Starting XI
Robert Green - Vito Mannone
Guy Demel - Liam Rosenior
James Tomkins - Liam Cooper
Winston Reid - James Chester
Matthew Taylor - Andy Dawson
Mark Noble - Corry Evans
Gary O'Neil - Paul McKenna
Henri Lansbury - Richard Garcia
Kevin Nolan - Tom Cairney
Ricardo Vâz Te - Joshua King
Carlton Cole - Matty Fryatt
Absentees
Injured/Doubtful
Hull City: James Chester, Maynor Figueroa, Paul McShane, Robert Koren, Robbie Brady
West Ham United: Guy Demel, Alou Diarra, Stewart Downing, Joe Cole, Andy Carroll
Suspensions
Hull City: n/a
West Ham United: n/a
Opposition Last Time Out
vs Newcastle
Goals Scored: 3
Goals Conceded: 2
Starting Formation: 4-4-2
Alan McGregor
Ahmed Elmohamady James Chester Curtis Davies Liam Rosenior
Stephen Quinn Tom Huddlestone Jake Livermore Robbie Brady
Sone Aluko Danny Graham
subs: Steve Harper, Alex Bruce, Abdoulaye Faye, David Meyler, George Boyd, Nick Proschwitz, Yannick Sagbo
Best Player: Robbie Brady
Squawka Rating: 67
Worst Player: Alan McGregor
Squawka Rating: -28
Top 5's (2013/14 so far..)
Goals Scored
Robbie Brady 2 - 1 Joe Cole
Curtis Davies 1 - 1 Ravel Morrison
Sone Aluko 1 - 1 Mark Noble
Ahmed Elmohamady 1 - 1 Kevin Nolan
-
Assists
George Boyd 1 - 2 Matt Jarvis
Tom Huddlestone 1 - 1 Mark Noble
Robbie Brady 1 -
Sone Aluko 1 -
-
Passing Accuracy
Sone Aluko 86.7% - 84.7% Ravel Morrison
Stephen Quinn 84.9% - 83.6% Stewart Downing
Robert Koren 83.3% - 80.2% Kevin Nolan
Jake Livermore 83.2% - 79.8% Mark Noble
Robbie Brady 82.6% - 77.3% Joey O'Brien
Chances Created per game
Tom Huddlestone 1.6 - 1.8 Mark Noble
Robbie Brady 1.4 - 1.3 Stewart Downing
Jake Livermore 1.2 - 1.2 Matt Jarvis
Robert Koren 0.8 - 0.8 Modibo Maïga
Ahmed Elmohamady 0.8 - 0.5 Rǎzvan Raţ
Successful Dribbles per game
Sone Aluko 2.2 - 2.6 Mohamed Diamé
Maynor Figueroa 1.5 - 2 Mark Noble
Robbie Brady 1.4 - 1.5 Ravel Morrison
Ahmed Almohamady 1.2 - 1.5 Joe Cole
Jake Livermore 0.6 - 0.8 Kevin Nolan
Tackles per game
Maynor Figueroa 2.8 - 3.2 Mohamed Diamé
James Chester 2.6 - 2.8 James Collins
Tom Huddlestone 2.2 - 2.4 Winston Reid
Robbie Brady 2.2 - 2.2 Mark Noble
Ahmed Almohamady 2.2 - 1.8 Joey O'Brien
Aerial Duels Won per game
Curtis Davies 3.8 - 7.2 Modibo Maïga
James Chester 2.2 - 3.8 James Collins
Danny Graham 2 - 3.8 Winston Reid
Robbie Brady 1.8 - 2.2 Joey O'Brien
Yannick Sagbo 1.7 - 1.5 Joe Cole
Manager
Steve Bruce - Sam Allardyce
49.1% Current Club Win % 42.4%
28 Won 42
10 Drawn 27
19 Lost 30
37.6% Managerial Career Win % 40.0%
241 Won 336
160 Drawn 226
239 Lost 277
0 League Titles 2
0 Cup Wins 0
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