31/08/2013
15:00
Boleyn Ground
West Ham United vs Stoke City
Goalscorers:
0-1 Jermaine Pennant 82'
Analysis
I got into work this morning after a week off, and my manager, a Crewe Alexandra fan, asked me if I'd seen his team's result. I said no, and he told me that they'd been beaten 5-0 by Swindon Town. I then asked if he'd seen the West Ham result, and he said "getting outplayed by Stoke is probably worse".
I think that just about sums up Saturday's performance. We've been spoiled by our excellent home form over the past year or so, and optimism for this game was pretty high. Typical West Ham then, that we put in one of the most inept performances since Allardyce arrived.
So why did we play so very badly?
Well, the attacking performance reminded me a bit of the games when Carlton Cole used to be completely isolated up front. When a striker has shown as little as Modibo Maiga has in the opening weeks of the season, their team mates quickly learn that busting a gut to get in and around him is often fruitless.
This was the case on Saturday. When Andy Carroll is playing for the side, Kevin Nolan is never usually far away from him - their partnership being the main attacking axis that our side has. Against Stoke though, Nolan hardly ventured into the box.
If you look at Nolan's action zones from the weekend, you'll see that he hardly touched the ball in the penalty area - just 2.1% of his touches came there. Oddly, he spent almost 30% of his time out on the right flank. Whilst a floating role is no negative thing, it is widely accepted that our captain is at his best in and around the penalty area. When he is elsewhere, our goal threat diminishes considerably.
With Nolan failing to support the striker, the players who really got in and around Maiga where Mohamed Diamé and Matt Jarvis. This is shown by the player position charts below.
Unfortunately for us, Diamé's shooting was very wasteful (four shots, all off target), and Jarvis is far more effective on the flanks than off of it.
Another issue with Saturday's attacking performance was that there was an over reliance on the wingers. Jarvis received 24 passes from team mates, whilst Stewart Downing received 26.
We all know that the side enjoy getting the ball out wide to cross in, but on Saturday it was plain that this approach was not working.
Jarvis and Downing managed 3 accurate crosses between them, from the 16 attempted. A failure to move away from this approach quickly meant we became predictable and toothless in attack.
The image below shows the attempted crosses from Saturday afternoon. Despite peppering the box, the quality of the ball was not quite there, and we only actually created one shooting opportunity from our crossing all afternoon.
I always like to find a plus side to mention, and, whilst this weekend was horrible for a lot of reasons, there were also a few saving graces.
Firstly, the defence were once again extremely resolute. James Collins form this season (and the back end of last season) has been nothing short of incredible. The Welshman was fantastic on Saturday and was easily my man of the match.
Second, there was a Premier League debut for youngster Elliot Lee to celebrate! It's been quite some time since West Ham produced a top quality forward from the academy, and while hopefuls Freddie Sears & Robert Hall have moved on to pastures new, we can dream that Lee will be the next big thing.
But the big positive was, once again, the performance of Ravel Morrison. Last week against Newcastle, he buzzed about and got himself involved quickly and regularly. Then, against Cheltenham in the cup, he put in a goal scoring, man of the match performance. And this week he was at the races again.
After his introduction in the 64th minute, West Ham's laboured midfield performance suddenly had a bit of zip to it, with Morrison's energy at the heart of it all. Impressively, he managed two successful take ons and an interception in his 25 minutes.
But it was his passing and movement that caught the eye. Morrison was successful with 88% of his passes on Saturday, picking up and spreading the play all across the midfield. For me, what is equally impresses was that he racked up 16 passes in his short spell, compare this to Nolan's 22 passes in 90 minutes, and you get a sense of the involvement Morrison had when he arrived in the game.
Below are two images that show Morrison's impact. The first, his attempted passes (green = successful). The second represents player influence on the game, based on an individual's involvement. The bigger a name, the more involved the player was. The image shows the involvement of players from the 64th minute onwards - Morrison's introduction.
Although there are one or two positives that I can mention, let's be honest, that would just be dressing up what was a really poor performance. What's particularly disappointing is that we now go into the international break with a bad feeling about the club.
Hopefully, by the time we travel down to Southampton away, we'll have a certain Andy Carroll back in the line up, and, fingers crossed, we might have another player or two to take with us too.
Teams
4-2-3-1 Formation 4-2-3-1
(55.49) Jussi Jääskeläinen - Asmir Begovic (60.41)
(57.91) Guy Demel - Geoff Cameron (63.25)
(61.3) James Collins - Ryan Shawcross (63.25)
(60.41) Winston Reid - Robert Huth (68.78)
(59.88) Joey O'Brien - Erik Pieters (61.34)
(62.16) Mark Noble - Marc Wilson (67.98)
(62.68) Mohamed Diamé - Steven N'Zonzi (68.93)
(62.5) Stewart Downing - Jonathan Walters (60.96)
(66) Kevin Nolan - Charlie Adam (60.36)
(60.08) Matt Jarvis - Matthew Etherington (66.25)
(58.75) Modibo Maïga - Kenwyne Jones (60.2)
(62.12) Ravel Morrison - Glenn Whelan (-)
(-) Jack Collison - Jermaine Pennant (65)
(-) Elliot Lee - n/a ()
Best Performance
(66) Kevin Nolan - Steven N'Zonzi (68.93)
Worst Performance
(55.49) Jussi Jääskeläinen - Kenwyne Jones (60.2)
General Play
46% Possession 54%
359 Passes Attempted 440
Mark Noble 50 Most Attempted 67 Steven N'Zonzi
75% Passing Accuracy 78%
65% In Opp. Half 70%
Kevin Nolan 95% Best Accuracy 91% Steven N'Zonzi
59 Long Balls 56
James Collins 11 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 7 Robert Huth
Most Frequent Pass Combination
Demel to Downing 8 - 13 N'Zonzi to Walters
31 Aerial Duels Won 30
51% Success 49%
James Collins 7 Most Won 10 Steven N'Zonzi
Mark Noble 62 Most Touches 82 Steven N'Zonzi
Offensive Play
9 Attempts on Goal 15
0 On Target 5
7 Off Target 7
2 Blocked 3
4 From Outside the Box 10
Mohamed Diamé 4 Most Shots 3 Charlie Adam
9 Key Passes 9
Matthew Jarvis 2 Most Key Passes 2 Erik Pieters
19 Crosses 19
Matthew Jarvis 9 Most Attempted 7 Matthew Etherington
3 Successful Crosses 5
16% Success 26%
Matthew Jarvis 2 Most Successful 3 Matthew Etherington
Defensive Play
12 Tackles Attempted 17
9 Successful Tackles 15
75% Success 88%
James Collins 5 Most Tackles 4 Marc Wilson
33 Clearances 32
James Collins 13 Most Clearances 9 Robert Huth
14 Interceptions 7
Mark Noble 4 Most Interceptions 3 Steven N'Zonzi
3 Shot Blocks 2
Joey O'Brien 2 Most Shot Blocks 1 Steven N'Zonzi
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Most 6yrd Blocks 0
Discipline
10 Fouls 12
2 Most Fouls 3
2 Yellow Cards 0
West Ham United: Winston Reid, James Collins
Stoke City:
0 Red Cards 0
West Ham United:
Stoke City:
Head to Heads
Jussi Jääskeläinen vs Asmir Begovic
1 Goals Conceded 0
4 Saves 0
2 Crosses Claimed 4
14 Total Passes 14
7 Accurate Passes 5
50% Success 36%
11 Long Balls 14
79% % 100%
4 Throw Outs 7
1 Kick from Hand 2
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
James Collins 3 Most Passed To 6 Robert Huth
James Collins vs Robert Huth
10 Aerial Duels 1
7 Duels Won 1
70% Success 100%
5 Tackles Attempted 0
4 Tackles Completed 0
80% Success 0%
13 Clearances 9
1 Interceptions 1
1 Blocks 1
- 6yrd Blocks -
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
39 Passes Attempted 22
24 Successful 17
62% Success 77%
Mark Noble 6 Most Passed To 4 Marc Wilson
Mohamed Diamé vs Steven N'Zonzi
30 Passes Attempted 67
27 Successful 61
90% Success 91%
1 Key Passes 2
0 Assists 0
4 Attempts on Goal 2
0 On Target 0
0 Goals 0
1 Tackles Attempted 4
1 Tackles Completed 4
100% Success 100%
2 Clearances 2
1 Interceptions 0
0 Blocks 0
- 6yrd Blocks -
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
Matt Jarvis 5 Most Passed To 13 Jonathan Walters
Modibo Maïga vs Kenwyne Jones
1 Attempts on Goal 3
0 On Target 1
0 Goals 0
1 Key Passes 0
0 Assists 0
25 Passes Attempted 24
16 Successful 14
64% Success 58%
18 Aerial Duels 15
7 Duels Won 4
39% Success 27%
Matt Jarvis 4 Most Passed To 3 Charlie Adam
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