19/10/2013
17:30
Boleyn Ground
West Ham United vs Manchester City
Goalscorers:
0-1 Sergio Aguero 16'
0-2 Sergio Aguero 51'
1-2 Ricardo Vâz Te 58'
1-3 David Silva 80'
Analysis
We all knew a defeat against Manchester City was always going to be the likely result from Saturday evening's game, but that damned optimism tricked us into thinking we could produce two upsets on the spin.
The victory over Tottenham Hotspur, followed by a successful international break made many believe we had what it took to defeat City, couple this with their rather poor away form this season, and you have a bit of a dangerous optimistic cocktail.
The result was disappointing. Not because we lost, although that is always disappointing, but because of the way we played for the first 55 minutes. Until Sergio Aguero scored his second (incredibly soft) goal of the afternoon, we appeared too casual, too slow, not creative enough, and we never really troubled City.
The image below shows our completed passes in the first 55 minutes of the game. The first thing to notice, is that we only completed four passes into the City area during that period. The second thing, is that we managed a pass success rate of 69.8%.
Compare this to the final 35 minutes of the game, and you can clearly see a stark contrast.
Not only did we complete over double the amount of passes into the area (9) than we did in the opening 55 minutes, but we also created more chances (4 to 6), and saw a marked improvement in our passing - up to a far more impressive 80.3% accuracy.
These images show, for me, the main disappointment of the game. We saw after City went two up that we could compete with them. We could create chances, we could worry them. But why did it take us almost an hour to see that? Why did we allow City a two goal head start?
The other major disappointment was the nature of Sergio Aguero's brace.
The second goal was the result of some incredibly poor marking from a set piece - an area in which we are usually so efficient. You can bet your bottom dollar that Sam Allardyce will be far from happy that Aguero's first ever headed goal in the Premier League came against one of his sides.
But the first goal is the really frustrating one, for me. The distance that Fernandinho's pass traveled, on the ground, at a fairly slow pace, through the heart of our midfield and defence, was criminal. Okay, so Alvaro Negredo leaving the ball was pretty classy, but both James Tomkins and, the clearly jet-lagged, Winston Reid were slow to react - and, let's be honest, that pass should never have gotten that far.
The image below shows the build up for the goal. There was no pressure on the ball around the halfway line whatsoever, meaning City could knock it about at will in the centre circle. No problem with that as such, but if the midfield aren't pressing the ball here, then they should be in a position to make any pass forward a very difficult one. The fact of the matter is, we had four central midfielders on the field of play yesterday, and two centre halves. One pass on the ground from the halfway line should never make it though six men.
I know that there have been some grumbles over Allardyce's decision not to go with a striker. Personally, I feel that this was always going to be a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for Big Sam.
If he changed the winning formula to include a traditional centre forward and we'd lost, he would've been criticised. Keeping the same strikerless formation and losing, means he's negative for playing a six man midfield at home.
That said, it seemed clear, far before the 82nd minute, that we needed an attacking outlet.
The images of our passing above give an indication of our lack of attacking options, but the heat map below illustrates the issue perfectly. You can clearly see that we struggled to get into the City area, instead using the ball in the midfield areas, and wide on the right hand side.
It's all conjecture, but had a striker entered the field of play earlier, we may have seen a change to this. A man in the box to aim for gives a different option, particularly when you have a man in the form Stewart Downing has been in.
Which brings me on to my final point.
Stewart Downing had an excellent game on Saturday - in fact, he has been all season. The Englishman created a massive four chances for team mates - and he had a hand in our goal, with his knock down flicked in to Vaz Te by Ravel Morrison.
Since joining the club, Downing has been by far and away the most economical user of the ball in our side. In his six appearances, he has averaged a pass completion rate of 88.6%. This was lower on Saturday (77%), although removing crosses from the equation increases his rate by 11%, with 28 of his 32 passes reaching a team mate.
But it was actually his crossing that impressed me. As mentioned in the section above, we seemed to struggle for the most part without a centre forward to aim for. But Downing was successful with 6 of his 12 attempted crosses, creating three chances in the process.
And, as the image below shows, even those failed crosses reached dangerous positions around the six yard box.
This result was disappointing. It's never nice to lose, particularly after a really positive fortnight. But, let's be honest, who looked at this fixture and said "there's a home banker"?
We travel to South Wales next weekend to play Swansea. The Swans have a European game on Thursday night, so let's hope there can be an opportunity there for us to get back on track.
Let's take the positives from the last half hour or so on Saturday, and hope we can build on that moving forward.
General Play
4-2-3-1 Formation 4-4-2
(-25) Jussi Jääskeläinen - Joe Hart (-15)
(-8) Guy Demel - Micah Richards (27)
(-6) James Tomkins - Javi Garcia (23)
(21) Winston Reid - Matija Nastasic (29)
(-15) Rǎzvan Raţ - Gael Clichy (4)
(15) Mark Noble - David Silva (56)
(-18) Kevin Nolan - Fernandinho (63)
(51) Stewart Downing - Yaya Touré (48)
(11) Ravel Morrison - Samir Nasri (4)
(48) Ricardo Vâz Te - Sergio Aguero (94)
(15) Mohamed Diamé - Alvaro Negrego (-3)
(-7) Joey O'Brien - Aleksandr Kolarov (0)
(10) Matt Jarvis - James Milner (3)
(5) Mladen Petrić - Stevan Jovetic (1)
Best Performance
(51) Stewart Downing - Sergio Aguero (94)
Worst Performance
(-25) Jussi Jääskeläinen - Joe Hart (-15)
39% Possession 61%
412 Passes Attempted 667
Mark Noble 65 Most Attempted 99 Yaya Touré
75% Passing Accuracy 84%
67% In Opp. Half 82%
Ravel Morrison 90% Best Accuracy 94% Matija Nasasic
63 Long Balls 51
Rǎzvan Raţ 10 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 8 Javi Garcia
Most Frequent Pass Combination
Noble to Morrison 12 - 24 Silva to Touré
8 Aerial Duels Won 21
28% Success 72%
James Tomkins 3 Most Won 5 Javi Garcia
Mark Noble 84 Most Touches 112 Yaya Touré
Offensive Play
11 Attempts on Goal 15
2 On Target 9
6 Off Target 2
3 Blocked 4
5 From Outside the Box 1
Ravel Morrison 3 Most Shots 6 Sergio Aguero
10 Key Passes 12
Stewart Downing 4 Most Key Passes 6 David Silva
29 Crosses 12
Stewart Downing 12 Most Attempted 5 David Silva
11 Successful Crosses 4
38% Success 33%
Stewart Downing 6 Most Successful 3 David Silva
Defensive Play
15 Tackles Attempted 22
11 Successful Tackles 21
73% Success 95%
Mark Noble 4 Most Tackles 4 Gael Clichy
20 Clearances 20
James Tomkins 6 Most Clearances 7 Javi Garcia
20 Interceptions 13
Winston Reid 5 Most Interceptions 4 Micah Richards
4 Shot Blocks 3
Winston Reid 3 Most Shot Blocks 2 Matija Nastasic
Discipline
7 Fouls 12
3 Most Fouls 3
1 Yellow Cards 0
West Ham United: Kevin Nolan
Manchester City: Gael Clichy, David Silva
0 Red Cards 0
West Ham United:
Manchester City:
Head to Heads
Jussi Jääskeläinen vs Joe Hart
3 Goals Conceded 1
6 Saves 1
0 Crosses Claimed 1
9 Total Passes 20
4 Accurate Passes 9
44% Success 45%
8 Long Balls 15
89% % 75%
5 Throw Outs 7
1 Kick from Hand 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
Rǎzvan Raţ 1 Most Passed To 6 Matija Nastasic
Guy Demel 2 Most Passes From 5 Matija Nastasic
Winston Reid vs Javi Garcia
5 Aerial Duels 6
2 Duels Won 5
40% Success 83%
2 Tackles Attempted 1
1 Tackles Completed 1
50% Success 100%
4 Clearances 7
5 Interceptions 1
3 Blocks 1
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
37 Passes Attempted 61
26 Successful 56
70% Success 92%
0 Crosses Attempted 0
0 Successful 0
0% Success 0%
0 Chances Created 0
1 Attempts on Goal 0
0 On Target 0
0 Goals 0
Rǎzvan Raţ 9 Most Passed To 15 Matija Nastasic
James Tomkins 8 Most Passes From 14 Micah Richards
Stewart Downing vs David Silva
44 Passes Attempted 91
34 Successful 81
77% Success 89%
4 Key Passes 6
0 Assists 1
1 Attempts on Goal 1
0 On Target 1
0 Goals 1
0 Tackles Attempted 1
0 Tackles Completed 1
0% Success 100%
0 Clearances 0
0 Interceptions 1
0 Blocks 0
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
Ravel Morrison 8 Most Passed To 24 Yaya Touré
Guy Demel 7 Most Passes From 23 Yaya Touré
Ravel Morrison vs Sergio Aguero
3 Attempts on Goal 6
0 On Target 5
0 Goals 2
1 Key Passes 2
1 Assists 1
41 Passes Attempted 25
35 Successful 15
85% Success 60%
2 Aerial Duels 0
0 Duels Won 0
0% Success 0%
Stewart Downing 6 Most Passed To 4 Alvaro Negredo
Mark Noble 12 Most Passes From 7 David Silva
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