23/08/2014
15:00
Selhurst Park
Crystal Palace vs West Ham United
Goalscorers:
0-1 Mauro Zárate 34'
0-2 Stewart Downing 37'
1-2 Marouane Chamakh 48'
1-3 Carlton Cole 62'
Analysis
The perfect tonic for a disappointing derby defeat on the opening day was always going to be a victory away at Palace. But what we got was far more than just a victory, it was a sign of a changing philosophy.
Positives
The overall performance of the team was a joy to behold on Saturday afternoon. For the first time in a long time, this was a West Ham side playing slick, quick football, being adventurous in attack and resolute in defence.
This was a performance that married together the wishes of the fans, and the pragmatism of the manager.
To begin, I'm going to talk about that defensive performance.
I said before the game that Yannick Bolasie was the dangerman in the Palace side; a player who can trick his way past the most capable of Premier League defenders. On Saturday, Bolasie didn't have a sniff.
The pacy winger attempted six take ons during the game, three on either flank, and was successful with none of them (as seen by the image below). He created no chances for his team mates, had no shots on target, and was successful with just 2 of his 9 crosses.
A lot of this credit must go to fullbacks Aaron Cresswell and Joey O'Brien (who I'll come onto in a moment), but it should be made clear that 4 of those failed take ons displayed below were stopped by our own part time box of tricks Ricardo Vaz Te.
What I liked about our defensive performance against Palace, was that our fullbacks were happy to press on and join in with attacks (as they did with regularity), but they were still aware of their defensive duties, as you can see in their combined heatmap below.
Both O'Brien and Cresswell put in very good performances (not reflected in their Squawka performance scores) and were a key part in the way we played the game.
They each had an attempt on goal, made three key passes between them, but also put in a combined 5 tackles, 4 interceptions, 8 clearances and blocked a shot. This was a pair of fullbacks on top of their game, and if they can continue their form, they can each have a significant impact on our performances this season.
On to the attacking side of our game.
A real issue in our play over the last couple of seasons has been a failure to create goalscoring opportunities, and to take those opportunities when they arise. This was not the case on Saturday.
Against Palace, we had 17 attempts on goal, hitting the target with 47% (8) of these, and converting three of them.
One of the key reasons to our attacking success was down to a change in personnel, but I'll come onto that in the Key Player section later.
Negatives
I've wracked my brain trying to think of negatives, and the truth is that there really weren't any. This is a very good allround performance, and to criticise it wouldn't be fair.
If there was one criticism, it would probably be the performance of Carlton Cole.
This is a really harsh criticism considering Cole bagged the key third goal, created 2 chances for team mates, hit the target with both his attempted on goal and had a passing success rate of 86%.
However, throughout his near 70 minutes on the pitch, Carlton managed a measly 15 touches of the ball. Compare this to the brief cameo made by Diafra Sakho. Sakho had 18 touches his 22 minutes, and also had a couple of attempts on goal.
If Carlton is to keep his place in the team, and I am certainly not advocating him being dropped here, he will need to increase his involvement in games. Particularly his link up with the number 10 - he passed to Mauro Zárate twice, and received no passes from him in 68 minutes.
If you compare their heat maps, you can see that both strikers had a similar involvements throughout the game. However, it is important to recognise that Sakho was in the pitch less than a third of the time that Carlton was.
Key Player
There were positive performances all over the park on Saturday, but the key player for me was Mauro Zárate.
The Argentine bagged a wonderful goal with a dipping volley from outside the box to open the scoring. He also had another 3 attempts on goal, completed 93% of his passes, and was successful with 3 of his 5 attempted take ons.
But what made Zárate's performance key for West Ham, was the way in which he linked with his teammates. Despite not registering a single key pass against Palace, the presence that the Argentine had in the attacking third allowed for his colleagues to get forward far more fluidly than we are used to seeing.
If you compare the average positions of the midfield three from our last two games, you can see that Zárate's positioning is far closer to Carlton Cole than Kevin Nolan's was against Spurs. This change meant that Cole was far from isolated, and also meant that the other midfield players had an extra forward pass available.
This message is reinforced by looking at Zárate's touches throughout the game. As you can see, 27% of his involvement in the game came in the key zone outside of the penalty area.
By having a player capable of beating a man, picking a pass, or shooting from range in this zone, West Ham were able to unsettle the Palace defence from the outset, leaving space for widemen to run into.
Conclusion
This was our best performance under Sam Allardyce.
I remember back to our 6-0 win against Brighton in the Championship, and our 3-1 win over Chelsea, and our hattrick of wins over Spurs and I remember that there were elements of luck in those games. Times when the opposition could or should have punished us, and times when we could have played far better.
Against Palace, there was nothing we could or should have done differently. Every single player had a good game, and as a team we just clicked.
Tonight we face Sheffield United in the cup before taking on Southampton at the weekend. If we continue this sort of form, I fully expect us to win both of these games.
General Play
4-2-3-1 Formation 4-2-3-1
(-3) Julian Speroni - Adrián (14)
(17) Martin Kelly - Joey O'Brien (3)
(-7) Brede Hangeland - James Tomkins (24)
(-26) Damien Delaney - Winston Reid (9)
(-19) Joel Ward - Aaron Cresswell (-10)
(31) Mile Jedinak - Mark Noble (23)
(6) Stuart O'Keefe - Cheikhou Kouyaté (45)
(2) Barry Bannan - Stewart Downing (61)
(31) Marouane Chamakh - Mauro Zárate (83)
(-15) Yannick Bolasie - Ricardo Vâz Te (15)
(3) Fraizer Campbell - Carlton Cole (17)
(-4) Dwight Gayle - Diafra Sakho (-5)
(20) Jon Williams - Diego Poyet (1)
(4) Glenn Murray - Mohamed Diamé (5)
Best Performance
(31) Marouane Chamakh - Mauro Zárate (83)
Worst Performance
(-26) Damien Delaney - Aaron Cresswell (-10)
47% Possession 54%
361 Passes Attempted 435
Mile Jedinak 67 Most Attempted 90 Mark Noble
74% Passing Accuracy 80%
61% In Opp. Half 63%
Martin Kelly 85% Best Accuracy (min. 15 passes) 92% Mauro Zárate
57 Long Balls 56
16% % Long Balls 13%
Joel Ward 12 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 11 Mark Noble
Most Frequent Pass Combination
Jedinak to Chamakh 10 - 14 Tomkins to Noble
26 Aerial Duels Won 24
52% Success 48%
Mile Jedinak 10 Most Won 6 Winston Reid
Mile Jedinak 83 Most Touches 104 Mark Noble
Offensive Play
9 Attempts on Goal 17
4 On Target 8
3 Off Target 4
2 Blocked 5
44% From Outside the Box 41%
Yannick Bolasie 2 Most Shots 4 Mauro Zárate
8 Key Passes 14
Jon Williams 2 Most Key Passes 3 Stewart Downing
22 Crosses 20
Yannick Bolasie 9 Most Attempted 9 Stewart Downing
5 Successful Crosses 6
23% Success 30%
Barry Bannan 2 Most Successful 4 Stewart Downing
20 Take Ons Attempted 15
7 Successful Take Ons 6
35% Success 40%
Barry Bannan 2 Most Take Ons 3 Mauro Zárate
Defensive Play
40 Tackles Attempted 34
26 Successful Tackles 17
65% Success 50%
Joel Ward 6 Most Tackles 5 Cheikhou Kouyaté
26 Clearances 41
Damien Delaney 8 Most Clearances 10 James Tomkins
13 Interceptions 15
Mile Jedinak 4 Most Interceptions 3 Aaron Cresswell
5 Shot Blocks 2
Fraizer Campbell 1 Most Shot Blocks 1 Winston Reid
Discipline
14 Fouls 11
Stuart O'Keefe 3 Most Fouls 4 Carlton Cole
1 Yellow Cards 3
Crystal Palace: Mile Jedinak
West Ham United: Winston Reid, James Tomkins, Joey O'Brien
0 Red Cards 0
Crystal Palace:
West Ham United:
Head to Heads
Julian Speroni vs Adrián
-3 Squawka Rating 14
3 Goals Conceded 1
5 Saves 3
4 Claims 1
3 Successful Claims 1
75% Success 100%
26 Total Distribution 28
12 Accurate 10
46% Success 36%
4 Goal Kicks 4
1 Accurate 2
25% Success 50%
2 Throw Outs 1
2 Accurate 1
100% Success 100%
8 Kick from Hand 5
3 Accurate 3
38% Success 60%
12 Other 18
6 Accurate 4
50% Success 22%
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
Brede Hangeland 6 Most Passed To 2 Mark Noble
Joel Ward 3 Most Passes From 4 Winston Reid
Brede Hangeland vs James Tomkins
-7 Squawka Rating 24
8 Aerial Duels 6
6 Duels Won 5
75% Success 83%
0 Tackles Attempted 3
0 Tackles Completed 1
0% Success 33%
7 Clearances 10
0 Interceptions 2
1 Blocks 0
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
27 Passes Attempted 56
19 Successful 44
70% Success 79%
0 Crosses Attempted 0
0 Successful 0
0% Success 0%
0 Key Passes 1
0 Attempts on Goal 1
0 On Target 0
0 Goals 0
Martin Kelly 4 Most Passed To 14 Mark Noble
Julian Speroni 6 Most Passes From 11 Winston Reid
Yannick Bolasie vs Stewart Downing
-15 Squawka Rating 61
23 Passes Attempted 35
18 Successful 28
78% Success 80%
0 Key Passes 3
0 Assists 0
2 Attempts on Goal 2
0 On Target 1
0 Goals 1
6 Take Ons Attempted 2
0 Take Ons Successful 0
0% Success 0%
9 Crosses Attempted 9
2 Successful 4
22% Success 44%
0 Tackles Attempted 2
0 Tackles Completed 1
0% Success 50%
0 Clearances 3
1 Interceptions 2
0 Blocks 0
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
Marouane Chamakh 4 Most Passed To 6 Joey O'Brien
Joel Ward 8 Most Passes From 13 Joey O'Brien
Marouane Chamakh vs Mauro Zárate
31 Squawka Rating 83
1 Attempts on Goal 4
1 On Target 2
1 Goals 1
73 Touches 50
3 in Penalty Area 3
4% % Penalty Area 6%
2 Key Passes 0
0 Assists 0
54 Passes Attempted 26
41 Successful 24
76% Success 92%
2 Take Ons 5
0 Successful Take Ons 3
0% Success 60%
11 Aerial Duels 2
1 Duels Won 0
9% Success 0%
Joel Ward 7 Most Passed To 9 Mark Noble
Mile Jedinak 10 Most Passes From 13 Mark Noble
