20/09/2014
17:30
Boleyn Ground
West Ham United vs Liverpool
Goalscorers:
1-0 Winston Reid 2'
2-0 Diafra Sakho 7'
2-1 Raheem Sterling 26'
3-1 Morgan Amalfitano 88'
Analysis
I know we were promised better football, but, seriously, who expected that?
There will have been plenty of West Ham fans who looked at Liverpool's recent performances and thought we could give them a decent game. But there won't have been many who thought we would do so by going out and playing some seriously good football.
Positives
Offensively, West Ham were about as good as they have ever been under Sam Allardyce. We had more shots on goal, created more chances, and scored more goals than a supposedly great attacking Liverpool side.
I said before the game that West Ham should follow Aston Villa's lead by flooding the midfield and frustrating Liverpool. But we didn't do that. What we did, was took on Liverpool, using their formation, attacking them at will.
The image below shows West Ham's average positions. This wasn't a case of shutting up shop and stopping the opposition. Stewart Downing played almost as a centre forward, flanked by the incredibly hard working Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia.
The midfield trio of Cheikhou Kouyaté, Alex Song and the brilliant Mark Noble did between them what a five man Aston Villa midfield managed, whilst Aaron Cresswell and, in particular, Guy Demel provided excellent width and balance to the side.
In the past, West Ham might have created their chances through a series of crosses and set pieces. On Saturday evening, it was different. The chances we created came regularly from central positions, with Downing and Noble ending with 3 chances created a piece.
The images below show the chances that the pair created.
As you can see, all three of the chances Downing (left) created came from the number 10 position, whilst Noble (right) had a little more variation, though his key contribution came from a central position.
I could wax lyrical about the attacking side of our game on Saturday, but what I should really do is focus on a much improved defensive performance.
Winston Reid has been very much out of form in recent months, and James Tomkins can sometimes look a little out of his depth against the best strikers, but the pair were fantastic on Saturday.
Between them, they made four interceptions - all in or around our penalty box, 21 clearances, won 70% of their aerial duels and completed a combined 78% of their passes.
But what was particularly impressive was the fact that they both showed how well adaptable they are to the new style of play. With extra attacking responsibilities placed upon the fullbacks, Reid and Tomkins are now required to use their mobility to cover gaps in the fullback positions, as well as their own.
You can see this in their heatmaps below.
Reid was often found further across on the left hand side of the back four than usual, sweeping up and covering any gaps left by Cresswell on his journey's forward. Tomkins played a similar role, covering the marauding Demel.
It's easy to say we want the fullbacks to get forward - and in a system with no wingers this is an absolute must - but to do so, you need to have two centre halves who are right on top of their games. On Saturday, West Ham had that.
Negatives
It is very difficult to pick negatives out of such a good performance, but such is the structure of my post match reviews.
I guess the main negative was that our ability to retain possession was not quite at its recent level. We had the least possession of all our games this season, and our passing accuracy was down at 72% - again, our lowest of the season, and only the second time we have dropped below 80%.
The image below shows our failed passes from the game. As you can see, a large proportion of these failed passes came from long balls out from the back. Which leads me on nicely to the other negative...
Adrián has proven himself to be a very able goalkeeper over the last year, dislodging the previous incumbent Jussi Jaaskelainen, and producing a slew of top class saves.
On Saturday evening though, he was a liability. Okay, he made five saves, had 100% success with his claims, and could do absolutely nothing about Raheem Sterling's fierce drive.
But he could have got himself sent off very easily, and possibly twice. Mario Balotelli may have gone in late on the Spaniard, but Adrián's reaction was very disappointing, as was his bizarre decision to leave his studs up on Fabio Borini after comfortably picking up the ball in the second half.
But it's not even his red hot temperament that makes me consider Adrián one of the negatives from the Liverpool game. Over the course of the season, and again on Saturday, his distribution has been very poor. For a side that is looking to retain possession and play out from the back, the number 13 goes long and erratic very regularly.
I really like Adrián, but if he wants to be West Ham's keeper in the long term, he needs to be improve his distribution (by the way, when he throws the ball out he has excellent distribution, he just prefers to drop kick as far as possible!).
Key Player
Once again, it's difficult to pick the key player out of such a good team performance.
I thought about Stewart Downing, who was magnificent. I thought about Diafra Sakho, who was possibly my man of the match for his workrate alone. And I thought about the centre back pairing of James Tomkins and Winston Reid.
But the person I'm going to go for was the man who allowed our centre backs to have such a good game, and who provided our attacking players the platform to perform.
Mark Noble was brilliant on Saturday. Since the arrivals of Cheikhou Kouyaté and Alex Song, many have suggested that Noble the most likely to drop out of the side, but on performances like that, the stand in skipper should be the first name on the team sheet.
Look at his heat map - he was everywhere.
On the day, Noble played more passes than any other West Ham player, with a completion rate of 83%, created 3 chances including one assist, completed one take on, won 50% of his tackles, made two interceptions and blocked a shot.
It was a top drawer all round midfield performance, and something that we have just come to expect from our longest serving player.
Conclusion
If we keep playing like we have done so far this season (excluding the Southampton game) Sam Allardyce will have well and truly delivered on his target of bringing entertainment back to the Boleyn.
On Saturday, we were magnificent. It was the perfect balance of attacking intent and execution, and a solid and determined defensive performance.
General Play
4-1-2-1-2 Formation 4-1-2-1-2
(1) Adrián - Simon Mignolet (12)
(-11) Guy Demel - Javier Manquillo (-10)
(29) James Tomkins - Martin Skrtel (7)
(41) Winston Reid - Dejan Lovren (16)
(16) Aaron Cresswell - Alberto Moreno (8)
(30) Mark Noble - Steven Gerrard (-14)
(-25) Cheikhou Kouyaté - Jordan Henderson (14)
(5) Alex Song - Lucas Leiva (8)
(55) Stewart Downing - Raheem Sterling (62)
(-6) Diafra Sakho - Fabio Borini (5)
(9) Enner Valencia - Mario Balotelli (17)
(-10) Carl Jenkinson - Mamadou Sakho (7)
(39) Morgan Amalfitano - Adam Lallana (14)
(2) James Collins - Rickie Lambert (-6)
Best Performance
(55) Stewart Downing - Raheem Sterling (62)
Worst Performance
(-25) Cheikhou Kouyaté - Steven Gerrard (-14)
41% Possession 59%
260 Passes Attempted 447
Mark Noble 41 Most Attempted 75 Dejan Lovren
72% Passing Accuracy 82%
58% In Opp. Half 66%
Alex Song 87% Best Accuracy (min. 15 passes) 94% Martin Skrtel
39 Long Balls 62
15% % Long Balls 14%
Aaron Cresswell 9 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 18 Dejan Lovren
Most Frequent Pass Combination
Cresswell to Downing 10 - 19 Sakho to Lovren
12 Aerial Duels Won 16
43% Success 57%
Winston Reid 4 Most Won 5 Dejan Lovren
Aaron Cresswell 64 Most Touches 88 Martin Skrtel
Offensive Play
13 Attempts on Goal 11
7 On Target 5
3 Off Target 3
3 Blocked 3
54% From Outside the Box 45%
Enner Valencia 6 Most Shots 4 Raheem Sterling
11 Chances Created 8
Stewart Downing 3 Most Chances Created 2 Alberto Moreno
17 Crosses 20
Stewart Downing 5 Most Attempted 6 Adam Lallana
4 Successful Crosses 2
24% Success 10%
Stewart Downing 2 Most Successful 1 Adam Lallana
12 Take Ons Attempted 6
4 Successful Take Ons 4
33% Success 67%
Stewart Downing 2 Most Successful Take Ons 3 Raheem Sterling
Defensive Play
25 Tackles Attempted 27
11 Successful Tackles 13
44% Success 48%
Alex Song 3 Most Tackles 4 Lucas Leiva
35 Clearances 36
James Tomkins 10 Most Clearances 12 Martin Skrtel
13 Interceptions 12
Diafra Sakho 3 Most Interceptions 2 Raheem Sterling
3 Shot Blocks 3
Aaron Cresswell 2 Most Shot Blocks 1 Mario Balotelli
Discipline
16 Fouls 11
Cheikhou Kouyaté 3 Most Fouls 3 Mario Balotelli
4 Yellow Cards 1
West Ham United: Winston Reid, Adrián, Cheikhou Kouyaté, Carl Jenkinson
Liverpool: Mario Balotteli
0 Red Cards 0
West Ham United:
Liverpool:
Head to Heads
Adrián vs Simon Mignolet
1 Squawka Rating 12
1 Goals Conceded 3
5 Saves 4
2 Claims 7
2 Successful Claims 7
100% Success 100%
23 Total Distribution 32
9 Accurate 28
39% Success 88%
7 Goal Kicks 6
1 Accurate 6
14% Success 100%
4 Throw Outs 6
3 Accurate 6
75% Success 100%
3 Kick from Hand 1
0 Accurate 0
0% Success 0%
9 Other 19
5 Accurate 16
56% Success 84%
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
James Tomkins 3 Most Passed To 8 Martin Skrtel
Winston Reid 3 Most Passes From 6 Dejan Lovren
Winston Reid vs Dejan Lovren
41 Squawka Rating 16
6 Aerial Duels 4
4 Duels Won 4
67% Success 100%
3 Tackles Attempted 1
2 Tackles Completed 0
67% Success 0%
10 Clearances 8
3 Interceptions 2
0 Blocks 1
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
21 Passes Attempted 75
17 Successful 62
81% Success 83%
1 Crosses Attempted 0
0 Successful 0
0% Success 0%
0 Chances Created 0
1 Attempts on Goal 0
1 On Target 0
1 Goals 0
Alex Song 4 Most Passed To 12 Martin Skrtel
Aaron Cresswell 6 Most Passes From 19 Mamadou Sakho
Mark Noble vs Steven Gerrard
30 Squawka Rating -14
41 Passes Attempted 49
34 Successful 40
83% Success 82%
3 Chances Created 0
1 Assists 0
0 Attempts on Goal 0
0 On Target 0
0 Goals 0
1 Take Ons Attempted 0
1 Take Ons Successful 0
100% Success 0%
3 Crosses Attempted 5
1 Successful 0
33% Success 0%
2 Tackles Attempted 4
1 Tackles Completed 0
50% Success 0%
1 Clearances 2
2 Interceptions 1
1 Blocks 1
0 6yrd Blocks 0
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
Aaron Cresswell 7 Most Passed To 9 Martin Skrtel
Alex Song 4 Most Passes From 12 Martin Skrtel
Diafra Sakho vs Mario Balotelli
-6 Squawka Rating 17
2 Attempts on Goal 3
1 On Target 2
1 Goals 0
33 Touches 36
6 in Penalty Area 5
18% % Penalty Area 14%
0 Chances Created 1
0 Assists 0
10 Passes Attempted 22
8 Successful 18
80% Success 82%
1 Take Ons 0
0 Successful Take Ons 0
0% Success 0%
7 Aerial Duels 2
1 Duels Won 1
14% Success 50%
Cheikhou Kouyaté 4 Most Passed To 3 Fabio Borini
Stewart Downing 4 Most Passes From 7 Fabio Borini
