Green Street Hammers
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Building From Back Way Forward for West Ham

By Scott Johnson

STRATFORD, ENGLAND - APRIL 22: Winston Reid of West Ham United (L) and Jose Fonte of West Ham United (R) close out Romelu Lukaku of Everton during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Everton at the London Stadium on April 22, 2017 in Stratford, England. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images)
STRATFORD, ENGLAND - APRIL 22: Winston Reid of West Ham United (L) and Jose Fonte of West Ham United (R) close out Romelu Lukaku of Everton during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Everton at the London Stadium on April 22, 2017 in Stratford, England. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images) /
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This season West Ham have had a real issue in defence. But the last two home games have given the side something to aim for.

Building from the back may sound boring, but great sides aren’t built on leaky defences. West Ham had their best Premier League season ever last season, but missed out on higher positions because of a leaky defence and inaccurate shooting in attack. But you can’t build on a defence you can’t trust.

Many people were blaming Bilic and his system for the leaking of goals, but he must also get credit for Saturday. He identified the threat of Everton and how to stop it and picked the correct players to implement it. And as the Hammers no-longer have a world class danger man like Payet, it’s the way they have to approach each game.

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Opponent First Approach

One of the big advantages of a player like Payet was that the opponents would have to deal with him. That meant that the Hammers could set up a similar way each game and get results. However without a star man (Lanzini is not quite at that level yet) it becomes a tough ask to do that. You become predictable, without that magic to unlock a well organized defence.

What Bilic did against Everton was clever. By nullifying Lukaku, and killing service into him as well, he took the lynch pin out of the game. Everton didn’t know where to attack, and despite some promising young players making some adventurous runs there was a genuine lack of ideas.

There are some big games approaching, especially the home game against Spurs. The North London side are chasing their first Premier League title and will want to win big. Slaven Bilic will have to set up in a way to try and contain Spurs, because if he doesn’t they will run riot.

Next: West Ham v Everton Match Report

Spurs will be a tougher game, because they have more players who can hurt you from nowhere. But if the Hammers can keep Spurs out, or even just down to one goal, then they have a chance. But we have to focus on that first. West Ham cannot match Tottenham’s firepower, so fighting fire with fire will get us nowhere.