5 things West Ham can do to beat Manchester United

Keep the ball

Simple, United cannot hurt us when they don’t have the ball. Although the temptation is to get the ball forward without much though, patience when possible will relieve the pressure.

I’m always for hitting teams on the counter attack, because it can neutralise quality differences between the attack and defence. A defence that isn’t in position can’t protect against a quick attack. It doesn’t matter how good said defence is.

But the more West Ham keep it, the less time United have to try and unpick the defence. When you’ve spent as much as Mourinho has in getting players into the team they are good ballplayers, so you have to limit the amount of football they can play. If the Hammers can push up towards having 45% of the possession their chance of winning will increase dramatically. The more it goes below 40% the more we have to worry.