West Ham find themselves bottom of the Premier League and in bad shape.
Slaven Bilic is once again facing the sack as West Ham manager. Three defeats on the bounce without much cause for hope in the gameplay and it’s very bleak. Maybe if Southampton hadn’t been given a penalty right at the end of the match it would be different, but alas it isn’t.
The Hammers have a good squad but the current play is appalling. There is no linkup play and when the ball is moved around everyone seems to be isolated. No-one is sure who will be making runs and it has become very lethargic to watch.
Shape Revealing Hammer’s issues
In regards to positioning, I have no issue with the shape of the defence. The centrebacks against Newcastle looked fairly good when we had the ball and the full backs pushed on whenever the side actually held the ball for long enough to do so. My main issue is the midfield shape and how that impacts further forward.
Declan Rice has clearly been given a brief to act as an adventurous centreback. He sits just in front and offers a shield to the back two, as you can see from the map below. However I don’t understand what Noble and Fernandes are doing. Fernandes and Noble are barely getting in front of Cresswell, and considering he was hardly storming down the left regularly that’s poor.
Look at this West Ham passmap against Newcastle from @11tegen11 . No width and no notable combination play between attacking players. Abject pic.twitter.com/vleWTfXiqA
— Green St. Hammers (@GreenStHammers) August 28, 2017
And by not pushing forward they create a vacuum. This pulls Antonio, Ayew and Chicharito in, because they need to try and get the ball. This was also notable against Southampton. Because Noble and Fernandes aren’t committing one way or another, no-one is sure where to play.
It wasn't much better vs Soton. Not helped by Arnautovic red card but look how deep Ayew and Chicharito were. Awful. Map from @11tegen11 pic.twitter.com/rnKQScfIt6
— Green St. Hammers (@GreenStHammers) August 28, 2017
I can understand having two holding midfielders showing up on this, but three is pointless. One of them needed to get forward more and it was painfully easy to close out without it. In my opinion Fernandes, Noble and Ayew should be dropped for the next match, with Lanzini, Kouyate and Holland coming in.
Next: Bilic Youth Policy Is Confusing Everyone
They will play the positions necessary to hurt Huddersfield, and give the side a chance. Chicharito is dangerous in the box, but when he’s 30 yards out he’s manageable. We need to force Huddersfield a lot deeper than we did Newcastle.