West Ham cleaned up at Everton, taking all three points in a 3-1 victory. While Felipe Anderson wasn’t on the score sheet he did have a positive impact as the left winger. Forget the middle of the pitch, with a performance like that, Anderson showed he can play out wide effectively.
The side were without Jack Wilshere, and despite just the one injury to the starting XI, it forced a new formation out of manager Manuel Pellegrini. West Ham lined up in in a 4-3-3 for the first time this season. Although new, the formation suited Anderson and the rest of the team well in this match. Why? Because three holding midfielders allowed the front three to stay committed forward.
Anderson had a rude awakening to Premier League football against Liverpool in his debut match. Anderson was exposed due to physicality and lack of defensive tracking, however, with game experience, those negative aspects of his game have slowly started to drop off. This match was the perfect example of this.
Anderson was routinely on the defence end supporting left-back Arthur Masuaku in defense on the wing. Anderson has clearly been working on the ‘responsibility’ aspect of his game in an attempt to shred the title of luxury player and adopt the hardworking playing style of a Hammer.
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As a passer Anderson excelled. Between him, Masuaku, and Pedro Obiang the Everton midfielders were forced to chase the ball while overlapping play carried the Hammers down the wing. Anderson completed his season high in passes, 55, with a success rate of 76.4%. Anderson also added in 3 key passes (season high), and 3 long balls. WhoScored.com had Anderson rated 7.61/10 in this match, his best single-game rating this season.
The Hammers did concede possession early in this match but once on the scoresheet after Yarmolenko’s 11th-minute goal Everton were forcing play and turned over the ball frequently. West Ham ended with 44% possession, however, the performance of Anderson, who had a team-high 84 touches, aided in the Irons being able to dominate with meaningful chances rather than fruitless possession like Everton.
It was another step in the right direction for West Ham and Felipe Anderson. He was an engine down the left side of the pitch for the entirety of the match and led the West Ham offensive surge up the wing.
An underrated aspect of West Ham’s play with a front three is the balance it brings to the attack. More than once Anderson held the ball up allowing for the runs of Arnautovic and Yarmolenko across the pitch. Without cohesion and balance, these opportunities had been wasted in previous matches, but the outlets for Anderson to play with created opportunity for West Ham. Now if only Antonio was a little more clinical in his finishing…
To end on a positive note, it was another full 90 minutes for Anderson where he fully showed his skillset. His one shot was wide by a mile, but he is gaining confidence to take opportunities like that. On to Chelsea and onto better and better performances!