West Ham must target "old faithful" Brighton striker to shut down

West Ham are in fine form ahead of their away match at Brighton & Hove Albion. That said, Brighton are a tough team to play away and will challenge West Ham for the full 90 minutes. If West Ham are to secure a result away they will need to shut down Glenn Murray who acts as the main offensive threat for Brighton.

The 35-year-old striker has been on fire this season for Brighton. He is tied for third in Premier League scoring, amongst players like Arnautovic, Lukaku, and Mane, with four goals. He is extremely effective simply because he knows where to go and how to get open with defenders around him. West Ham will likely be circling his name on the team sheet ahead of this match.

It should be noted that two of Murray’s goals have come from penalties given in matches, so there is a slight asterisk on those goals. However, penalties or not they all count for the same amount and Brighton choose Murray to knock in these penalties because he is a clinical finisher.

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For West Ham, the coverage on Murray will need to be two-fold. First, Balbuena and Diop need to match him in the air as he comes in measuring 6’1″ (1.86 m) suggesting he offers decent height for a goal scoring threat. Secondly, there must always be an eye kept on where he drifts to. For being a big-bodied man, Murray can slip coverage with extreme ease. His experience has provided him with enough opportunity to know how to get free from his markers and he’ll likely use this to his advantage against West Ham, too.

Diop and Balbuena are proving to be one of the most effective and underrated centre-back pairings in the Premier League. They’ve helped keep Hazard, Willian, Martial, and Lukaku all goalless in their last two match which shows their effectiveness against both size and speed. Brighton’s formations throughout this season suggest that Murray will be isolated up top by himself so the pair can form a committee to shut him down.

Murray, being a large target in the box, relies on service through the midfield. Two Brighton players are crucial in providing this, Anthony Knockhart and Pascal Gross. Gross sustained an ankle injury and has missed five matches since September 1st for Brighton. He is questionable to return for this match; without him, Brighton lose their most impactful creative player and with him back fresh off injury he’ll likely be less effective than usual which are both good signs for the Hammers.

This leaves Knockhart as the sparkplug for Brighton’s offense and the main supplier for Glenn Murray. Knockhart is a right midfielder/winger and with West Ham’s new system giving having the Hammers hold onto possession for longer spells he’ll likely fall back to the midfield role. He is extremely quick so he can burst up the wing at a moments notice and will test Masuaku all match long.

If Declan Rice and Arthur Masuaku can shut down Knockhart and make his match a tough, constant battle then Murray will likely be held without many opportunities.

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He cannot be overlooked or underestimated. No, Brighton’s ageless wonder striker seems to find himself on the scoresheet more often than not these days so West Ham must be prepared. After performing well against Everton, Chelsea, and Manchester United, there is a bit of a stench coming from this Brighton fixture as it could be a trap game. Regardless, if West Ham play their game they can dominate this match and shut down Brighton’s one-dimensional attack.

West Ham must target “old faithful” striker to shut down

By Adam Smith | Oct 3, 2018

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