Green Street Hammers
Fansided

Sebastien Hallers’ City performance a bright spot for West Ham

By Scott Johnson

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Sebastien Haller of West Ham United is challenged by Rodrigo of Manchester City during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Manchester City at London Stadium on August 10, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Sebastien Haller of West Ham United is challenged by Rodrigo of Manchester City during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Manchester City at London Stadium on August 10, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Like most West Ham fans, I didn’t expect much from Saturday’s season opener. But I was kinda hoping not to get thumped. Thankfully, Haller’s performance was something that signalled promise.

Given that West Ham’s opening fixtures for the past few seasons have read as a big clubs of the Premier League list, it’s not overly surprising we’re often on the back foot. But until last season there wasn’t too much to look forward to. The season got better before, and I think it will again given the showings of our new signings. In particular, Sebastien Haller.

Now most people would think that no goals and a distinct lack of goal threat would mean our striker didn’t do what we asked. However given the amount of time he was on the ball, and the number of successful passes he made, I think it was simply the fact it was City that more impact wasn’t made.

More from Green Street Hammers - West Ham

If you isolate possession stats for the game, West Ham really did get Haller involved. Or Haller got himself involved. If you look at the heatmap, Haller dropped deep often to get on the ball and help the Hammers start their attacks. The folks over at Whoscored have a great set up where you can isolate players on the heatmap and it shows Haller did most of his work around the centre circle.

Some of you will be shouting that it isn’t good for him to be there, but Pellegrini wants more passing and more patience in the build up, and Haller is key to that. With him dropping deep it is up to Lanzini, Anderson, Fornals and Antonio to get beyond the striker and influence the game more in an attacking sense. Haller had more touches than any other attacker except for Lanzini on our side, and only one less than Sterling. He had the teams’ highest pass success rate and completed the 4th most passes. This is a player getting involved with play and competent with the ball at his feet.

The big issue in this game is that it was City. They are effectively playing fantasy football. After winning all domestic trophies last season the went out and bought one of the world’s top defensive midfielders and a world class right back. They played so high they stopped us getting forward, and players like Lanzini and Wilshere were scared to get forward in case of being caught out. The match against Brighton will be an interesting watch for sure.

Next. VAR and West Ham, initial thoughts. dark

But until that point I’m going to remain optimistic that Haller will be a positive influence on our attacking play, and that his performance was all that we could ask for. I mean, he even managed to stretch his hamstrings to force an overhead kick on target. Top marks for effort, and I think we’ll be seeing goals from him before long!