Crystal Palace has a weak spot that West Ham United needs to exploit

West Ham will welcome London rivals, Crystal Palace, this weekend. In a London Derby, anything goes, as the Hammers will have to look for a weakness. However, they won’t have to look very far.

West Ham and Palace are historically looking up at the rest of the big clubs in London when it comes to bragging right but this season, things have been fairly consistent so far. All 5 London-based clubs are sitting in the top 10 and only a point apart from each other.

Simply put, this match is another huge, must win, for the Hammers. When looking on paper this match seems fairly close. But when watching the gameplay itself, they couldn’t be further apart with their styles of play.

This style of play difference is where West Ham needs to attack to ensure another 3 points this weekend. The Eagles typically run a 4-3-3 with their two wingers getting back somewhat to defend but traditionally sitting on the offensive.

It seems that Pellegrini has been sticking to a 4-1-4-1 formation leaving Declan Rice to patrol the backside of the midfield. The midfield for the Hammers has to and can easily exploit the Palace midfield in a few ways that have already been seen.

LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 22: Mark Noble of West Ham United moves away from Juan Mata of Manchester United during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Manchester United at London Stadium on September 22, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images) /

The bulk of the Hammers attack comes from their midfield ability to get back on defense and then passing methodically up the pitch. The teams close to 80% overall passing accuracy is great considering years past and their ability to control possession while moving forward and not back has fans very optimistic.

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Where this will come into play is the fact that Crystal Palaces 3 in the midfield defend well but are limited in support as you don’t very often see Zaha, Ayew, Townsend, etc. tracking back too far past the halfway line or at least as well as we’ve seen West Ham this season.

Although facing a side that constantly has 2 to 3 players ready for the counter-attack, the Hammers have done really well at getting back and working both sides of the pitch. Huge credit to Pellegrini and the training staff for sure.

The amount of creation that Anderson and Lanzini like to dial-up can possibly trip up Palaces midfield trio into fouls as they have an astonishing 17 yellow cards already this season. The Hammers have done much better this season with ticky tacky passes creating plays through their midfield other than just lofting it down the pitch.

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This weak spot is tough but can crack easily with the right pressure of one overpowering and two, creating plays and keeping possession. Both of these things have been what had prevailed the Hammers into 5th place so far this season and hopefully higher in the weeks to come.