It appears time has run our for Manuel Pellegrini’s same formation as West Ham travels on to Turf Moor to face Burnley. Time for an overhaul and two up top for the Hammers?
The same formation has been used in every match this season. A traditional back-four has been insulated by one defensive midfielder, one box-to-box midfielder, one central attacking midfielder, two wide attackers and a solo striker up top. West Ham and Manuel Pellegrini have not adjusted this formation once this year.
Sebastien Haller has been isolated in this formation and the goals have dried up for him and the Hammers as a consequence. Felipe Anderson has gone cold with defensive responsibility mounting over his attacking play. Andriy Yarmolenko has no support on the right side of the pitch. Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Fornals have been relegated to the bench. Both sets of fullbacks have been exposed at times this season.
Safe to say things haven’t gone as planned this season for Pellegrini’s men, but the answer to this lies in the current squad. It’s time to abandon the idea of forcing players into a system and use a system that actually suits the players you have.
Here it is, the predicted starting XI for the Hammers:
Martin
Fredericks – Diop – Ogbonna – Masuaku
Snodgrass – Lanzini – Rice – Anderson
Ajeti – Haller
Let’s start from the back. I’ve seen all I need to from Roberto and its time for David Martin to get a chance at the starting gig for the next month or two. Roberto makes some good saves but he also doesn’t have the highest footballing IQ and takes a while to drop down to cover his corners in goal.
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In front of Martin, Ryan Fredericks, Angelo Ogbonna, and Arthur Masuaku return to the starting XI. Fabian Balbuena knocked out Ogbonna inexplicable but he has played well, still, Ogbonna shouldn’t be dropped and with Diop one yellow card away from a suspension, Balbuena could return shortly. The fullbacks needed replacing and Fredericks and Masuaku bring more pace to the team.
A central midfield of Declan Rice and Manuel Lanzini is a boom or bust partnership, but all the pressure falls on the Argentine. He has been dropped in recent weeks but looked good in his 45′ appearance against Newcastle, chipping in an assist. He’ll have to come deeper, but he needs to take this opportunity and run with it… literally.
Robert Snodgrass and Felipe Anderson out wide makes sense. Andriy Yarmolenko has gone cold in the last few matches so why not keep Snodgrass involved as a crossing wide midfielder. Anderson has been his same old self, too. Maybe this formation will allow him to stay more committed forward to contribute more to the attack.
Lastly, it’s time to play two strikers together. Pellegrini did it for the second half of the Newcastle game and surprise surprise, the Hammers started playing better, specifically Sebastien Haller. Albian Ajeti was making the runs into the box that Haller thrived off of with Frankfurt and the two actually looked solid together.
This is maybe too much of a change for Pellegrini to install, but I think he needs to be brash and wide-sweeping. It isn’t often that six changes to the starting XI can ever be supported but in this case, there needs to be swift and abrupt action. Can this squad break down a tough Burnley squad?