West Ham: Simplify the tactics and work on the basics

Another match came and went, and with it a chance for West Ham to settle into a reliable, proven formation to get a result. Time to boil it back down to the basics.

Formation, formation, formation. I feel like I only ever talk about formation with West Ham, but with one stubborn manager following a stubborn predecessor, it’s hard not to. Manuel Pellegrini lived and eventually died (metaphorically) with his 4-5-1 team, and now David Moyes is following suit with a similarly ineffective 5-3-2.

Don’t let the wingbacks and dual strikers mislead you, this team does not function at all like an attacking-minded squad, a la Wolves, instead they are stuck in-between offence and defence. What results is an easily picked apart team by pretty much any opponent.

With Liverpool awaiting Moyes’ Hammers, the game will go exactly the same as it did against City if nothing changes. An easy way to ensure it doesn’t? Change the damn formation!

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When you think of old school, basics of football a gritty 4-4-2 team comes to mind. The back-four is set in a defence-first mindset, the central midfield is anchored by two holding players to balance out the striker duo up top. The flanks of the midfield become the two most important players on the pitch.

Tasked with drifting into the box as attacking support, feeding the strikers with crosses, and tracking back to cover defensively, the left and right midfielders have the be on point in order to get success out of this formation.

Luckily, for West Ham, Felipe Anderson and Jarrod Bowen can do this with ease. Anderson struggled last season with defensive coverage but has improved in 2019/20 greatly. His attacking prowess is known, and his biggest plus comes from insane dribbling and keen desire to overlap and get forward.

As for newbie Bowen, he has a point to prove. West Ham splurged on him to help save them from relegation and push on, what better way to make an impact than to start and change the rate of play against incumbent league winning Liverpool? He’s quick, he’s great with the ball, and he sees the game very well. All are pluses and must be used to inspire a result.

Next. The Gaffer has put Pablo Fornals on a missing persons alert. dark

The glory of a 4-4-2 is that if every player just plays their position (and gives effort), the football will take care of itself. This team is strong enough on paper to be challenging for European football, so they should at least step forward to get out of the bottom three as soon as possible.