Two Wholesale Changes Moyes Could Make to Ignite Sebastien Haller

It isn’t likely, but if David Moyes wanted to give every opportunity to kickstart Sebastien Haller’s West Ham season, he could make one of these two massive formation changes.

It seems unlikely that David Moyes will adjust the team that has succeeded in recent weeks. West Ham have navigated their most difficult stretch of fixtures (on paper) and amassed eight unlikely points along the way. Still, if Moyes wants to shake things up for the sake of getting Sebastien Haller all the support he needs, he can make two drastic changes.

Stick With The Formation, Change The Support

Five at the back is working for Moyes and West Ham. The added width from wingbacks and extra defensive coverage have neutralized many of the Premier League’s top offences. So, logic would dictate that Moyes, who is a defensive-minded manager, will stick with his heavily defensive team. Still, if he does do this, a change of personnel could spark his hitman up top.

The changes to make? Remove Pablo Fornals from the left-wing and start Said Benrahma in his place, and replace Jarrod Bowen on the right-wing and replace him with Robert Snodgrass.

It is VERY self-explanatory when you look at it, Sebastien Haller needs aerial service to be a more effective target man and employing Benrahma and Snodgrass would facilitate and aerial onslaught against Fulham.

Last season, Benrahma scored 17 goals and added 19 assists for Brentford in their very strong campaign. His creativity and ability to impact the offence shouldn’t be overlooked, especially when working with Haller. Likewise but to a lesser extent, Snodgrass had five goals and five assists in a sub-heavy position at West Ham. These totals are terrific for a super sub and his delivery on corners and set-pieces would be an added bonus.

Wholesale Change

If Moyes wanted to shake things up and completely change the look of his team, two different formations could be used, both including Benrahma and Snodgrass on the left and right flank respectively.

The two formations in question are a 4-4-2 and a 4-2-3-1, both employing an exciting attacker instead of an extra centre-back to give the wingbacks a place in the team. While less defensively strong, Haller couldn’t complain about either situation.

The 4-4-2 would see Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek in the midfield flanked by Benrahma and Snodgrass for their creative abilities. Alongside him up top would be Jarrod Bowen to run the channels and get in behind the Fulham defenders.

In a 4-2-3-1 Bowen would lose out to Fornals who would drop into a number 10 central attacking midfield role. Fornals would end up supporting Haller centrally, but would also act as a batterymate to both wingers providing them support to either get forward or into wider positions to influence the attack.

These ideas are fun to hypothesize about but in reality, it seems unlikely that either will be employed. Benrahma may step in to replace Fornals at the most, but don’t expect Moyes to change his system that has worked so well in recent weeks.