Each Premier League weekend, totalfootballanalysis.com brings you a tactical preview of the ‘Fixture in Focus’. This week, Harshal Patel looks at West Ham vs Tottenham and considers whether West Ham can bring the gameplan that was so successful against Man United to the table against their London rivals.
This Saturday sees the return of a feisty London derby, as West Ham United play host to Tottenham Hotspur.
The Hammers have done well to recover from a four-game losing streak at the start of the season, picking up notable wins against Everton and Manchester United in the process, but their progress took a step back in the 1-0 defeat away to Brighton just before the international break.
Tottenham, on the other hand, despite all the doom and gloom surrounding their prospects this season, are only two points off the top of the table, level with Arsenal on 18 points. They have beaten the likes of Brighton, Huddersfield and Cardiff in their last three league games, and despite the absence of Dele Alli, Jan Vertonghen and Christian Eriksen, Spurs will still provide a formidable challenge for Manuel Pellegrini’s Hammers.
West Ham have won 14 Premier League games against Spurs – the most they have against any team, and Pellegrini’s tactical tweaks may have given them a fighting chance to increase that tally.
Having started the season with a 4-2-3-1, which left the midfield far too open, the Chilean has switched to a 4-3-3, with Declan Rice slotting in as the anchor man in midfield, while Mark Noble has played an almost Pirlo-esque role at times, dictating play from a deeper position and allowing Pedro Obiang to move up the pitch.
Andriy Yarmolenko and Felipe Anderson start out wide but constantly look to cut inside for shooting opportunities, while Marko Arnautovic is a brilliant leader of the line, looking for space across the pitch to drag opposition defenders out of position.
Arnautovic could be the key player
The Austrian had a superb game against United, constantly looking to drift deep and wide to combine with the wide players, and his movement was a constant thorn in the flesh for the United defenders.
Arnautovic capped his display with a well-taken goal as well, but it his all-round game that will pose problems for Spurs on Saturday.
Arnautovic’s touch map against United shows his range of movement across the width and length of the pitch.
Davinson Sanchez will partner Toby Alderweireld in the Spurs defence, and he is prone to get sucked out of position while following the opposition striker around the pitch; a trait that West Ham can exploit via Arnautovic.
As the example from the United game below shows, the Austrian’s movement opens up space behind the lines if his centre-back follows him into deeper positions a la Chris Smalling.
The Austrian receives the ball on the halfway line, having dragged Chris Smalling all the way up the pitch up with him. This opens up the space for Yarmolenko to run into, with a simple pass out to Zabaleta the trigger for such a move. The Ukranian chose to stay out wide in this instance, but this demonstrates just how much space Arnautovic is capable of opening up.
Combining excellent movement and positional skills with ruthless finishing, Arnautovic looks like finally having solved West Ham’s age-old striking issues, and he is well placed to take advantage of a slightly vulnerable Spurs side on Saturday.
Noble and Rice form an effective double act
West Ham’s start to the season was notable for the literal hole they had in midfield – Manuel Pellegrini had allowed the out-of-favour Cheikhou Kouyate to leave for Crystal Palace, and he then started two out of Jack Wilshere, Carlos Sanchez and Mark Noble in midfield for West Ham’s first four games, all of which they lost.
Not one of the aforementioned trio are effective defensive midfielders, for varying reasons, and all this while Declan Rice was sitting on the bench. The Chilean brought in Rice for the away game against Everton, switching to a 4-3-3 with Noble and Pedro Obiang in midfield, and this system has finally brought balance to West Ham.
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Rice sits deep and protects the back four, breaking up attacks and recycling the ball effectively, while Noble is the deep-lying playmaker, stitching moves together and providing a passing outlet for his teammates. This allows Obiang to get further up the pitch in support of Arnautovic, safe in the knowledge that his two midfield colleagues are guarding the fort in case the move breaks down.
Declan Rice’s touches against United; note how many of them are in his own half.
Mark Noble’s touch map against United; the Hammers captain had more touches than any other West Ham player (81), and the second-highest of any player on the pitch. Once again, note that quite a few of these are in his own half.
This strategy is especially crucial against Spurs, who are currently suffering from a lack of creativity in the absence of Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen.
If the Dane is fit for this clash, it makes it even more imperative that central areas are shut down, as that is where he thrives. Spurs’ midfield struggled for penetration in their 1-0 win over Cardiff before the international break, as the touch map below shows.
Possession without penetration, at least not from midfield. The few touches that are in dangerous areas were courtesy of Sissoko, who was playing as a right winger of sorts.
A solid defensive block, comprising of the two central defenders with Rice and Noble ahead of them, will go a long way towards frustrating the Hammers’ visitors on Saturday.
A compact back four, with Noble and Rice also close to each other, while Obiang and the wingers are also dropping back to defend.
Use width to get in behind Spurs
Another facet of West Ham’s display against United was their effective use of the wide areas. Granted that United were playing with a three-man defence, which naturally gave the Hammers an overload out wide; even so, West Ham made very good use of this advantage.
Zabaleta and Masuaku both bombed forward repeatedly, once again encouraged by Rice’s positioning, which helped to pin United’s wingbacks back.
Zabaleta and Masuaku’s combined touch map against United.
Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs side relies heavily on the full-backs to provide width, so it is a similar sort of threat that will arrive at the London Stadium on Saturday. Kieran Trippier, in particular, is regularly expected to provide width and thrust; he made a staggering 151 touches in the game against Cardiff.
This opens up an avenue for West Ham on the counter, as they can use Felipe Anderson’s pace to get in behind Trippier. Indeed, they did this to good effect against United, as the images below show –
Anderson and Yarmolenko’s touch maps from that game; staying out wide but also coming inside to work combinations.
Zabaleta has gone outside on the overlap as Yarmolenko checks inside; Obiang is in space in the number 10 position, while Anderson has stayed out wide on the opposite flank to make space. Noble and Rice are behind the ball to guard against a counter-attack, as is Masuaku on the far side.
Yarmolenko also tends to stay out wide before coming inside closer to goal, with the effect that the pitch is made as wide as possible.
This will stretch Spurs, and while this may cause the Hammers to be slightly vulnerable themselves on the counter, the aforementioned solid block of four should provide enough of a defensive platform for the forwards to maintain this sort of positioning. In any case, Pellegrini has moulded this side into hard workers, with the wingers and even Arnautovic tracking back when needed.
This has all the indications of being an enthralling derby game – two sides looking to play on the front foot, the home side coming in on a decent run of form, and the away side, while superior on paper, facing questions over their approach despite being close to the top of the table.
Both West Ham and Spurs have points to prove, and the Hammers have all the ingredients needed to pick up another big-name scalp on their own patch.