Showered with praise all season long, Sam Allardyce’s men have shocked us all by embracing a brand of football which is considered a polar opposite to that we commonly associate with a Sam Allardyce side – and it’s come with great success.
‘New year, new me’ was as truer statement as you could find to attach to Allardyce as he re-wrote his tactics following immense pressure from the West Ham faithful to change his dull and direct style. To do this, Allardyce forayed into the transfer market and brought in more cultured footballers who are more suited to playing an expansive passing game.
Through injury to Andy Carroll, Allardyce stumbled across the partnership of Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia in his 4-4-2 diamond formation where with the creativity from Stewart Downing just behind and Alex Song from deeper with the width of Carl Jenkinson and Aaron Cresswell would provide a bounty of goalscoring opportunities for the two striker, and that proved to be the case.
From September 15th to November 8th, Sakho and Valencia started seven of eight games together, and in those games they combined for nine goals and three assists, and the Hammers only lost one game in that run (Manchester United away). It was this run of fixtures that helped push West Ham into the European places towards December.
November 8th signalled the last game before a two week international break, a break which saw the return to fitness of record signing Andy Carroll following yet another long-term ankle injury. During this international break, Diafra Sakho suffered a back injury which would keep him out for several games.
Sakho made his return to the team in the 3-1 win at home to Swansea on December 7th, having missed three games, and during these three games, Valencia didn’t start at all, and West Ham only started two strikers once despite having four fit options, and reverted back to a 4-5-1 formation, something we’re more akin to seeing with a Sam Allardyce side.
While West Ham still won two of these three fixtures, there was a definite and noticeable swaying back to a more direct style of football. Still possessing the ball-playing midfielders of Alex Song and Mark Noble in the team who would spread the ball wide to the attacking fullbacks, there was a more prominent emphasis to get Carroll into the game by any means, which would mean playing the ball long for him to bring down or flick on.
Valencia, Sakho and Carroll all featured in that 3-1 win against Swansea, with the latter two scoring the goals that day, but it was Carroll’s immense performance with two headed goals with caught the eye, and cemented his place in the team.
The next six fixtures (taking us up to the present day) have seen Carroll start five of them, with the team flip-flopping between a 4-5-1 and a 4-4-2 diamond formation. Sakho and Valencia are yet to start a game together since Novemeber 8th, and West Ham have played ten, won four, lost three and drawn three. Since that Swansea game which signalled Carroll’s run in the team, it’s a different story, having only won one of six games.
Unfortunately now, Sakho’s back injury rules him out for the time being, meaning Carroll will continue his run in the side providing any injury, but hopefully Allardyce clues on to what’s going and reverts back to what was working for him – the 4-4-2 diamond, and play Carroll and Valencia how he played Sakho and Valencia.
The key to the teams success early was their tenacity. It was instilled into the team to pressure the opponents into a mistake and attack with a great deal of pace and decisiveness. While Carroll doesn’t possess the pace of Sakho, he can hustle opponents and cause a problem by drawing away defenders from the play because he commands such attention in the attacking third.
West Ham’s fluid passing football they played in the early months of the season would catch teams off guard. Having to defend two strikers does present a different problem than having to defend a target man forward when you know the ball is going to played in the air and be a 50/50 challenge. Valencia and Sakho would exploit the channels and drag defenders out of position, creating space for their striker partner or midfielders bombing on – and there’s no reason why Carroll cannot do that as well.
The commitment to proving that their investment in Andy Carroll was worthwhile is dragging West Ham down. The team looks for Carroll going forward instead of being more incisive with their attacks with a measured build up instead of ‘hoofing’ it long to the big guy.
Teams are starting to clue on to West Ham over the festive period. You can blame it on fatigue as much as you like Allardyce, but the fact is you’re moving away from what made this team great earlier in the season to what made this team resented last season. Do us all a favour and go back to what was working.
