Tuesday 25 July 2017

Home and Away: These are the West Ham formations that can bring a top six finish next season

With the arrival of Javier Hernandez there is a sense that West Ham are now truly ready to push for a place amongst the big boys of the Premiership! A key issue for Slaven Bilic will be how best to employ his resources to bring the necessary results - both home and away.

Last season, West Ham initially struggled at home and found it hard to break visiting teams down. Where a team decides to park the bus we need to be able to open them up and the addition of Chicarito and Arnautovic adds the kind of offensive quality that will bring goals - even against the most determined and well organised visitors!

Playing the Carroll - Chicarito two up front card is an absolutely mouth watering prospect (if Sakho gets fit then he would add another dimension to this) and with the intensity of Antonio and Arnautovic down the wings while Lanzini waves his wand in the centre it looks hard to see how opposition defences will cope! Obviously, some visiting teams (Chelsea/Man City / Arsenal) require that we play a less open formation and for these sides perhaps Away option A is better suited even though we will be the hosts.

Away from home, we can play a tighter formation with just one forward and keeping Big Andy and / or Sakho as game-changing substitutes (or maybe start with Carroll as he is also so useful from defensive set pieces). Away option B includes three centre backs which emerged towards the end of last season as an effective defensive set up where we want to suffocate opponents. This is likely to be even more effective with the added pace to our counterattacking that Hernandez and Arnautovic will bring.

Obviously, for the formations below one can readily substitute Noble for either Kouyate or Obiang, Masuaku for Cresswell, Fonte for Ogbonna and Adrian for Hart.

Exciting times - it looks like we have the squad to match our stadium and aspirations. This will be a big year for SuperSlaven - he needs to deliver upon what we have been patiently moving towards over the past five years. This year can be the one where we finally break into the top six.


Home Option
 
—– Hart —–
— Zabaleta — Reid — Ogbonna — Cresswell —
—– Kouyate —–
—  Antonio — Lanzini — Arnautovic
— Hernandez — Carroll —
 
 
Away Option A
—– Hart —–
— Zabaleta — Reid— Ogbonna  — Cresswell —
— Obiang — Kouyate —-
—  Antonio — Lanzini — Arnautovic
—– Hernandez —–
 
 
Away Option B
—– Hart —–
— Zabaleta — Fonte — Reid— Ogbonna  — Cresswell —
— Kouyate —
—  Antonio — Lanzini — Arnautovic
—– Hernandez —–
 

6 comments:

  1. Rubbish stuff. Without Noble we have no brains in the side. He has got to start.

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    Replies
    1. hes long past hes best ( if he ever had hes best ) stop looking through rose tinted glasses and forget the fact he is a one team man , simple fact is he is no where near good enough ....end of !

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  2. Sorry guys-Sakho is now fit and ready to join Chicharito up front;
    therefore we must employ formations with at least 2 strikers (Carroll is a long way from full fitness); a 3-5-2, 4-4-2, and on occasions, a 4-3-3; these formations provide a strong midfield and 2 strong strikers; I hope that Slav gives away his favorite 4-2-3-1 formation, since our 2 holding midfielders would not be strong enough, and Chicharito is a better striker when he plays with a fellow striker (like Sakho).

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  3. Noble may have the brains, but is not fast enough against the best attacking EPL sides!

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  4. Masauku has to start ahead of Cresswell.

    Good options on the bench as well. can see us up there this season

    ReplyDelete
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