West Ham 2 - 2 Manchester United: Statistical and Tactical Analysis

Sir Alex Ferguson's side went into this match with one hand on the Premier League trophy, however they still had to battle a West Ham side who played well against the league leaders.

Essentially it was a battle of two 4-2-3-1s with Jarvis, Nolan and Vaz Te making up the home side's '3' which worked excellently on the break, up against a very threatening '3' of Kagawa, Rooney and Valencia behind RVP.


A selection of Vidic and Ferdinand at the back was chosen in order to counter the Hammers' predominant threat Carroll, and they did so well if you exclude the first goal - the England striker won just 10 of his 22 aerial duels (45%).

One mistake that the legendary manager may have made in his selection was Shinji Kagawa on the left flank. The Japanese midfielder may have contributed well on the attack, getting one assist to his name, however should he have been positioned differently? I will come to talk about this among other things in my match analysis of the great game.

West Ham's First Goal

The opening goal of the game was produced from a fine counter-attack, which all started from the edge of Jussi Jaaskelainen's penalty area. At the moment of the Hammers regaining possession of the ball, Evra was one of the highest players in a Manchester United shirt, and would later be the one who challenged Carroll on the knock down.

When defending a counter-attack, your main aim should be to slow the attack down as much as possible to allow your teammates to track back, however when Diame was driving the ball out of his side's half, Rafael did exactly the opposite by coming into a central position in an attempt to thwart the attack there and then.

This left the right-back position completely uncovered for Matt Jarvis to bomb down. In order to try and stop the winger, Ferdinand moved out wide whilst Rafael covered centrally. With this threat taking hold of the away defence's concentration, Vaz Te and their predominant threat Andy Carroll switched positions, which meant that Vidic, who was played specifically to deal with the large target man, wasn't in a position to reach him. Instead of having to beat the monstrous Serb, the on-form striker was up against Evra, who had just run the length of the pitch to get back, however he did not have the time to get organised, or the physical capability to challenge Carroll, who went on to give Vaz Te an easy finish from 5 yards out.

And Their Deep Defensive Line

There were some positives and some negatives surrounding the home side's deep setup, for one it stopped Carrick from playing balls in behind the back four, but it also allowed them to counter-attack more effectively, as it encouraged player such as the full-backs to push forward which left the defence in white exposed just like it did for the opener.

With players such as Diame who like to press forward however, it meant that the space between the lines of midfield and defence were often exploited by Rooney and Kagawa. When a side plays deep, they sacrifice space ahead of them to try and control the space closer to their goal, this had Rooney often dropping into a position as the closest midfielder to his own defence.

Rooney's movement then left the attacking midfield position vacant for Kagawa to come inside to, as the ex-Dortmund player linked well with the English forward, sharing 22 passes between them.

Average positions via whoscored.com

West Ham average just 12 interceptions per game normally, however in this match, they managed 20 - 166% higher. Though that being said, the away side enjoyed a good pass completion percentage of 87.7% (2.2% higher than their average) and on top of this, they created a chance 5 minutes.

 

 

Michael Carrick

One of the top performers for United this season had another great game in midfield, completing 105 of the 117 passes that the England international attempted throughout the evening. Between the trio of Carrick, Kagawa and Rooney, 94 passes where shared though Carrick himself made 44 (47%) of those.

Carrick was as influential as ever for Ferguson's side, but with the help of Phil Jones, who's partnership in midfield worked well against the hard working Hammers.

Fouled more (3) than any other player, West Ham were definitely aiming to curtail the midfielder's effect in the game, but with the likes of Rooney and Kagawa to also keep at least one eye on, they weren't able to ast the stats show - he created .

West Ham Poor in the Air

In the 38 aerial duels in the 90 minutes, the away side were more successful as Allardyce's side managed to win just 15 of them, at 39%. This was 15% lower than their average this season.

Too Much Pressing?

Although many teams have had success pressing aggressively in recent seasons, West Ham probably did so too much in the match, especially considering that their defense were positioned as deep as they were. When you combine a deep defensive line alongside pressing up field, space in between the banks of midfield open up, and this was exactly what Allardyce's side didn't want, as it opened up room for the likes of Rooney to roam in to.

On top of this, it also caused the home side to become fatigued coming towards the latter end of the game, as well as simply inviting more pressure onto them in the first place. They did need to press the likes of Carrick, but did they do so too much?

 

Kagawa's Laziness Causes Problems for Evra

Although the Frenchman was statistically strong in defence, making 5/6 successful tackles, he was involved in both of West Ham's goals. When taking into account that Evra was up against a team who focus their attacks largely down the flanks, the left-back was never going to have the simplest of games though.

Demel was one of WHU's most influential players

His job was made no easier however by his Japanese teammate Kagawa, who seemed void of many defensive duties, making just one block in the 78 minutes he played. This will largely be due to his movement inside as shown by the average positions above, prior to the match, I thought that Ferguson would've looked to nullify West Ham's wing threat more than he did in the end, taking into consideration that; 1) 73% of their attacks come from the flanks and 2) Jarvis has created the most chances for them this season (38).

The pairing of Demel and Vaz Te certainly aimed to take advantage over this problem for the away side - the former made 4 crosses whilst the latter made 5, and out of the 9 crosses made between them, 3 found their man.

Evra still made many tackles without Kagawa's help

Andy Carroll

One man most instrumental in West Ham's point, was the English striker on loan from Liverpool. Participating in a great 22 aerial duels (and winning 10 of them), he continued his good form and ended with an assist to his name. It wasn't his attacking work that was most impressive however, already a key man for West Ham when defending set pieces, Carroll did very well for a striker in defence, making some vital tackles in and around his side's penalty area.

Overall in this match, I feel the home side deserved a win more so than their opposition at the top of the table. However, with the way things are standing, I highly doubt that Ferguson's men will be too bothered with their performance, as they keep their gaze upon the title just 6 points away.

Thanks for reading! This article was intended for EPL Index however it was a bit later than planned. Any criticism welcome, you can follow me on Twitter if you enjoy my writing!