Flawed Approach Set West Ham Up To Fail Against Manchester City
Arthur Ashe, the three-time Grand Slam tennis champion, once said that “success is a journey, not a destination” before adding that “the doing is often more important than the final outcome.”
In other words, the process matters and West Ham’s season-opening loss to Manchester City was a classic demonstration of why.
Pep Guardiola’s side played the Hammers off the park on Sunday [7 August], claiming a 76 percent share of possession and two unanswered Erling Haaland strikes. Excluding five minutes of sloppy play from the visitors shortly after the break, it was all one-way traffic.
“You could only watch Manchester City control all of the game; they were too good for us today,” David Moyes said at full-time.
“We couldn’t get any of the ball and they just had too many players in the middle of the pitch. It was easy for them to get the ball wide when we tried to fill the middle of the pitch, because then the space became wider in the wide areas and they’re very good at getting down the sides of you.
“They played with nearly five players on the front line and their two full-backs played inside, alongside Rodri, and then with two centre-halves. It was a game that we never really got any amount of the ball in and, I have to say, we were well beaten today.”
Despite the travelling side’s quality in possession, it was a miserable performance from an injury-depleted West Ham side. They were rudderless for much of the first half and only rallied briefly after the break.
Manchester City’s positional play was suffocating, as Moyes noted, but it was not new. Pushing five players into the forward line has been a feature of Guardiola’s style for a while, creating this shape in possession:
Considering the quality at Manchester City’s disposal, it is difficult to imagine how West Ham would have plotted a surprise win with a half-fit squad. But did Moyes implement the right process?
There is little to suggest he did, even though his side limited the visitors to just two shots on target.
West Ham’s offensive efforts were drab at best, pointless at worst – as typified by this 42nd-minute attack:
Jarrod Bowen claims possession following a long ball from Alphonse Areola. Tomas Soucek is running up field, trying to involve himself in the play. Michail Antonio is virtually tripping over Bowen and the offside trap. Pablo Fornals is also in the frame, albeit hiding behind two Manchester City defenders.
Bowen’s next move should have involved circling back, biding his time, and playing a simple pass to Vladimir Coufal. Here is what happened instead:
Bowen follows his instinct and plays a high-risk pass down the channel to Antonio – who would’ve been in a dead-end one-v-one if he wasn’t caught offside.
Granted, the 25-year-old’s failed pass was an inconsequential play. But it typifies why West Ham’s approach to attacking was so flawed against Manchester City.
Let’s briefly return to what Moyes had to say after the match:
“Tactically, they changed what they were doing and altered things that we had worked during the week to try to do the job that we did at the end of last season.”
Manchester City’s big strategic shift – aside from Haaland’s introduction – relates to the positioning of their full-backs. Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker sat narrower and deeper in possession this time around.
Ultimately, this shrunk West Ham’s avenues of (counter-)attack, nullifying the threat of channel passes – including the one played by Bowen on 42 minutes.
The Hammers should have played more low-risk passes in response, using full-backs Aaron Cresswell and Coufal as pressure valves in possession. From there, the home side could have stuffed more bodies around Antonio, opening up second-ball chances.
However, in the words of Moyes, the home side “wasn’t able to quickly change and challenge [City],” condemning them to a drab defeat.
Granted, West Ham probably would have lost even if they were smarter in possession. But football is not just about the “final outcome,” the “journey” is also important and the Hammers will rue their wastefulness as a result.