With just seven games left of the Premier League season, West Ham remarkably sit in fourth place – above the champions, Liverpool and big summer spenders, Chelsea.
Last season West Ham were in a relegation battle, finishing the season just five points above the drop. Now though, the Hammers are in the hunt for European football but how have they managed to turn it around?
Effective Business
The arrival of midfielder, Tomas Soucek, has been a huge factor in West Ham’s success. He and Declan Rice have formed a formidable partnership capable of attacking and defending.
Soucek also played a part in the signing of Vladimir Coufal, who has excelled at right-back. It’s believed Soucek recommended his former Slavia Prague teammate to the Irons and have since become fan favourites known as the ‘Czech mates’.
West Ham were also shrewd in January, which helped them maintain their form going into and throughout the second half of the campaign, to date.
Jesse Lingard was brought in, on loan from Manchester United. Since his arrival, no other Premier League player has more league goals than him. His outstanding form earned him an England recall in March.
Tactical Proficiency
West Ham have become difficult to beat this season. Their playing style, types of players and strength at set pieces has meant the Hammers have scored more goals from corners than any other Premier League team this season.
Their attacking expertise at set pieces has also led many to draw comparisons with David Moyes’ Everton teams of the past.
He was in charge at Goodison Park from 2002–2013 and prior to his first full season, Everton finished in the bottom half of the table for six years. Moyes then guided them to nine ‘top eight’ finishes in 11 seasons and he seems to be on the right track to replicate something similar in East London.
There’s a similarity between Soucek and the Marouane Fellaini of Moyes’ Everton sides. Both are big aerial threats and make late runs into the box.
During Fellaini’s most prolific season, he scored 13 goals, playing as an attacking midfielder. So far, Soucek has nine goals but often sits deeper alongside Rice to allow space for a more creative technical player in the No.10 role, such as Lingard.
A Blast from the Past
In defence, Craig Dawson has been a surprisingly fantastic addition. Signed originally as a back-up on loan – now a permanent signing for £2m, he forced his way into the team and has never looked back.
Moyes must take some credit for the form of Dawson. In the Scot’s early days at Everton, he had a centre-back pairing of David Weir and Alan Stubbs. Both weren’t the quickest, like Dawson, but were good ‘penalty box defenders’.
“I didn’t want them coming up the park too high. They were great in the box, they could defend, block, read danger, but I didn’t want them getting caught on the half-way line”, said Moyes to the Coaches Voice YouTube channel.
Moyes is utilising Dawson in a similar way to how he used Stubbs and Weir – playing to their strengths.
Will They Deliver?
West Ham play a lot of teams towards the bottom of the table in the run-in, which they seem to do well against. Speaking to whufc.com after the 3-2 win versus Leicester, Moyes said:
“We’ve got games coming up where we think ‘we should win and we’re expected to win’ and they’ll be more pressure.”
Rising East spoke to the contributors at West Ham news website, Green Street Hammers, to see how confident the fans are. Contributor, Jack Hobbs said:
“I’m desperate for us to get Champions League because we might not get this chance again but I think we’ll finish fifth.
“It’s different this season, now it’s exciting nervousness for each game, I’m used to relegation battles and negative nervousness”, he joked.
Another contributor, Ioan Jones said:
“A point versus Chelsea in a few weeks and it goes from hope to expectation really, I never thought I’d see Champions League at the London Stadium, it’s so close now.”
