Formed through Hammers supporters Jack Elderton and Callum Goodall to offer their fellow enthusiasts in-depth but available research of their team and players, Analytics United will provide content for the club’s official website, app, official programme and social media channels in 2023. /24 season.
Here, Analytics United uses feature research and knowledge to read about how West Ham United deserve Olympiacos when the Greek side fail to face the danger. . .
After squandering their away game in Group A of the UEFA Europa League against tonight’s opponents, David Moyes’ side will be keen to bounce back with a win and functionality more representative of the team’s quality. To do this, the Hammers want to get more out of it through their appearance. He took advantage of patience and authority on the ball, combined with a defensive determination that doesn’t allow for the kind of mistakes seen in recent weeks.
In that 2-1 win over West Ham a few weeks ago, Olympiacos coach Diego Martinez managed to extract functionality from his team that contained the defensive quality needed to ruin the advance to the final third before fighting fiercely when the game started to get complicated. drift. left in the last ten minutes. This kind of compromise will be mandatory if the Greeks want to take on as many issues as possible tonight.
When looking for weaknesses, West Ham can take inspiration from the way their warring sides have so far struggled to clear the box of crosses well during their Europa League crusade. Martinez’s team was hard to take down, but he couldn’t deal with them. the balls thrown into the box at the end of the game. . .
Miloš Pantović’s last-minute equalizer in TSC Bačka Topola’s 2-2 draw against Olympiacos came thanks to a floated ball with his right foot, where a moment of indecision in the Olympiacos defense allowed Pantović to escape the offside. game and score. Maximiliano Philipp (86th minute) There was no other winner for Freiburg, as Olympiacos failed to clear a corner and did not close down the striker enough temporarily when the ball fell. And it could have been a similar story in the West Ham game a few weeks ago if Jackson Porozo hadn’t been heroic. Tomáš Souček prevented the goal when the Czech midfielder burst into the penalty area to score a cross from Lucas Paquetá in the 97th minute. This after the Brazilian scored himself when Quini failed to clear a cross from Michail Antonio in the minute 87.
Of course, it is important that West Ham do not rely solely on crosses to create a chance and, although Olympiacos have proven difficult to defeat in general play, Moyes’ team will have to be prepared to have continuous interaction in the middle. . spaces between the Greek teams: centre-backs, full-backs and defensive midfielders. It is in these spaces where errors can occur, as players may not know exactly who has the responsibility of blocking the receiving player.
Sometimes this indecisiveness can force excessive engagement when two players run towards the same ball and those moments create opportunities for combined play and the creation of chances. It’s in those spaces that players like Mohammed Kudus and Saïd Benrahma come to life and extract more artistic spark. of the most technical players in the squad will be key to getting a result tonight.
In addition, Olympiacos has already conceded two goals at the organizational level after wasting the ball in its own preseason phase. Against TSC Bačka Topola, a loose pass from Panagiotis Retsos allowed Saša Jovanović and Ifet Djakovac to mix for the first time from the field. Serbian. And in the match against Freiburg, it was Nicolás Freire who sold his goalkeeper, letting Roland Sallai jump in and finish. Pressing intensely may not be the natural maximum for this West Ham team, but Freiburg’s initial intensity on the field The Georgios Karaiskakis football stadium brought enormous benefits: Christian Streich’s team recorded a PPDA (assists consistent with defensive action ) of 4. 75 in the first hour, while West Ham recorded a much less intense 14. 5 during the same constant time, and Moyes’ team are more than capable of generating similar results.
A higher PPDA shows less intense urgency because the number represents the average number of passes the opponent must make between each defensive intervention.
The Hammers would do well not to let their opponents settle in as they did in Greece, as it is clear that Martinez’s side struggle much more under intense pressure. TSC Bačka Topol’s goals came here as Olympiacos’ PPDA fell to 4. 4 and West Ham’s Clearly, it was much more impressive towards the end of the game in Greece, when their PPDA dropped to a slightly insane 1. 8. Of course, those fluctuations are indicative of changes in the dynamics of the games, however, West Ham can force that replacement by participating more. aggressively from the start, just as Freiburg did.
Three things tonight would allow them to take over the organization and ease the tension in the next two games: a high-level and more intense performance is needed.
*The views and reviews expressed in this article are those of Analytics United and do not necessarily reflect the views of West Ham United.
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