David Moyes has been installed as the new manager of West Ham United. Press comments
have not been kind, and one would be forgiven for thinking that Moyes is already a dead
man walking in charge of a failing team in a white elephant stadium. Certainly, Moyes’
record of late has been poor: despite being heralded for his work with an impoverished
Everton side, his tenures at Manchester United, Real Sociedad, and Sunderland all ended
with some version of failure. Moyes’ managerial record shows that only once has he
achieved a win ratio of more than 50%, at United.
But it’s worth noting that David Moyes has won the League Managers’ Association Manager
of the Year more than any current Premier League manager and is second only to Sir Alex
Ferguson since the award began in 1994. Moyes is known to be a meticulously prepared,
reactive manager. He tends to use one of two formations, either a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-2-3-1,
the only difference being how high the wide players start and the degree to which they
stay wide or cut inside – his major tactical variations are specific, personnel-based,
and designed to counter the strengths of the opposition. This tinkering led to long runs
of never playing the same starting XI twice in a
row, but it shows a willingness to adapt as well.
At Everton, where Moyes enjoyed his most sustained period of success, working within
budgetary constraints, he favoured the 4-4-1-1. Width was largely provided by the full-backs,
and in Seamus Coleman and Leighton Baines , Moyes worked with two energetic, capable
players who could get up and down the pitch and provide an attacking threat alongside
defensive solidity. The wide midfielders, usually the talented Steven Pienaar on the
left and players like Leon Osman, Kevin Mirallas, and
even Ross Barkley, on the right tended to tuck
in to compact the midfield, allow overlaps, and create passing options inside for the
overlapping full-backs. Moyes would often pair these wide midfielders
with deeper-lying, unfussy defensive midfielders like Darren Gibson, Phil Neville
, following his conversion from full-back, or the
versatile Osman – they sat deeper, screening the centre-backs and winning back possession,
before shifting the ball wide. The caricature of a Moyes side, defensive,
stilted, with midfielders giving sideways passes to
players who bang in crosses, comes from this Everton approach, but for a long time it was
an effective ploy. Moyes would often play a tall,
aerially dominant player in the number ten role, such as Tim Cahill or Marouane Fellaini,
behind a nimble, poacher-type striker. This striker was there to run into spaces and drag
defenders away from the later arriving aerial threat, and to latch onto crosses played into
the danger area between ‘keeper and defenders.
In the time that Moyes was in charge at Everton, from 14 March 2002 to 30 June 2013,
Everton recorded more headed shots and headed shots on target than any other team in the
Premier League, and scored the third most headed goals.
This approach clearly worked for Moyes at Everton and, it’s worth noting, West Ham
could be geared to and used to playing with a similar
aim in mind. We’ve already shown in a previous By The Numbers video that West Ham
play more long balls accurately as a proportion than any other current Premier
League side – they also, since the beginning of
last season, have a high degree of accuracy for headed shots and a good proportion of
their headed shots end in goals.
So, what can West Ham United fans expect from Moyes? It seems likely that he will use a
4- 4-1-1 or 4-2-3-1, with two deep midfielders,
a compact central space, attacking full-backs, and wide midfielders who tuck in or wingers
who play as inside forwards. He will probably ​
use Chicharito as the sort of predatory striker he favours, but he’ll endeavour to give
the Mexican more support with a strong aerial
presence, perhaps Michail Antonio . In Aaron Cresswell and Pablo Zabaleta or Sam
Byram, Moyes has the sort of full-backs he can
encourage to push forwards. West Ham’s somewhat leaky defence will be buoyed by the
Scot’s emphasis on solidity through the middle, where Pedro Obiang and Mark Noble
will likely play the Darron Gibson role – though
the versatile Declan Rice could also be used here,
much as Moyes has been prepared to play defenders like Jan Kirchoff or Paddy McNair in a
holding role. Out wide, Andre Ayew , Manuel Lanzini, and
Marko Arnautovic can all play tucking in or pushing forwards rather than as natural wingers,
again offering more support to whoever plays up front than was afforded under Slaven
Bilic. Pragmatically, if not aesthetically, Hammers
fans will hope they see the Moyes of Everton rather than the Moyes of Sunderland, of course
– dreams of attacking football must come second to safety.
But with the personnel Moyes has and the fact that West Ham’s squad do seem geared to
play a style of football that could work under the Scot, he could well conjure some of the
success he had with the Toffees, rather than condemn West Ham to a season of failure and relegation.