It’s Manchester United v West Ham on Sunday night and this could be fascinating. West Ham’s strengths match Man United’s weaknesses.
Tactical pattern
This is precisely the kind of game that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United are not particularly prepared for. Their relatively free-form attacking lines, which lack tactical structure and instead depend on individualism, can come unstuck against a well-organised defensive blockade, as was shown most recently in the lifeless 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace.
But of course it would be unfair on this bold, confrontational and menacing West Ham side to compare them to Palace. David Moyes will set his team up to block United’s route to goal in the final third and then get up the pitch by winning set-pieces or countering through Michail Antonio. It has a West Ham win written all over it.
Back West Ham to win at 10/3 (PaddyPower)
Key battle zone
Large parts of the game will be played in West Ham’s half as United look to probe for gaps, and so inevitably the key battle zone is through central midfield. Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek form the foundation of everything West Ham do, from sweeping up defensively; to blocking the route through to the penalty area; to intelligently distributing the first pass on the counter; to making surging forward runs to support in attack; to rising highest at set-pieces.
Equally, everything Man Utd do seems to filter through Bruno Fernandes, particularly while Paul Pogba is unavailable. The Portugal international will try to get on the ball as often as possible in central areas but may find himself successfully blocked by Rice or Soucek. Their battle is undoubtedly the most important at Old Trafford.
Keep an eye on… West Ham’s set-pieces
There is a lot of sophistication in how Moyes’s side move forward, whether it’s how Pablo Fornals drifts infield to join Jesse Lingard (unavailable for this game) on the counter-attack or using a false nine and attacking wing-backs to work around a deeper defence. But Moyes is still a pragmatist, and it is not doing him a disservice to highlight the importance of set-pieces in a match-up like this.
Antonio and Soucek are particularly good at winning set-pieces that help move West Ham up the pitch, and certainly as their centre-forward runs the channels the visitors will be reliant on dead balls. Only two clubs have conceded more non-penalty set-piece goals than Man Utd this season (10), while West Ham have scored the most (14). That’s an important mismatch.
One to watch… Vladimir Coufal
Right-back Coufal has been one of the signings of the season, holding down his flank expertly no matter the opponent; Man City were completely neutered down this side in a fortunate 2-1 win for Pep Guardiola’s side (Ferran Torres and Phil Foden had little influence) while Heung-Min Son struggled to get into the game when West Ham beat Tottenham last month.
Man Utd focus the majority of their attacks down the left side through Marcus Rashford and/or Anthony Martial, with Luke Shaw’s impressive recent form only making Solskjaer’s team yet more lopsided. Coufal will have a lot of work to do, but it would be unwise to bet against him.
Back West Ham to keep a clean sheet at 4/1 (Betfair)
Odds correct at the time of publication. 18+ Please Gamble Responsibly. Visit begambleaware.org
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