West Ham vs. Manchester United: Tactical Review of Premier League Game

Daley Blind's late equaliser bailed Manchester United out at Upton Park on Sunday following a dreadful performance against West Ham United. Cheikhou Kouyate had given the impressive hosts the lead early in the second half, but the Hammers couldn't hold on for the win.

Formations and XIs

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West Ham played in a diamond formation with Diafra Sakho replacing the injured Andy Carroll up front. Sam Allardyce rightly ditched the sterile 4-2-3-1 used at Liverpool last week. Cheikhou Kouyate dropped into the defensive line due to injury woes, and Carl Jenkinson returned at right-back.

Manchester United started in a very questionable shape, with Robin van Persie loosely up front, Adnan Januzaj bridging a midfield/left-sided role and Angel Di Maria floating around in the middle.

1. West Ham's Direct Threat

West Ham will always be direct—they're managed by Sam Allardyce. Without Carroll on the pitch, they played less aerial passes from the back, but they continued to shove it straight down United's throat by playing it vertically but along the floor.

The opening six minutes or so saw the Hammers play several "corner passes" (as Arsene Wenger would label) them, pushing firm balls into the channels between United's centre-backs and full-backs in order to release a runner.

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Enner Valencia, detaching from the front line and drifting left, chased many of these, while Stewart Downing, playing loosely behind the front, branched out to the right to try the other side.

It helped West Ham gain an early stranglehold on the game, and all of the most threatening attacks came whenever they upped the pace and drove forward.

2. Kouyate Surging

Every time Kouyate surged forward from the back, he ripped United's defensive structure to pieces. This was a very interesting aspect of the game that perhaps Allardyce did not utilise well enough and reminded of Pep Guardiola's breaking of Athletic Bilbao in the 2012 Copa del Rey final.

United man-marked in midfield: Wayne Rooney on Kevin Nolan (tight), Januzaj on Mark Noble (slightly looser), Blind picking up Downing and Di Maria nominally near Alex Song. Diamond vs. diamond; man vs. man.

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With four vs. four sewn up, no one could mark Kouyate unless one of United's strikers dropped all the way back to follow him, which none did. Often, he'd sprint quickly out and not give Falcao or Van Persie a chance; other times, Van Persie was too wide to even begin chase.

One of the Hammers' best first-half attacks started with Kouyate and ended with a free-kick in a dangerous position, though the goal he scored was from a set piece, not as a result of this wrinkle.

3. Everything Wrong with United

United were incredibly lucky to snatch a point from this fixture, with Blind firing a late equaliser in stoppage time to prevent the day from being regarded as an unrivalled disaster.

Their loose version of the 4-4-2 diamond was absolutely terrible from both a structural and flow point of view; defensively it suffered territorially, and offensively it looked mechanical, awkward and completely unambitious.

Van Persie and Falcao are not a partnership—they are two slow(ish) strikers who play in the same coloured strip. They don't support one another and only managed one tangible piece of linkup play in the entire game (though, granted, it was a fantastic chance that Falcao shanked badly wide).

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Rooney drifted wide from his right-central midfield role to find space, but he slowed attacks down by taking too many touches and often opted to switch play to the opposite flank in rather harmless fashion rather than spark anything for himself; Antonio Valencia had a timid afternoon for fear of giving his namesake Enner ground to eat up on the counter; and Di Maria, playing nominally from the point of the diamond, was often crowded out by sheer numbers and the brute force of Song.

Januzaj showed a little spark in the second half but was hooked for Marouane Fellaini.

4. Adjustments

Allardyce simply told his players to continue doing what they were doing in the second half, and the breakthrough arrived in predictable circumstances.

In an era where set-piece delivery qualities (bar Christian Eriksen's cavalcade of stunning deliveries on a weekly basis) are at new lows, West Ham engineered chance after chance from corners and free-kicks. Eventually one went in.

Kouyate's juggling, volleyed goal was a just reward for the Hammers' dominance and skill in this situation, and as the game dragged on a little, Big Sam attempted to protect his lead with a formation switch.

Moving from 4-4-2 diamond to 4-3-3 and bringing Matt Jarvis on to work his socks off down the left, West Ham shut up shop and stopped at one. They had a few more chances, including a cross from Jarvis that Noble should have done better with, but looked good value for three points.

Credit: beINSport

And then the sucker punch came: Blind controlling a lovely finish into the corner at the death to squeeze out a point. Louis van Gaal finished the match with one sub remaining and only used his second one to bring Chris Smalling on (for 30 seconds) after Luke Shaw's red card.

The inaction from LVG was remarkably frustrating; it's as if he felt Fellaini was the one who could help, but sitting on his bench were Ander Herrera (£28 million) and Juan Mata (£37 million). Blind bailed him out big time. It was an awful game from United tactically.

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