West Ham drew 1-1 with London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in midweek. An insipid first half performance saw them trail 1-0 at the interval, but they raised their performance after it, with greater energy and pressing, and on the balance of play in the second half, probably deserved more than the solitary point they got. Here are our talking points.
Thilo Kehrer plays at RCB position against Spurs in a two man defence alongside Zouma
Against Brighton, Kehrer had started at LCB (so had Johnson before him against Forest) in a two man central defence alongside Kurt Zouma. When they started five at the back against Villa (three CB system), he started at RCB. Interestingly here, Kehrer played at RCB with Zouma at LCB in a two man defence.
West Ham started in a 4-2-3-1 formation (as they had finished against Villa), but changed to five at the back in the second half, with even Pablo Fornals seeing more action at LWB/LB in the system, especially in defensive situations where it felt like a 5-4-1 being employed.
Rice RCM against Spurs, then switches to LCM
Somewhat interestingly, along with the Kehrer Zouma positional switch, Declan Rice started at RCM against Spurs, with Tomas Soucek at LCM. They however swapped early in the first half, with Rice going back to LCM and Soucek at RCM.
Michail Antonio performance vs Spurs
With Scamacca unavailable, Moyes gave Michail Antonio a start upfront and the striker had a pretty good game. He hit the woodwork in the first half, set up Tomas Soucek for the equaliser in the second and troubled Spurs after the interval with his strength and pressing.
The problem with Antonio though is inconsistency- if he plays like this week in and week out, fewer Hammers fans would be upset with him. Unfortunately, he has a tendency to go almost AWOL in certain games, and that lack of impact in those fixtures is something a team trying for Europe simply cannot afford.
Lucas Paqueta debut vs Spurs
Paqueta made his West Ham debut against Tottenham as a second half replacement for Benrahma. It was a pretty positive debut- he pressed well, and aside from one moment of frustration that earned him a booking, was a display that the West Ham faithful would’ve been happy seeing.
Better second half chances to win- Bowen, Fornals, Paqueta
Bowen, Paqueta and Fornals all had pretty good chances to win it for West Ham at the end as the home side finished strongly, but weren’t quite able to do so.