On Monday evening, West Ham United returned to the London Stadium for the first time this season in a competitive fixture. They welcomed Leicester City, a side still buoyant from their Community Shield win over Manchester City. Both sides opened the season with a victory last week, with the Hammers beating Newcastle 4-2 away from home, and Leicester sneaking a 1-0 win at home over Wolves, courtesy of a Jamie Vardy winner. In the first Monday night game of the season, there was quiet intrigue from around the league as two teams who finished neck and neck in fifth and sixth place last season, respectively (Leicester managing one more point than West Ham) were pitted against one another.
The game was turned on its head from an Ayoze Perez red card, and West Ham weathered a late comeback from Leicester at 2-0, to 2-1, before running out as 4-1 winners. This tactical analysis gives an in-depth analysis into some of the key tactics from this Premier League game.
Formations and line-ups
Although Leicester have made a couple of astute signings (as per the norm) this summer they fielded a starting XI comprised of players who were at the King Power last season. West Ham have had a disappointing transfer window, with Alphonse Areola the only signing thus far, and he only made the bench himself. Therefore, both teams fielded familiar sides, and both fielded 4-2-3-1 formations.
Leicester were forced to partner Daniel Amartey at the back with Caglar Soyuncu, with Jannik Vestergaard not ready to make the squad just yet. Of the midfield three, Wilfried Ndidi unsurprisingly played as the deepest, with Tielemans operating in a box-to-box role as would be expected.
West Ham’s midfield three was an equally unsurprising selection, although Pablo Fornals played very high at times, almost looking like a shadow striker. Said Benrahma started once more, and continued his fine form to begin the season, playing as an inverted winger on the left hand side, with Bowen doing likewise from the right.
Leicester’s mixed results in breaking West Ham’s mid-block
Leicester immediately took the impetus in this fixture, dominating large swaths of possession, but they were inconsistent with finding progressive passes to break West Ham’s compact mid-block. We can see from the image below how right up until the sending off of Perez, Leicester were enjoying a possession share in that 55-65% range.
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