The first season under the leadership of Manuel Pellegrini left mixed feelings among West Ham United fans. Expectations were set high after bringing the former Real Madrid and Manchester City coach, along with a record-fee spent in new signings of little over EUR 100 million, according to Transfermarkt.
Felipe Anderson and Issa Diop were their highest targets, plus names as Carlos Sanchez and Jack Wilshere that came as a free transfer formed a decent squad that had high ambitions. But also, first seasons for new coaches tend to be seasons of adaptation, of both the new coach adapting to the club and the club to the new coach.
Compared to their recent history, their 10th place in the last season is not a bad finish. Since 2010/11 season this is their second-highest number of points achieved after the 62-point run they got in 2015/16, according to the image below from SoccerStats. And even after the big signings made at the beginning of the season, they had the 9th largest squad market value of the Premier League, according to Transfermarkt, in line with their league performance.
The 2019/2020 should be the season of consolidation. It is expected from Pellegrini to add an extra collective value that goes further and deeper than the solely individual capabilities, into the tactics of the team. In this tactical analysis scout report, we will go over a summary and lessons of their last season, on how they may approach the coming one.
2018/19 Season review
After starting with four consecutive losses, against Liverpool, Bournemouth, Arsenal and Wolves, West Ham United started consolidating a style of play closer to what is expected from Pellegrini. During the season, the team rotated between 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-1-4-1 and 4-2-3-1 formations, establishing the last two as the most common ones during the second half of it. The image below shows how the team used to press when having one sole striker.
