West Ham United vs West Bromwich Albion

Saturday 30^th March 2013

15:00

Boleyn Ground

West Ham United vs West Bromwich Albion

Head to Head

39% Head to Head Win% 39%

37 Won 37 

21 Drawn 21

37 Lost 37 

151 Scored 153 

153 Conceded 151 

L W L L W L Recent Form L W W L W D

6 Goals Scored 6

10 Goals Conceded 4

L W D D W L Home/Away Form D L L W L D

9 Goals Scored 6

9 Goals Conceded 7

Andy Carroll Form Player Romelu Lukaku

63.30 Average Capello Index Rating Last 6 Games 65.57

2 Goals 4

0 Assists 0

61.25 Average Capello Index Rating League 63.88

14(2) Appearances 14(13)

3 Goals 13

0 Assists 2

22 Chances Created 21

467 Passes 407

280 Completed 283

60% %Completed 70%

Analysis

West Brom are an interesting team. They started the season incredibly well under former West Ham assistant manager Steve Clarke, and, although their early season level has dropped somewhat, they continue to surprise people.

One of the key factors in their success this season, and probably the biggest difference between their season and ours, is that West Brom can boast a natural goalscorer in the form of Romelu Lukaku (and a more than able partner in Shane Long).

Lukaku seems to have a lot of the qualities that West Ham's own on loan striker Andy Carroll possesses, but has outscored the England striker by 10 so far this campaign. If West Brom are to defeat us on Saturday, there's a strong chance it'll be down to the teenage Belgian.

As Sunderland recently found out, Lukaku is a real handful. He runs at people (50 dribbles attempted in 27 games), he is strong in the air (59/128 aerial duels won) and he creates (21 chances created). The reason he's so difficult to deal with, is that he is very mobile and rarely stays in the central striking position for long.

The following images show Lukaku's performance against Sunderland a month ago. The first image (heat map just goes to show how the man simply does not stand still, popping up on both flanks, and through the centre. The second image shows his attempts on goal against Sunderland. This image bears out what the first one tells us, that he will attack from all angles, and is capable of working the keeper from anywhere (White = Goal, Red = Off Target, Purple = Saved).

http://epl.squawka.com/west-bromwich-albion-vs-sunderland/23-02-2013/english-barclays-premier-league/matches

When West Ham went to the Black Country in December, we managed a 0-0 draw and a valuable away point. There is nothing to suggest that we can't do that again. One of the keys to our success that day was a high workrate, and not allowing the West Brom midfield to surge into the box. Indeed, 65% of shots on Jussi Jaaskelainen's goal that day were from distance.

One thing that will need to change, however, is that West Ham will need to play a more expansive, attacking game. In the away fixture, the midfield played a very narrow formation. This meant the Baggies struggled to create chances, but we offered little attacking threat of our own.

A victory on Saturday would all but see West Ham safe (and almost certainly see Sam Allardyce awarded a new contract). We've been very solid at the Boleyn this season, and I fancy us to beat anyone at home. That said, Sam will need to have a plan in place to stop the likes of Lukaku and Long tearing through us, whilst remembering to offer some kind of threat ourselves.

I have full faith in the team for this one. I'm expecting us to win, and I'm expecting us to be safe.

Last Meeting
16th December 2012

Goalscorers: n/a

4-2-3-1 Starting Formation 4-2-3-1

Jussi Jaaslelainen - Boaz Myhill
Guy Demel - Billy Jones
James Collins - Gareth McAuley
Winston Reid - Jonas Olsson
Joey O'Brien - Goran Popov
Gary O'Neil - James Morrison
Mark Noble - Youssuf Mulumbu
Matthew Taylor - Zoltan Gera
Kevin Nolan - Peter Odemwingie
Matt Jarvis - Chris Brunt
Carlton Cole - Shane Long

Winston Reid Best Performer Gareth McAuley

65.76 Capello Index Rating 63.61

Matt Jarvis Worst Performer James Morrison

59.02 Capello Index Rating 58.44

Absentees

Injured/Doubtful:

West Ham United: Jack Collison, Joe Cole, Kevin Nolan, Mark Noble
West Bromwich Albion: James Morrison, Steven Reid, George Thorne, Zoltan Gera

Suspensions:

n/a

Opposition Last Time Out

vs Stoke City

Goalscorers: n/a

Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1

Ben Foster

Billy Jones; Gareth McAuley; Jonas Ollson; Liam Ridgewell

Claudio Yacob; Moussef Mulumbu

James Morrison; Chris Brunt; Jerome Thomas

Romelu Lukaku

Best Player: Peter Odemwingie

Capello Index Rating: 65.15

Worst Player: Ben Foster

Capello Index Rating: 54.67

Top 5’s (minimum 5 apps)

Goals Scored

Kevin Nolan 6 - 13 Romelu Lukaku
Mark Noble 4 - 10 Shane Long
Modibo Maiga 4 - 5 Peter Odemwingie
Andy Carroll 3 - 3 Zoltan Gera
Carlton Cole 2 - 3 James Morrison

Assists

Ricardo Vaz Te 3 - 4 James Morrison
Joey O'Brien 3 - 4 Shane Long
Kevin Nolan 2 - 3 Peter Odemwingie
George McCartney 2 - 3 Chris Brunt
Matthew Taylor 2 - 2 Romelu Lukaku

Passing Accuracy

Mohamed Diamé 83.0% - 88.5% Claudio Yacob
Mark Noble 82.3% - 86.3% Youssuf Mulumbu
Jack Collison 81.0% - 84.4% Jerome Thomas
Joe Cole 80.9% - 83.3% Graham Dorrans
Guy Demel 80.9% - 82.5% James Morrison

Chances Created per game

Joe Cole 2.1 - 2.0 James Morrison
Mark Noble 1.5 - 1.7 Chris Brunt
Andy Carroll 1.4 - 1.1 Graham Dorrans
Matt Jarvis 1.4 - 1.1 Peter Odemwingie
Ricardo Vaz Te 1.3 - 1.0 Jerome Thomas

Successful Dribbles per game

Mohamed Diamé 2.2 - 1.2 Peter Odemwingie

Guy Demel 0.9 - 1.0 Youssuf Mulumbu

Ricardo Vaz Te 0.8 - 0.8 Romelu Lukaku

Matt Jarvis 0.5 - 0.7 Billy Jones

Mark Noble 0.5 - 0.6 Marc-Antoine Fortune

Tackles per game

Mark Noble 4.0 - 3.8 Claudio Yacob
Mohamed Diamé 3.8 - 2.7 Zoltan Gera
George McCartney 2.0 - 2.4 Youssef Mulumbu
Winston Reid 1.8 - 2.0 Goran Popov
James Collins 1.8 - 1.9 Billy Jones

Aerial Duels Won per game

Andy Carroll 10.4 - 3.5 Gareth McAuley
Carlton Cole 4.1 - 2.8 Jonas Olsson
James Collins 3.5 - 2.2 Romelu Lukaku
James Tomkins 2.8 - 1.7 Shane Long
Winston Reid 2.6 - 1.6 Goran Popov

Managers 

Sam Allardyce - Steve Clarke

44% Current Club Win% 41%

37 Won 14

21 Drawn 6

26 Lost 14

40% Managerial Career Win% 41%

333 Won 14

221 Drawn 6

274 Lost 14

2 League Titles 0

0 Cup Wins 0