Sunday 26th October
16:00
Liberty Stadium
Swansea City vs West Ham United
Analysis
After an odd few weeks, it feels like we're back to the grind this weekend.
A surprise victory over Spurs meant a large number of West Ham fans (myself included) felt a strange sense of confidence and optimism in advance of our game against Manchester City last week. But following that defeat, we really are back to normal now.
We've had a bit of a mixed start to the season, and now is the time we really need to start pushing on with our form. That said, Swansea away isn't the easiest of fixtures.
We learnt last season of the difficulties you can experience at the Liberty Stadium - although it must be noted that we didn't exactly help ourselves in that fixture last August!
Football may be a game where predictions matter very little, and we can always be surprised be games, but if there was ever a certainty in the game, it's that Swansea will dominate possession on Sunday afternoon.
In our last visit to the Liberty, we managed just 42% of possession. We attempted 375 passes (completion rate of 78%) compared to Swansea's 617 attempted (completion rate of 88%). The image below shows those passes they completed. What you can see, is that the Swans kept hold of possession in the middle third of the field, biding their time. They made less than 10 passes into the area during the game, showing that they are happy to play keep ball and wait for their chance to hurt the opposition.
When Swansea do make those ventures forward, they have men who can hurt defences. Miguel Michu has been the main man in South Wales for some time now, with a massive 20 goals in 42 Premier League appearances.
This season though, his role has been more about creating than it has been scoring. Already this season he has created 16 chances for his team mates this season - though he has bagged just the one assist.
Michu is a bit of a unique striker. Despite often playing as the lone striker in the Swans side, he is comfortable all over the pitch, regularly dropping deep and linking up with the midfield. He gained his best Squawka Performance Rating of the season against Crystal Palace last month, and the image below shows his heat map from that game.
The wide range of areas in which the Spaniard popped up demonstrate how difficult it is to mark the forward out of a game.
An area of intrigue for West Ham fans will be the opportunity to take a close up look at what might have been, in striker Wilfried Bony. The Ivorian was heavily linked with the Hammers over the summer, before moving to Swansea from Vitesse Arnhem.
Bony has struggled for form so far in the Premier League, managing just one goal, from the penalty spot, since a debut consolation goal against Manchester United. He has managed 90 minutes just once in the league so far, and his pass completion rate of 76% is the worst of all Swansea players in the Premier League this season.
The image below shows Bony's attempts on goal so far this season. The stats show that he is attempting plenty of efforts on goal, but is struggling to take his chances.
But Swansea have more than just a couple of dangerous strikers.
The man in form for the Welsh side is young left back Ben Davies. When Neil Taylor suffered a broken ankle at the start of last season, few expected the young Welshman to step up and, ultimately, make the position his own.
This season, Davies has managed to create 5 chances, score two goals, complete 84% of his passes, and complete an impressive six defensive actions per game.
But what has really impressed is his success in the tackle. Of his attempted 18 tackles so far, the youngster has completed a massive 17 (94%) of them. This is a massive step up from last season, where Davies was successful with 73% of his attempted 92 tackles.
The image below shows Davies duel successes this season - he's won 63% of all duels this season so far.
There are reasons to be optimistic though.
Swansea's players have made five errors leading to shots on goal this season (Davies, Ashley Williams & Chico Flores with one each, Jonjo Shelvey with two), three of which have led to goals. Only Norwich have conceded more goals directly from individual player errors than the Swans this season.
There is also the possibility that a number of Swansea's players will be those that played in the Europa League on Thursday too. Swansea have mixed form in league games following on from the European exploits, with two wins and three defeats from those games.
This game is a tough one to call. Swansea's home form has been shaky (against admittedly difficult opposition) this season, and West Ham concede very few away from home (or anywhere, for that matter).
If the Hammers can keep the Swans at bay, there is no reason to see why we couldn't get a result away from home this Sunday.
Head to Head
31% Head to Head Win % 47%
17 Won 26
12 Drawn 12
26 Lost 17
73 Goals Scored 107
107 Goals Conceded 73
Recent Form
L L W L W D Last 6 D L W L W L
10 Goals Scored 9
6 Goals Conceded 9
W D L W W D Home/Away Form L L D D L W
14 Goals Scored 4
6 Goals Conceded 5
Form Player (Last 6 League)
Ben Davies - Winston Reid
6 Appearances 6
501 Minutes Played 540
242 Sum Squawka Performance Score 164
40 Average Squawka Performance Rating 27
343 Passes Attempted 221
278 Completed 167
81% Success Rate 76%
3 Chances Created 0
0 Assists 0
3 Attempts on Goal 5
3 On Target 1
2 Goals 1
13 Tackles Made 16
12 Successful Tackles 12
92% Success Rate 75%
12 Interceptions 17
24 Clearances 46
2 Blocks 5
6 Defensive Actions Per Game 11
28 Aerial Duels 30
17 Won 19
61% Success Rate 63%
1 Defensive Errors 0
0 Leading to a Goal 0
Last Meeting
02 February 2013
1-0 Andy Carroll 77'
4-2-3-1 Starting Formation 4-2-3-1
Gerhard Tremmel - Jussi Jääskeläinen
Angel Rangel - Joey O'Brien
Ashley Williams - James Tomkins
Chico Flores - Winston Reid
Ben Davies - Matthew Taylor
Leon Britton (57') - Mark Noble
Ki Sung-Yong - (86') Mohamed Diamé
Pablo Hernandez - Ricardo Vâz Te
Jonathan de Guzman - (91') Kevin Nolan
Wayne Routledge (75') - (62') Matt Jarvis
Miguel Michu - Andy Carroll
Subs
David Cornell - Raphael Spiegel
Gary Monk - (91') Emanuel Pogatetz
Dwight Tiendalli - Jack Collison
Nathan Dyer (75') - (62') Joe Cole
Roland Lamah - (86') Gary O'Neil
Itay Shechter - Carlton Cole
Luke Moore (57') - Marouane Chamakh
Absentees
Injured/Doubtful
Swansea City: Ashley Williams, Ben Davies, Pablo Hernandez
West Ham United: James Collins, Guy Demel, Alou Diarra, Andy Carroll
Suspensions
Swansea City: n/a
West Ham United: n/a
Opposition Last Time Out
vs Kuban Krasnodar
Goals Scored: 1
Goals Conceded: 1
Starting Formation: 4-2-3-1
Gerhard Tremmel
Dwight Tiendalli (59') Chico Flores Jordi Amat Neil Taylor
Jose Canas Jonjo Shelvey
Nathan Dyer (77') Miguel Michu (59') Alejandro Pozeulo
Wilfried Bony
subs:
Michel Vorm
Leon Britton
Roland Lamah (77')
Garry Monk
Jonathan De Guzman
Angel Rangel (59')
Alvaro Vazquez (59')
Best Player:
Squawka Rating:
Worst Player:
Squawka Rating:
Top 5's (Min 3 Apps)
Goals Scored
Wilfried Bony 2 - 2 Ravel Morrison
Ben Davies 2 - 2 Ricardo Vâz Te
Miguel Michu 2 - 1 Joe Cole
Jonathan de Guzman 1 - 1 Kevin Nolan
Nathan Dyer 1 - 1 Winston Reid
Assists
Pablo Hernandez 2 - 2 Matt Jarvis
Wayne Routledge 2 - 1 Mohamed Diamé
Wilfried Bony 1 - 1 Ravel Morrison
Miguel Michu 1 - 1 Mark Noble
Jonjo Shelvey 1 - 1 Kevin Nolan
Passing Accuracy
Leon Britton 94% - 88% Stewart Downing
Jose Canas 90% - 83% Ravel Morrison
Ashley Williams 90% - 81% Mark Noble
Chico Flores 90% - 80% Kevin Nolan
Alex Pozuelo 89% - 79% Joey O'Brien
Chances Created per game
Pablo Hernandez 2 - 2.3 Stewart Downing
Miguel Michu 2 - 2.3 Mark Noble
Nathan Dyer 1.5 - 1.3 Matt Jarvis
Wayne Routledge 1.4 - 1 Rǎzvan Raţ
Wilfried Bony 1.1 - 0.8 Modibo Maïga
Successful Dribbles per game
Pablo Hernandez 1.7 - 2.4 Mohamed Diamé
Nathan Dyer 1.5 - 1.9 Mark Noble
Alex Pozuelo 0.9 - 1.4 Ravel Morrison
Miguel Michu 0.9 - 1 Joe Cole
Jonathan de Guzman 0.8 - 0.8 Guy Demel
Tackles Won per game
Ben Davies 2.3 - 3.1 Mohamed Diamé
Pablo Hernadez 2 - 2.6 Mark Noble
Chico Flores 1.9 - 2.3 James Collins
Angel Rangel 1.8 - 2.3 Winston Reid
Nathan Dyer 1.5 - 2.3 James Tomkins
Aerial Duels Won per game
Chico Flores 3.1 - 6.2 Modibo Maïga
Ben Davies 2.5 - 4 James Tomkins
Wilfried Bony 1.9 - 3.3 James Collins
Ashley Williams 1.8 - 3.1 Winston Reid
Miguel Michu 1.6 - 1.4 Joey O'Brien
Manager
Michael Laudrup - Sam Allardyce
38.7% Current Club Win % 42.1%
24 Won 43
17 Drawn 27
21 Lost 32
45.9% Managerial Career Win % 40.0%
142 Won 337
76 Drawn 226
91 Lost 279
1 League Titles 2
4 Cup Wins 0
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