Team Focus: West Ham Reaping Rewards of Pragmatic Allardyce’s Versatility

Sam Allardyce has always gone by the nickname ‘Big Sam’; the thought of him being known as anything else almost seems perverse. To say that he might indeed be given a new pseudonym isn’t for a second to imply that he is not a big person and a big character, anything but. The point is, however, that he is developing traits other than merely being a sizeable person, or simply possessing burly, physically domineering teams. This year, both Big Sam and his team have many, many more strings to their bows.

Neither ‘Versatile Sam’ nor ‘Pragmatic Sam’ have quite the same ring to them but both certainly boast some degree of truth at the moment. Allardyce has shown with West Ham this season a capability to adapt that he previously simply wouldn’t have been thought to possess. Allardyce is all of a sudden the most likely, most appealing and seemingly an inevitable choice for future manager of the England national team.

Allardyce was lauded for arguably his only trick at Bolton – bringing high profile players, glamorising a city not usually considered amongst footballer’s favourite haunts. But only last season at West Ham he boasted one of the teams playing some of the Premier League’s worst football. He was responsible for taking the likes of Jay Jay Okocha, Youri Djorkaeff, Ivan Campo and Fernando Hierro to the Reebok Stadium, while last season, in a drab goalless draw with Swansea, Allardyce started without a recognised striker on the pitch and Ricardo Vaz Te, Carlton Cole, Joe Cole and Matt Jarvis all played a part.

Last season his side were extremely one-dimensional, boasting the second lowest average possession share (44.2%) and playing the highest proportion of their passes long (16.7%) of all teams in the Premier League. Kevin Nolan was their top scorer with 7 goals, followed by Carlton Cole (6) and Mo Diamé (4). They struggled desperately without Andy Carroll and simply wouldn’t look for an alternative method of attack when he was missing.

This summer, though, he approached things differently. In Enner Valencia he made a marque signing to keep the fans happy, but otherwise he generally looked for cheap options. Aaron Cresswell was already a highly rated player at Ipswich, and Allardyce recognised his potential. Signing him has proved a masterstroke.

Diafra Sakho’s success since signing is well documented; Alex Song and Carl Jenkinson are simply brilliant season-long loans; Mauro Zárate is another exciting attacking option that has potential. There was a fairly significant outlay on Cheikhou Kouyaté, but that has proved money well spent, with the former Anderlecht man proving so much more than another of Allardyce’s hefty centre-backs that so many had expected him to be. He is a mobile, combative, all-round midfielder who protects the defence (3.0 tackles per game) but also gets forward with regularity (2 assists and 0.8 shots per game).

The thing that has been most striking about this season’s West Ham has been its fluidity. In Kouyaté, Song and Noble they have 3 central midfielders who are all capable doing any of the jobs required of them; they lead the Hammers’ charts for tackles per game while Song and Noble are the more technical, leading the way for passes per game, with 52.9 and 44.7, respectively. They also both average more than 1 key pass per game, and are clearly getting into attacking positions, too. In front of them, Stewart Downing has been reinvented as a playmaker, with his 6 assists the third most in the Premier League and 3.2 key passes per game second only to Chelsea’s Cesc Fàbregas (3.3).

Then, a few weeks ago, just as West Ham had gained a head of steam, there was a wobble. A 2-2 draw at Stoke was a decent enough result, but it was followed up by a goalless draw at home to struggling Aston Villa. Their impressive summer signings came back from the international break needing a rest and were given one for the game at Everton. The old guard returned, with Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan and Carlton Cole all handed starts. Step forward Versatile Sam, who changed to a 5-3-2 formation and only came away with a defeat to a Toffees team previously unbeaten in 6 thanks to a terrible offside decision for Romelu Lukaku’s goal.

Since then, Carroll has been a mainstay in the team and their form has picked up. Against Swansea last weekend, they put in some 35 crosses and their third goal was as ‘route one’ as they come, but they still had a pace to their build up play and crucially, didn’t only look long up the pitch for their big striker.

It was a pragmatic display and pragmatism has been commonplace in this West Ham team’s season. At home to Manchester City they played 29.3% of their passes long – the third highest proportion by a team in any Premier League match this season – and recorded an unlikely victory. At Hull they played just 11.5% of the passes long and came away with a decent point. They regularly switch things up, and no other team has such variety in their long ball numbers.

Perhaps most impressive has been the fact that the Hammers have already used 4 formations this season – as many as they used in the whole of last season. While they played with a 4-2-3-1 formation in 32 of their 38 games (84.2%) and lost all 6 other games in which they used any other formation, this term they have used 4-2-3-1 on six occasions, a diamond in seven matches and 4-3-3 and 5-3-2 once each. The diamond has been the most praised, but don’t bet against Allardyce changing things up again soon.

And that is the crux of West Ham’s season; an unpredictability which has meant opponents struggle to prepare for their clashes. Allardyce has built this team with solid foundations at the back but now has an attack to be reckoned with, too. With different options available to him, he has found myriad different ways of getting his team to play, and that is making West Ham one of the most adaptable and exciting teams in the Premier League. Big, versatile and pragmatic all at once, Allardyce is proving himself as one of the best Premier League managers, too.

What do you think has been most impressive about West Ham this season? Let us know in the comments below