Roving attackers need an anchor.
Both teams have splendid sets of attacking tools, gleaming and chromed, all of them multi-purpose and keen to get to work. For Palace, Bolasie and Zaha, and for West Ham, Payet, Moses and Lanzini, all of them roamed liberally, popping up in all areas of the pitch, and generally scurrying about with varying degrees of potency. The match itself was an odd, muscular tug-of-war, with both teams pulling with vigour, if not always with clarity. West Ham had a better time, thanks in large part to the effectiveness of their striker Diafra Sakho, in providing a focal point amid all this supplementary movement. Whereas Dwight Gayle was a pallid presence for Palace, Sakho was a prominent, stolid point to the West Ham attack, always pressing off the ball, and providing a number of considered and comfortable target-man moments. With so much swirling activity, Palace needed an anchor around which to orbit, and when Gayle was sent off, Bolasie himself was moved into the centre to try and provide just that. But Bolasie doesn’t really posses a target man’s skill-set, despite his raw power. James Collins had all the tricks to out-maneuver him when high balls were aimed at them, and had adequate help when Bolasie had the ball at his feet. The Congolese’s penchant for drifting out wide, into areas where he can dribble like a maniac more freely, meant that there was a singe-edged hole at the top of Palace’s second half formation.
