In a match that deserved more goals than it got, West Ham and Everton ended the evening locked at 1-1.
Two examples of highly considered, deftly executed footwork provided the illuminating moments of this match, with Manuel Lanzini’s delicious finish, and Gerard Deulofeu’s crisp through-ball lighting up the Boleyn Ground. Everton and West Ham, two free scoring, free-conceding teams sent their supporters home feeling, if not unfulfilled, then a little peckish for more, even if the draw was a fair result. Neither team really took full control of this match, although West Ham will wonder what might have been had Dimitri Payet not been forced off after a James McCarthy tackle.
Formations
West Ham welcomed Winston Reid back into the line up, but the starting unit was otherwise unchanged from the one that had lost at Watford. Bilic fielded his customary 4-2-3-1 formation, and Andy Carroll was given another chance to lead the line from the start. Roberto Martinez also kept the team that thrashed Sunderland largely intact, with Brian Oviedo’s injury in that match forcing the inclusion of Brendan Galloway here. Arouna Kone and Romelu Lukaku were again given a stage to weave their magic on, supported as they always are by the stolid work of Gareth Barry and James McCarthy.
Carroll has made little progress as a member of the starting XI
Andy Carroll was largely ineffective as an attacking force against Watford, though the blame can’t be placed entirely on his broad shoulders. No, the issue stemmed from a more general lack of fluidity, a failure to gel; Carroll’s skills are not those that intuitively dovetail with those of Lanzini and Payet, West Ham’s two most influential playmakers. Having witnessed the issue firsthand, Bilic might have started Enner Valencia as a lone striker in this match, but chose not to. Within five minutes of the match kicking off, groans were heard as a long ball was aimed at Carroll, the nearest teammate to whom was 25 metres away. As Dimitri Payet distinguished himself as the most incisive player on the pitch, every time he drifted menacingly into the middle, as he is want to do, it felt more and more like Carroll was sort of… well, in the way, offering nothing of worth to Payet’s grand plan. It’s as if West Ham are forcing themselves into a bipolar existence; they either work their way into promising positions, with Payet at the centre of intricate passing triangles, the sweet cement between the building blocks, or they lump it long to Carroll. It is not a system that nurtures coherence.
Reid becalms a haphazard defence
Winston Reid, missing through injury for the last three matches, has been the leader of the West Ham defence for the last five seasons, and has become during that time a figure of immense stability. His signing of a long term contract last season, when rumours that he may leave were thrumming, only solidified his place at the heart of the defence, and his presence here was welcome in the extreme. Over the last three Reid-less matches, West Ham have made two grave defensive errors, both of which have led to goals. In a team that has made the fourth-most defensive errors in the league, Reid himself has contributed exactly zero to West Ham’s total of nine. He is a stalwart in every sense of the word, and his defensive colleagues looked instantly more assured with him by their sides.
Deulofeu’s value rising
Everton paid less than £5 million for their young Spanish winger, groomed as he was by Barcelona’s La Masia, and as such equipped with all the offensive tools a winger should have. It does, when Manchester United are spending six times that on Anthony Martial, seem astonishing value. Deulofeu started slowly – where Martial started impossibly quickly – but has, as Martial has slowed, improved steadily over the opening quarter of the season. His pass split Reid and Tomkins to send through Lukaku, who had no trouble rounding Adrian and tapping his seventh goal in seven games against the Hammers. As much as Lukaku finished with aplomb, the pass was the true highlight of this sequence. Deulofeu is only 21, with the best part of a decade of refinement ahead of him. His defensive work is a little half-hearted, but you can’t have everything (and that ought to, if nothing else, dissuade Jose Mourinho from poaching him). Even in the moments before he was subbed off, he dribbled, in full Messi-like manner, into the West Ham box, causing the home team great anxiety. West Ham were very happy to see him depart. He is a gem of a player, and the next time he’s sold, Everton will make a handsome profit.
Identical 4-2-3-1 formations
When a team, as West Ham have done, play a near-identical formation every week, opposition can be minded to sculpt complimentary formations with which to meet them, where weaknesses are exploited, and vacant defensive space is deliberately filled with attackers. West Ham lined up with their usual 4-2-3-1 formation, and Everton, uniquely, met them with an identical set-up. The match was thus a game of direct match-ups rather than spatial wrestling, with each team setting out to nullify the threats of the other using synchronous methods. Barry and McCarthy’s duties were much the same as Kouyate and Noble’s. Deulofeu likewise with Lanzini. As it turned out, it was a Mano-a-mano clash between the McCarthy and Payet – one the Irishman was extremely lucky not to see red for – that had the greatest impact on the struggle; Payet was scythed down in scissor-like fashion by McCarthy, and the physical fallout from the challenge led to Payet leaving the field just after halftime. He had, up until that point, probably edged into the lead as the game’s most influential player. The rest of the players on this stage drowned one another out; Noble suppressed Barkley sufficiently. Everton’s full backs, for the most part, dealt with West Ham’s overlapping wide players. On paper, the teams were evenly matched, and so it turned out on the pitch as well.
Conclusion
As the game went on, and the teams and their stars twinkled without ever really fizzing over into full supernova, the final whistle rang out and it felt a little premature. There was more to this match, like a novel with the last page torn out, and another handful of stoppage time minutes might have decided it. But, alas, stalemate it was meant to be, with positives for both teams to build on heading into the international break. West Ham are lucky to be entering this period of rest, with Enner Valencia stretchered off just minutes after coming on as a sub, as well as Payet suffering his knock.
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