A vibrant Swansea punched four goals past West Ham at the Boleyn.
Well, no one seems to have told Swansea that these last few fixtures, if you’re sitting squarely in mid-table, mean almost nothing. They rocked West Ham, a team with much still to play for but not acting like it, scoring four times and all but ending the Hammers’ slim hopes at a Champions League place. Having beaten Liverpool last week, they rolled over West Ham here, and look to be firmly out of their slump that saw back-to-back heavy defeats to Newcastle and Leicester.
The match began openly, with West Ham fashioning a couple of decent chances early, but Swansea always potent on the counter. The visitors were content to secede possession – unusually for them – and they made West Ham pay when the hosts were unable to doing anything of note with it. The Swansea midfield was strong, and battled with relish, and from that firm base two goals were scored on the counter inside the opening half an hour. Wayne Routledge Andre Ayew and both tapped in from close range, the beneficiaries of two fine crosses.
West Ham returned from the half time break with more energy, but Swansea’s ball-retention skills sapped it quickly. When the Swans scored a third, the air went out of the stadium, and even after Diafra Sakho had pulled one goal back, there was never any real threat of another miraculous comeback.
Formations
West Ham, perhaps with one eye on the crucial clash with Manchester United on Tuesday, rested Diafra Sakho, with Victor Moses starting in his place. Adrian, the normal starting goalkeeper, was sidelined with a calf injury, so Darren Randolph was brought in to replace him. The rest of the team was unchanged.
Swansea were without Gylfi Sigurðsson, so Leroy Fer began the match in midfield. Ayew was the one striker, with Routledge and Barrow the lighting-quick wingers. Ki Sung-yueng floated in between the midfield and the attack, and Federico Fer and Jordi Amat started as the centre-back pairing, with Ashley Williams out with a knock.
Payet’s chemistry with Lanzini vital for West Ham.
So visible is Dimitri Payet’s talent, his existence comes at a price; the Frenchman is one of the most acutely man-marked players in the league. The attention he garners is suffocating, so he needs his teammates to relieve it, if they can. Of all the other Hammers, Manuel Lanzini is by far the best equipped to provide this, an agile and deceptive dribbler that he is. When Payet and Lanzini can combine, it generally spells danger for the opposition.
This partnership flickered sporadically in the first half, a touch here, a one-two there, and the Boleyn held its breath. But as Swansea struck once, then twice, the confidence was vacuumed out of the stadium, and Payet and Lanzini’s tether faded. Lanzini’s roving brief in the side gives him the license to drift toward Payet’s position on the left of the attack; around 29% of Lanzini’s touches came on Payet’s flank, as opposed to a little over 5% on the right flank. Payet can survive without this interplay; he created seven chances, significantly more than anyone else on the pitch. But Lanzini, if he is to drive forward from deep, as intended, needs a teammate to hinge around, and there is no slipperier hinge than Payet.
Gylfi Sigurðsson’s absence changes Swansea’s angle of approach.
With their Icelandic playmaker in the team, Swansea tend to work inside-out. Sigurðsson is a linchpin in this way, a talented ball-caressing attacker, through whom a lot of Swansea’s best moments have been funneled. But with Sigurðsson injured – one that may well test his fitness for the Euros – Leroy Fer, a much less velvety midfielder, came in to the starting XI. Fer, while less gifted on the ball, is infinitely more robust, and his hard work ensured that Swansea were not overrun by the athleticism of Cheikhou Kouyate. Fer battled admirably, and came out on top more often than not. Having a ball-winning rather than ball-playing midfielder leads to an increased dependence on the wings to create goal-scoring chances; an outside-in approach. And, sure enough, all of Swansea’s first three goals came as a result of the ball being won vigorously back in midfield, played out wide, for the wingers to cross at speed.
It was a change for Swansea, one forced by an injury, but it worked regardless. West Ham edged the visitors in the possession stats, a rare event for this Swansea team, but the hosts were far less clinical in front of goal.
Antonio’s defensive naivety exposed.
It has been rather awfully rollicking fun, having Michail Antonio bustle down the flank as a storming right-back this last month or two. Used initially as an emergency defender, Antonio flourished, stunning multiple opponents with his directness from a much deeper than usual position. Such was his success, Slaven Bilic kept him there, long after replacement right-backs regained their fitness.
But, and we can’t forget this, Antonio is not a right-back. His enthusiasm and athleticism have largely concealed any ill-ease at this unnatural position, but here his naivety showed, as Swansea profited down Antonio’s flank all match. Multiple times in the first half, with Antonio pushing high up the pitch as he is, one assumes, instructed to do, Swansea crafted potent opportunities in the space his absence left. Swansea’s third goal saw Antonio absolutely torched by a neat backheeled nutmeg by Modou Barrow, a just punishment for hanging far to tight to the winger’s back. A mixture of technical and tactical looseness was all Swansea needed, and the lead they built, largely from the work they did on Antonio’s flank, was far too great for West Ham to peg back. Antonio was probably West Ham’s best attacker, as it happens; he should be returned to his winger’s position sooner rather than later, particularly as Victor Moses was awful in this game.
What are your thoughts? Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Make sure you follow us on Twitter @Outside90 and like us on Facebook.
