Forest 1 West Ham 0 - Tactical analysis

 Premier League football returned to The City Ground last weekend after 23 years, as Forest battled to gain a vital 3 points against West Ham United, coming away with a narrow 1-0 victory.

The Reds lined up in their favoured 3-4-1-2 system, with record signing Taiwo Awoniyi providing more of a physical presence up front. There was also a first start for Orel Mangala in an increasingly competitive central midfield.

West Ham’s system is described widely elsewhere as a 4-3-3 however I saw it as a 4-2-3-1. There was little evidence of The Hammers pressing or defending as a 4-3-3 and their average positional charts back up my vision of the 4-2-3-1 in possession, however the two systems can be interchangeable. If I’ve erred on this please educate me in the comments or on Twitter, as admittedly I do appear alone in my view of this.

Like Newcastle last week, David Moyes named another settled, accomplished Premier League side. It was nice to see Michail Antonio return to Nottingham, he started up front for our opponents.

Forest began the match with a high tempo, clearly spurred on by the amazing sense of occasion and atmosphere. The game developed an entertaining back and forth pattern, with each side looking dangerous in the opposition half.

We know Steve Cooper likes his central defenders to get on the ball and begin attacks – last week Newcastle shut this down, however West Ham did not.

Their system was key in us understanding what was happening. Rather than use a high press, such as that of Newcastle's 4-3-3, Moyes instructed his lone striker Antonio to press the Forest defenders and tried to win the ball as they played it into midfield.

Tomas Soucek was pushed forward onto The Reds’ playmaker Lewis O’Brien, morphing West Ham’s 4-2-3-1 into a 4-1-4-1 shape to match up with the Forest bank of 4 defensive midfielders, leaving England international Declan Rice to mop up behind this line.

The idea was that with the short option blocked, Forest would have to go longer; West Ham then had four defenders to deal with Forest’s three attackers, who Moyes will have watched struggle with direct balls last week at Newcastle and been confident his defence could deal with.

It was clear within the first few minutes that West Ham’s plan off the ball was a strategic error. With only Antonio regularly engaging a hard press, Forest's back three were being afforded too much time to pick out passes, and The Hammers' bank of four midfielders were pushed up too high, leaving too much space either side of Rice – The Reds exploited this immediately and were able to play their way forward into these danger zones.

The tactical problem was compounded by the misjudgement regards Forest’s ability to profit from direct play. When scouted by West Ham the previous week, almost every long ball was won by Newcastle, who were thus able to attack again and again, trapping Forest in their own half and eventually overwhelming them.

However, as well as West Ham allowing Forest’s defenders and goalkeeper more time on the ball to pick out passes, Forest also had a different striker on the pitch, Awoniyi, who proved to be an effective target man.

Able to play forward through the midfield, or go more direct, Forest targeted the vulnerable areas in front of West Ham’s back four. Jesse Lingard was making clever runs into these areas, as were the wing-backs Harry Toffolo and Neco Williams. O’Brien was winning duels and carrying the ball through into the space, and Forest were winning second balls and knockdowns from Awoniyi.

West Ham attempted to adjust, however the defence found it difficult to close this gap because of the muscle of Awoniyi, and pace of Brennan Johnson threatening to run in behind them. The Forest strikers were taking it in turns to show for the balls in these dangerous areas, and as they pose different threats this made it difficult for the defenders to know what to do.

West Ham had problems, however this was not a one-sided game even during the first half.

A slick outfit on the ball, The Hammers were able to pen Forest in for long periods merely by imposing their quality and experience at this level. Their whole front six are very well rounded players and Forest struggled to contain them.

This is perhaps why Moyes was slow to fix the obvious strategic problem – he was confident enough in his players to leave men forward, effectively inviting Forest onto them in the knowledge that either on the turnover or when squeezed into their own penalty area, The Reds would probably crumble.

West Ham caused the most problems just after winning the ball, most often with Toffolo and/or Williams still recovering shape. Said Benrahma looked particularly dangerous and was able to isolate Joe Worrall on several occasions.

However, through effort, guile, and a strategic advantage, Forest held their own and were able to bundle the ball into the West Ham net just before half-time, with Awoniyi becoming Forest’s first Premier League goalscorer since Chris Bart-Williams on 16^th of May, 1999. They had the better of the first half and deserved to lead 1-0.

West Ham responded immediately after half-time, forcing Forest onto the back foot for much of the second half.

Their urgency levels were much higher, and Moyes tweaked the positioning of his full-backs, having them come higher into their vulnerable areas to help Rice battle in midfield – however they didn’t completely solve this issue and Forest were still getting on the ball here at times.

Already leading, Forest were conservative, picking their moments to flood forward more carefully. They were dropping into a 5-2-1-2 shape in order to protect their penalty area, as they did for long periods of the Newcastle game.

Now it was West Ham targeting the wide areas in midfield. The Reds however, were far more pragmatic and appeared to accept that they could not always vie for the ball in these areas. They concentrated on defending more vital areas of the pitch in high numbers.

We were still seeing Forest escape; while it appeared Awoniyi had tired and was not quite as effective, the higher position of West Ham’s full-backs saw Johnson become more of a threat, and the danger of him running onto the increasing number of long balls created relief for the defence.

The Hammers enjoyed a much larger share of possession in the second half and were besieging Dean Henderson’s goal. Two long rang shots clattered on the underside of his bar, there was a penalty save and a goal-line clearance.

West Ham will feel unlucky – they played well individually and look a good team on the ball. However, they appeared to underestimate Forest’s ability to get the ball forward, and therefore were at a disadvantage strategically. This allowed Forest breathing space, and the opportunity to sneak this victory.

The Garibaldi are not the finished article – their players are not as familiar with the league (or each other) as Newcastle and West Ham have been. Only a massive defensive effort and a clever, pragmatic, tactical approach from Cooper has made them competitive during the first two games.

Going forward we may see more deep defending in a 5-man defence. Forest are conceding a lot of efforts on goal from long range – over twice the Premier League average. With work in training and more experience at this level, they should be able to push out and protect a larger area of the pitch, but this will take time and we should not be surprised or alarmed if their luck runs out over the coming weeks.

However, they earned their fortune against West Ham with a huge effort on and off the ball. They will only improve, but this victory might have been enough to avert the pressure until they are more settled.

Thanks for reading, and special thanks to @Ad82049942 for helping me find video for my screenshots.