West Ham United finished in a disappointing 14th place last season, scoring only 42 goals and conceding 55 goals. The Hammers, under the leadership of their coach David Moyes, need to make a great effort on both the offensive and defensive levels.

In this scout report, we will provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Hammers and the things that they need to improve on to develop and return to a position that satisfies their fans more. We all know that they have a big challenge to replace Declan Rice, with the superstar being the leader of the England national team’s midfield and also because the club depended on him heavily in all the defending and attacking phases last season, as we will explain later.

The Hammers scored 42 goals in the 2022/23 Premier League season against an XG of 48.56, which means that they should have scored more goals, but also, we should know that 48.56 isn’t a good number and they need to improve in attack.

West Ham United conceded 55 goals in the 2022/23 Premier League Season against an xGA of 61.43, meaning they conceded goals less than expected. Hence, the defensive line and the goalkeeper aren’t a big problem because 61.43 is a huge number, so they must also improve their defending tactics.

All eyes will be on West Ham United this summer to see how they will find a suitable replacement for the English superstar, Declan Rice, who has gone to Arsenal. At the time of writing, West Ham United haven’t signed anyone but are being linked to both Leon Goretzka and Edson Álvarez.

The previous chart may help us to understand the profile of the German midfielder. It shows how he is useful in defending and attacking phases.

In defensive duels, he scored 88.8 percentile, highlighting his prowess in engaging in physical battles and coming out on top. Additionally, his dangerous passes statistic ranks at the 78.93 percentile, indicating his ability to execute passes that pose a significant threat to the opposing defence, potentially creating goalscoring opportunities for his team with a percentile rank of 96.2 in goal contribution per 90.

Ajax’s player Álvarez is also an interesting option for Rice’s replacement. He has a good proficiency in passive with a rate of 92.6 in progressive passes per 90, a good contribution inside the opponent’s penalty area and he is better than 97% of DMs in the Netherlands’ Eredivisie in touches inside penalty areas per 90.

He is also good at aerial duels, with a percentile rank of 94.1 in successful aerial duels, but he is at an average level in general defensive duels, with a rank of 50.

Attacking phase

The Hammers don’t prefer short passes. Instead, they like direct long balls, as shown below. In the first photo, Vladimír Coufal plays the long ball to Michail Antonio, who starts at left to drag the right centre back with him. Jarrod Bowen runs to this area while the right midfielder, Tomáš Souček, fixes the opponent’s right back, as shown in the second photo.

In the third photo, the plan works, and Antonio flicks the ball while Saïd Benrahma fixes the opponent’s right-back, but the goalkeeper goes up to get the ball, as shown in the fourth picture.

Sometimes, the long ball is played to Bowen, who tries to get the ball back to Antonio, while Coufal and Benrahma are ready to attack the flanks, as shown below.

They also prefer to use long goal-kicks by targeting Antonio in the right half-space to flick the ball to Bowen on the right flank, with Lucas Paquetá attacking the half-space. Antonio and Benrahma attack the box while Coufal and Souček await the rebound, as shown in the first picture.

In the second picture, Bowen gets the ball and Antonio performed the overlap, while Paquetá awaited the cut-back pass and Benrahma was in the box. Bowen decided to dribble, so the defender tackled, as shown in the third and fourth pictures.

They also have another scheme in long goal-kicks which is also targeting Antonio, but in the middle to get the ball back to Paquetá — who has excellent passing ability — to then play the ball to one of the wingers, as shown in the first and second pictures.

In the third photo, the pass reaches Bowen while Antonio runs into the space left behind the opponent’s back, but Bowen decides to dribble. Then, the defender gets the ball, as shown in the third and fourth pictures.

The Hammers also depend on Declan Rice’s excellent ball-carrying to help them progress on the ground. The first photo shows that Rice gets back next to the two defenders to receive the ball. After many seconds of passing, they don’t find the solution in the second photo, so he decides to exploit his ability in ball-carrying, running this all distance with the ball and breaking the opponent’s pressure, as shown in the third and fourth pictures.

In the final third, they aim to attack the flank by using wing rotations to play crosses. In the first photo, Coufal passes the ball to Bowen, who stretches the pitch to drag the opponent’s back out of his position to make the space behind him empty for Souček while Antonio and Benrahma are fixing the rest of the defenders.

In the second photo, Antonio attacks the box in green, dragging the defenders. At the same time, Benrahma cuts inside to receive the pass at the targeted area. This happens in the third and fourth pictures, but the shot isn’t accurate.

Defensive phase

They depend on a 4-4-1-1 scheme in the mid and high press, using Antonio to press a defender cutting the passing lane for the other while Paquetá marks the opponent’s defending midfielder, as shown below in the first photo.

They have a problem facing teams using a 3-2 scheme in progression because Antonio and Paquetá are forced to mark the two midfielders leaving too much space for the back three, as shown in the second photo.

In the third photo, Antonio is forced to leave the midfielder, which causes complications for Rice. Then, he decides to press and cover Antonio so the man behind him is free, as shown in the fourth picture.

In the low block, they use a 4-3-3 scheme, as shown in the first picture below, but the problem they face is that the defensive line stands too narrow, and that is good to secure the centre but makes it difficult for wingers to cover the flanks, as shown in the second picture. The result is a goal, as shown in the third and fourth pictures.

Here is another case that shows how Benrahma has a problem in orientation to cut all this space back while focusing on the opponent and the ball.

Transition phase

In attacking transitions, when they get the ball, they target the flanks, using the pace of the winger and the full-back near the ball to play a cross inside the box to Antonio and Paquetá behind him.

As shown in the first photo, when Bowen gets the ball, he passes it to Coufal, who runs quickly while Antonio and Paquetá attack the box. When Coufal receives the ball, Bowen runs to the edge of the box for the rebound while Antonio runs between the defenders, and Paquetá targets the far post, as shown in the second picture.

In the third picture, The area in front of the far post is empty for Paquetá because Antonio fixes the defenders. The result is a goal, as shown in the fourth picture.

Using xGold to replace Declan Rice

We all know that the big challenge for West Ham United is to replace Declan Rice, the leader of the England national team’s midfield, who has gone to Arsenal. We have already written about his role in defending and attacking and how they depend on his ball-carrying to break the opponents’ pressure. We will know specifically his strengths compared with the others, using xGold.

We have discussed the news referring to their link to Leon Goretzka and Edson Álvarez, but now we are trying to suggest out-of-the-box options that West Ham could look into as potential recruits using xGold.

As shown below, Ezequiel Fernández is a suitable replacement (similarity 82%). Boca Juniors’ player is only 21 years old. The Argentinian player can carry the ball and dribble like Rice. He is also better in the rate of dribbles per 90 and better in the box and around it because of his high shots per 90 and opportunity penalty area touches per 90.

In passes, it is clear that he is very good at progressive and dangerous passes, which help the team to break the opponent’s pressure and may make The Hammers better on the ground, not only depending on long balls but because of his risky passes, the accurate passes rate is less than  Rice, and that is logical.

In aerial and defensive duels won, which is essential for West Ham United’s style of play, Declan Rice is much better. Due to all the above, we can say that he is a suitable replacement, but he is more useful in the attacking phase. However, The Hammers would miss the ability of Rice in winning defensive duels.

Manuel Locatelli is also one with whom The Hammers can replace Declan Rice, knowing that the similarity is also 85%. As shown below, Declan Rice is incredibly better in dribbles per 90 rate, which tells us that he is superb in ball carrying and dribbling compared with the other DMs worldwide. It is clear that Rice is too better in all terms of attacking and passes.

In defending, he gets into more defensive and aerial duels, but Rice is better in the rate of the defensive duels won, but the Italian player is better at positioning, which means that he is better in tackles and interceptions, which are essential at West Ham United’s style of play.

After all of that, it is so difficult to replace Rice not only because it is hard to find a player like him, which is true, but also because he fits in the team’s style, which has many problems with him too, so if they don’t improve their style finding a tactical replacement for his leaving,  the situation will be disastrous. One of the tactical solutions is to use Lucas Paquetá more in build-up and progression exploiting his excellent abilities in passes which we will discuss in the next section.

Key player this season

As shown below, Lucas Paquetá may be the key player in the next season because he is a diverse player who has abilities in all phases because he is good at defending, attacking and passing skills, so he is the one who should help the team after the absence of Rice.

With a rate of 88.6, he is very good at the rate of aerial duels won. He has also good passing skills, with a rate of 82.97 dangerous passes per 90, so he can use passes instead of ball-carrying.

One to watch this season

You may be surprised, but we should focus more on Antonio because he isn’t only the strong fast player as known; he is the one that The hammers depend on him in all phases and in all tactics we have mentioned, you can easily find his name including his defensive efforts, but he needs to improve in many things we will mention to notice him next season, knowing if he improves in them or not.

As shown below, with a rate of  85.9 in aerial duels, it is clear that they mainly depend on him in long balls, but because they send too many long balls to him, the won rate is too lower. You can also see the distances he takes with the ball and the dribbles he had, with a rate of 79.6 in dribbles per 90.

According to the team’s position, a rate of 52.3 in progressive passes per 90 shows his ability in this area is impressive too. However, the rate of received passes per 90 is not enough, as he needs to improve in link-up play, avoiding himself as a choice for the player who has the ball but being honest, the number is too much small because of the team style of playing, but he also needs to improve. He needs to improve the accuracy of his passes, with a current rate of 3.1.

We should focus on him and David Moyes to know how he can improve because if he improves in these things, he will be unstoppable.

TFA Verdict: 12th

West Ham have a European trophy and £105m of Declan Rice money in their back pocket – and it’s not doing them a lot of good there. At the time of writing, they’ve brought nobody in and that needs to change. That said, with the actual quality in the club already they should not be in another relegation scrap this season – and if they do strengthen in midfield and attack then they can look forward to mid-table and another fun European ride.