The recently rising form has become the fulcrum for David Moyes’ West Ham to raise hopes of beating Manchester United in the 11th round of the Premier League at 0:30 on December 6.

West Ham is having the best start in the last 5 seasons. 2-1 victory over Aston Villa in the previous round put “The Hammers” to 5th place on the rankings after round 10 of the Premier League.

Behind the success of West Ham are the hands of manager David Moyes, who is messing with predictions. The 57-year-old strategist surprised everyone by creating a stable, cohesive and effective “The Hammers”.

David Moyes is injustice
West Ham is good, but the Scottish teacher has never been recognized or the focus of media attention. Compared with two colleagues Ralph Hasenhuttl or Nuno Espirito Santo, Moyes as a “type B” item.

Referring to Hasenhuttl, people were immediately impressed by the sophistication of the tactics that this military leader brought to Southampton. Nuno Santo is famous for the diverse attacking football philosophy that applies in Wolves.

Moyes’s West Ham hardly has any outstanding points. However, the ranking of the London representative is above both Southampton and Wolves in the Premier League.

Moyes is suffering a great injustice. It seems that the Scottish ruler’s reputation is still tarnished after the bad days leading Manchester United in the 2013/14 season, even though it was the “Red Devils” that were wrong when showing impatience.

But tonight, Moyes has a chance to revenge the old team. West Ham’s strength cannot be compared to MU. However, the London representative maintained stability, something the opponent did not have.

The strength of “The Hammers” lies in the tactical system built by Moyes. The 57-year-old military leader applies the old defensive football counterattack, but very scientific and effective.

West Ham often set up a low formation, creating two defensive layers at home and looking for opportunities through fast counter-attacking lines. They use many long passes each time they switch from defense to attack.

Moyes was described by Goal meticulously in the way of building tactics for West Ham. He asked his students to press with high intensity to keep the opponent busy and not to have much time and space to handle the ball.

Every time he steals the ball, West Ham often passes long to striker Michail Antonio very powerful and full of speed from above. Support for the 30-year-old spearhead also included Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen, who were very active on both sides.

The London representative also did not like to control the ball as their average control rate was only 42.5%, higher than Sheffield and Newcastle. From what Moyes built for the club, West Ham football is very simple, not even “trendy”.

At first, Moyes faced a lot of doubts. The bookmaker even considers the Scottish strategist the brightest name fired in the 2020/21 season. The fact is that West Ham played very hard when it all lost in the first two games of the season.

However, after the defeat against Arsenal, coach Moyes began to make a big change when switching to the 5-4-1 chart. With this system, West Ham gains more troops in the defense. Defenders Fabian Balbuena and Angelo Ogbonna also reduced their defensive range.

As a result, the defending flaws of “The Hammers” are gradually reduced. West Ham is third in the list of clubs that must receive the least number of goals after round 10 (11 goals). This is in contrast to a year ago.

Last season, West Ham player often made personal mistakes that caused the club’s defense to collapse at the end of the game. In attack, Michail Antonio was also isolated because of the lack of cooperation from the winger, who always had to back home to support the defense.

Moyes’s change of tactics also allowed the wing midfielders Bowen and Fornals to move higher than usual even while the opponent kept the ball. The striker Antonio is also less “lonely” when West Ham turns the ball because there are two teammates around him.

However, the most important change Moyes gave West Ham was for Aaron Cresswell to play as an overlapping center-back. This is the specialty of coach Chris Wilder on the Sheffield side.

Thanks to this move, Cresswell not only provided very good support to Arthur Masuaku on the left flank, but was also able to comfortably raise the attack support without “worrying about the flanks”. Since the beginning of the season, the 30-year-old defender has had 3 assists.

Moyes’s West Ham is playing very effectively with a 5-4-1 chart. However, letting the opponent have superior ball control can cause them much trouble, if the other side has excellent and creative attacking cards.

In the win against Aston Villa, West Ham almost collapsed after the half-time break. They only controlled the ball 28% and suffered 10 shots. However, Moyes strongly believes in the self-worth applying to “The Hammers”.