Wolves travelled to the capital for the first time following their return to Premier League as they took on West Ham, with the pair looking to secure their first top-flight win of the season. Here are three talking points from the afternoon’s encounter at the London Stadium…
West Ham’s central midfield issues
The arrival of Carlos Sanchez to cover the departure of Cheikhou Kouyate may not have been the wisest decision on the face of it, but the former’s capture meant Manuel Pellegrini had a designated holding midfielder in the ranks. The Colombian made his second league start of his West Ham career against Wolves with the returning Mark Noble only fit enough to make the bench. Yet even so, the Hammers midfield was again up against it against the returning Premier League side. Ruben Neves was one of the best players in the Championship last term and Wolves only strengthened in the middle of the park with the capture of Joao Moutinho from Monaco.
Indeed, the Portuguese pair dominated proceedings, as was to be expected. Both Neves and Moutinho were granted ample space in the midfield third to maximise their vision to help set Wolves on the front foot with Sanchez and partner-for-the-day Jack Wilshere struggling to grab the game by the scruff of the neck. The introduction of Pedro Obiang for Wilshere did little to stem the flow from Wolves’ central midfield pair, with Neves and Moutinho able to freely spread the play. It once more highlighted West Ham’s shortcomings in the middle of the park and it’s a problem that’ll need to be rectified if they are to avoid a relegation dogfight.
Ultimately, it was a Sanchez error that cost West Ham a result, with the summer arrival robbed of possession by Neves before Wolves sprung forward with substitute Adama Traore able to bury past Lukasz Fabianski to secure the victory for the away side. The passage of play was a microcosm of a dominant midfield performance by Wolves at the London Stadium and reinforced West Ham’s shortcomings in such a key position.
Wolves wing-backs equally stretch and frustrate West Ham
What helps Wolves is their ability to stretch opponents and with two positionally disciplined midfielders in the middle of the park, the wing-backs are able to push on and provide another offensive outlet for the Nuno Espirito Santo’s side. Considering the passing range of both Moutinho and Neves, it makes sense to have the wing-backs bomb forward, with both Jonny and Matt Doherty enjoying fine performances on the left and right, respectively.
Doherty would often utilise Helder Costa or Raul Jimenez’s willingness to drift to the right flank to underlap the pair and he came close to opening the scoring in the first half, only for Lukasz Fabianksi to turn his high near post effort behind for a corner. He should’ve had an assist to his name, too, expertly picking out Jimenez in the latter stages of the match, only for the Mexican to get his feet in a tangle eight yards from goal when one-on-one with the West Ham goalkeeper.
Jonny may not have been as offensively influential as his opposite number, but his defensive awareness allowed for Doherty to rampage upfield in a bid to hurt West Ham. Indeed, Jonny chipped in with the joint-most tackles (6) in the match, whereas Doherty ranked joint-top for key passes (3) as the balancing act between the two wing-backs worked well. West Ham struggled to keep the latter at bay whereas the former was on hand to ensure little got past him when the Hammers pressed down the right.
Time to end the Robert Snodgrass experiment
Robert Snodgrass wasn’t a wanted man at West Ham last summer, with Slaven Bilic sanctioning his loan move to Aston Villa. The Scot impressed for the playoff finalists, but with the arrivals of Lucas Perez, Andriy Yarmolenko and Felipe Anderson, Snodgrass’ short stint at the club was expected to come to an end. Yet Manuel Pellegrini has started the 30-year-old in three of West Ham’s four league matches this season, admittedly to poor effect, and his showing against Wolves merely highlighted why Pellegrini should no longer use Snodgrass.
His only moment of note in the opening 45 minutes was to hit a free-kick into the wall and behind for a corner. It wasn’t a huge shock to see him subbed off at the interval for Andriy Yarmolenko, who showed more about him in the final third in the opening five minutes of the second half than Snodgrass showed in the first half. Pellegrini’s decision to persist with the creator was a painful reminder of a previous regime at the London Stadium and with Yarmolenko influential following his introduction, the sooner the West Ham boss opts for the latter over the former, the better for the Hammers.
It may be that, after the international break, Snodgrass is slowly phased out of the starting XI, which would be wise of Pellegrini with Yarmolenko and Perez both stronger attacking options than the Scotland international.
