DAVID MOYES 4-2-3-1 84 GOALS SCORED 20 GOALS ALLOWED WON EPL

In last season, 2022-2023, West Ham United finished in a disappointing 14th place 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.

I 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.

Attacking phase

The Hammers don’t prefer short passes. Instead, they like direct long balls, usually to Antonio who starts at left to drag the right centre back with him, creating space for Jarrod Bowen’s runs to this area, covered by Soucek. 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.

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.

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 last season, the Hammers also depended on Declan Rice’s excellent ball-carrying to help them progress on the ground. 

In the final third, they aim to attack the flank by using wing rotations to play crosses. 

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 low block, they use a 4-3-3 scheme, 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.

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.

HOW TO EMULATE THIS TACTIC ON FOOTBALL MANAGER 2023

To emulate David Moyes’s West Ham tactic, we start from a 4-2-3-1. It took me some time to think how to create the midfield duo,I had two choices: 2 midfielders double pivote (just in front of the defense) or two central midfielders. After taking into consideration that even if Soucek could be placed in front of the defense, his teammate Paqueta is surely a central midfielder. This made me choose a 2 Central midfielders duo. 

Let’s start with the mentality. 

Football Manager 2023 is quite different from Football Manager 2022, a balanced mentality does not work as well as it did before, your team will leave too much space for the opponent. Hence, I chose a positive mentality that makes my team control the game more. 

Now, let’s examine the team instructions.

Team Instructions

In possession, as we said before, West Ham prefers to play long balls to Antonio or to one of the two wingers, therefore the passing directness can’t be shorter or short, but should be at least slightly more direct. The tempo is higher. In the final third they aim to attack the flanks using wing rotations to play crosses, so it means hit early crosses is the right instruction to choose. The tempo is higher. Moreover, Moyes wants his full-backs to overlap so overlap left and right must be selected. Crosses can be floated if you have a striker like Antonio, if not, please adjust your choice according to the type of strikers you have in your squad. 

In the transition phase, West Ham does not like counter-press, they tend to regroup after they lose possession and when they win the ball back, they start to counter. As for  the goalkeeper instructions, I chose take short kicks and distribute to center backs. It’s true that they have a scheme in long goal-kicks targeting Antonio but it’s not their main scheme. 

In the out of possession phase, West Ham defend with a middle and the defensive line can be left to standard to minimize the space between the lines. Pressing is more often and I chose to prevent short gk distribution too. Other instructions are trap outside and stop crosses.

Player instructions

Goalkeeper: simple goalkeeper on defend

Right full back: full-back support: close down more

Right central defender: central defender-defend: close down less ( we don’t want our central defender to leave space behind him but to be very cautious), pass shorter, mark tighter, take fewer risks (for the same reason, we don’t want our central defender to move with the ball). 

Left central defender: central defender-defend: (same instructions of the right central defender)

Left full back: full-back attack: close down more 

Left central midfielder: central midfielder on defend: close down more shorter passing

Right central midfielder: box to box midfielder-support: get further forward, move into channels 

Right attacking midfielder: inside forward-support: stay wider, close down more

Left attacking midfielder: inside forward-attack: stay wider, close down more

Central attacking midfielder on support: get further forward, move into channels

Central forward: pressing forward-attack

This is all for my tactic. I used it with Chelsea and won the Premier League, being the 2nd best attack and best defense