West Ham v Everton best bets and tactical preview: Could Moyes eclipse Everton achievements?
David Moyes has been in this position before.
In 2005 he took Everton to a fourth-place finish against all odds, and on Sunday he has the chance to move one step closer to repeating the feat at West Ham United when they welcome the club at which Moyes made his name.
The symmetry is neat, and while Moyes has clearly adapted somewhat in the 16 years between the two top-four challenges (he doesn’t get enough credit for his tactical adaptation with the times) there are plenty of similarities between the two campaigns.
At the beginning of the 2004/05 season Everton were widely tipped for relegation after finishing 17th the year before and selling Wayne Rooney to Manchester United. But shrewd work in the transfer market – half a million on Marcus Bent, £2 million on Tim Cahill, a loan deal for Mikel Arteta – allowed Moyes to overcome the odds with a brand of conservative and direct football that focused on simple patterns, set-piece prowess, and well-timed counter-attacks.
Sixteen years later and that is more or less the story of West Ham’s 2020/21, which began with fan unrest as young talent Grady Diangana was sold to West Brom but ends with Moyes again the master of the transfer window and stripped-back tactics.
Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal have proved bargain buys for a combined £20 million while the loan acquisitions of Jesse Lingard and Craig Dawson have been equally important, all four playing crucial roles in West Ham’s powerful setup. Set-piece goals (17 so far, the most in the division) have again been crucial, and so too has counter-attacking football.
The two campaigns are similar, but if Moyes can complete the job this month it will eclipse his achievement at Everton.
West Ham flying but Everton falling
The Premier League is far more competitive now than back in 2005, when only one of a ‘big four’ had to be usurped compared with three of six (or four of seven with Leicester City) in 2021. West Ham’s rise has also come from a much lower point.
Moyes’s Everton had underachieved with a 17th-place finish in 2003/04, their real level being closer to the seventh spot earned the previous season. The Toffees certainly weren’t in disarray, or facing mutiny after years of stagnation. The turnaround at West Ham in the space of eight months has been truly remarkable.
Carlo Ancelotti cannot be said to have had anywhere near as big an impact on Everton this season despite such a promising start to the campaign. Injuries to Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure – the midfield anchors who gave James Rodriguez and Everton’s full-backs freedom to create – certainly derailed the campaign, although the manager should still take most of the blame.
As Everton drift lazily towards the end of the season, winning just one of their last nine league games at Goodison Park and amassing six points from their last seven, it would appear that Ancelotti’s hands-off management style is having its usual effect.
His teams often lack bite, lack the detail of those coached by fastidious tacticians and Everton have sadly been no different, failing to capitalise on a fallow season among many of the ‘big six’ as West Ham have done. As Everton face their third eighth-place finish in four years, it is fair to say the club are yet to truly replace Moyes.
Lingard will have joy on the left
It is this contrast between the two managers’ respective influence on their teams – one ruthlessly organised with fine-tuned tactical detail, the other vague and inconsistent – that sees them separated by six points and makes West Ham favourites to win this weekend.
Said Benrahma’s excellent performance at Burnley gives Moyes another new dimension for this final furlong, and along with Lingard ensures West Ham will have penetration on the counter-attack in the left-centre zone of the pitch. Unfortunately for Everton that is exactly where Alwar El Ghazi and Ross Barkley were worryingly dominate for Aston Villa last time out.
That isn’t the only tactical mismatch. Ancelotti’s broad-strokes approach isn’t suited to games in which Everton are faced with a cautious midblock and must try to break the opponent down. West Ham can hold firm then, while their 3-5-2 shape gives them strength in the wide areas to block Everton’s advancing full-backs.
What’s more, with Doucoure still out Everton’s midfield is brittle, suggesting Declan Rice’s absence won’t be such an issue for Moyes. Add in Michail Antonio netting a brace on his return from injury and Everton’s defensive howler in the defeat to Villa and all the signs point to a West Ham win.
It would be a monumental three points and probably enough to put the Hammers back level with Chelsea, who face Manchester City at the Etihad on Saturday. It would also confirm that Moyes, on his way to a top-four finish for the first time since 2005, is every bit as good as Everton fans remember him.
More from Sporting Life
MOST READ FOOTBALL
FOOTBALL TIPS
